THE DIARY GAME SEASON 3: BETTER LIFE 7 APRIL 2021 - A Day in Roussenski Lom Natural Park - Bulgaria IV

Rocks with terraces, niches and platforms, swamps, steppe vegetation areas and old forests provide nesting and feeding places for a wide variety of birds. Beside the river, you will be surprised to see dozens of black storks gathering on the overflowing waters that have produced an extensive swamp, surrounded by forest. However, it is difficult to observe these shy birds, and access to swampy areas with forests full of vines and dense bushes is special. The black storks with which we are accustomed to know nesting in large trees of quiet forests, we find that in Roussenski Lom nest in niches of rock walls, a phenomenon that we have also seen in the area of the river Arda, in the Rhodope Mountains, at the border between Bulgaria and Greece.

We have the opportunity to admire the flight of hoof eagles (Neophron percnopterus), sometimes an eagle rises from the bushes and descends under the slope so that we only see it for a second… Falco naumanni… at the nest. The area is full of bees (Merops apiaster), woodpecker (Coracias garrulus) etc. In total, 190 species of birds have been identified in the Rousseski Lom Natural Park (of which 172 protected species); 122 species of birds nest in the park (out of a total of 174 nesting species in Bulgaria). The rocks here, as well as the mountainous aspect of the landscape in the middle of the Danube Plain, attract species whose presence we are not accustomed to at such altitudes; the best example is the mountain eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), which nests here.

At the same time, the eagle eagle (Neophron percnopterus), the great mouse (Buteo rufinus), the Danube falcon (Falco cherrug), the great woodpecker (Apus melba), the great owl (Bubo bubo), the red caliph (Tadorna (Casarca) ferruginus) (Ardea cinerea), black stork (Ciconia nigra), but we can also mention the wasp (Pernis apivorus), the brown jay (Milvus migrans), the snake (Circaetus gallicus), the gray heron (Circus pygargus), the bird hawk (Accipiter nisus), the short-legged hawk (Accipiter brevipes), the dwarf eagle (Hieraetus pennatus), the lesser spotted eagle (Aquila pomarina), the common mouse (Buteo buteo), the little vulture (Falco naumanni), the red vulture (Falco tinnunculus), the falcon (Falco tinnunculus), the falcon ), the otus scops, the caprimulgus (Crerim crex), etc. Seeing such lists of species, we can easily understand what a paradise this place is for biodiversity: although it is not a very large area, the area still concentrates an exceptional biodiversity.