Crimea: birdwatching in the Ukraine

Tuesday 5 May to Wednesday 13 May 2009
with Bryan Bland and Dan Brown and Yuriy Andryushchenko as leaders.

Cost: £1510 plus about £330 for flights
Single room supplement: £150

Click here for explanation of price breakdown

Maximum group size: 13 with 3 leaders.

2 leaders join regardless of group size.

Bird List

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Ukraine is one of those countries that most people have now heard of, but many are still unsure of exactly where it is.  Its recent fame stems from its breakway from the Soviet domination but of course mere mention of the Crimea and one is immediately taken back to a much earlier period in history. Today, Ukraine is a fully democratic, stable, peaceful republic which is gaining more and more international recognition. The country offers an amazing range of habitats and wealth of species thanks to its geographic position between the Black Sea and Russian taiga, the Carpathians and Caucasus, and featuring the Danube, Dneister and Dneiper Rivers.  It is a key region in the West Palearctic for birders, botanists and indeed all nature-lovers.

This tour visits a range of habitats including freshwater marshes, riverine forests, coastal lagoons, rolling steppes, the rugged mountains of southern Ukraine and in particular the Crimean peninsula. Crimea occupies an area of about one quarter larger than Wales and is bounded by the Black and Azov Seas. It is one Ukraine’s three globally recognised hot spots for biodiversity (the other two are the Danube delta and lakes, and the Carpathian forests). Some 300 species of birds have been recorded from Crimea, and during the trip as a whole we can expect to see over 170 of them, including hard to see Eastern species such as Demoiselle Crane, Rose-coloured Starling, Paddyfield Warbler, and Great Black-headed Gull. Moreover, the sheer numbers of birds is also hard to match anywhere else in Europe. Colony after colony of Red-footed Falcons, flocks of White Pelicans, swarms of Calandra Larks, and ranks of Corn Buntings, Lesser Grey Shrikes and Rollers will provide a really memorable trip.

Day 1:  The tour starts in London with a flight to Odessa.  After arrival we’ll transfer to a local hotel and there should be time for a late afternoon walk through Shevchenko Park to Odessa bay. The park is an area of mixed deciduous woodland with nesting Syrian Woodpecker, Hawfinch, Wood Warbler, and Redstart and we might also find Wryneck, Barred Warbler and Collared Flycatcher along with the local Red Squirrels. Reaching the bay we should see Caspian Gulls, Common and Sandwich Terns and perhaps an over-summering Black-Throated Diver.  We’ll end the day with our first taste of Ukrainian cuisine in a local restaurant.  Night in Odessa.

Day 2:  Today we depart for Crimea, travelling through the steppes of southern Ukraine. The region was the historical route for successive migrations of eastern peoples including Scythians, Bulgars and Tatars heading for western Europe, and the landscape is dotted with ‘kurgans’ – Iron Age burial mounds. From 1648, it was the stronghold of the autonomous Ukrainian Cossack Host or ‘sech’ which was eventually disbanded by Catherine the Great in 1764. The vast plains were settled from then on by Russians and other peoples – a political divide that persists to the present day. After the Second World War, the steppe was mostly converted to farmland but the windbreaks and fallows still support a wide range of typical steppe species.  Red-footed Falcon use the windbreak hedgerows for nesting sites and can sometimes be present in large flocks while elsewhere typical roadside birds could include Roller, Red-backed and Lesser Grey Shrikes, Calandra Lark and Ortolan Bunting. We should find some wetland areas where waterbirds ranging from huge White Pelicans to noisy Great Reed Warblers are possible.  We’ll have a picnic along the way and make stops to look at these any other birds we may encounter before reaching the Askania Nova Biosphere Reserve.

The present day Biosphere Reserve at Askania Nova was founded by (and named after) a descendent of German settlers, Friedrich Falz-Fein, when he set aside the first plot of virgin steppe in 1898. On 1 April 1919, the site was declared a national reserve – one of the first in Europe – and has been managed as a protected area ever since with a core zone of protected virgin feather-grass steppe.  In addition, the reserve has an important arboretum that dates from 1887 as well as a zoological park. We’ll take a horse-drawn tour out into the huge steppe enclosures to see the collections of semi-wild Saiga Antelope, Przewalski’s Horse, Bison and other grassland animals such as Spotted Susliks. We are also likely to encounter Marsh Harrier, Black-winged Stilt, Ruddy Shelduck and perhaps Common Cranes around natural spring-fed pools.  Here we should also find migrant wader such as Ruff in fine spring plumage and Wood Sandpipers while the grasslands should be alive with larks and Red-throated Pipits. This steppe habitat should also give us our first chance of a magnificent Saker Falcon.  Night at Askania Nova.

Day 3: We’ll leave Askania Nova and travel to northeast Crimea, to spend the day exploring Sivash National Nature Reserve, in the company of our local guide from the Azov-Black Sea Ornithological Station. This vast area of lagoons and salt marshes is an Important Bird Area and includes two Ramsar Sites. Here we’ll look for a wide variety of waterbirds including White Pelicans and Pygmy Cormorants, and waders such as Collared Pratincoles, Marsh and Broad-billed Sandpipers, and Temminck’s Stints as well as Great Black-headed Gull, Slender-billed Gull, Gull-billed Tern and Caspian Tern. In addition, some of the reedbeds hold Paddyfield Warblers and, if weather conditions are right for migration, we may be treated to the sight of thousands of White-winged Black, Black and Whiskered Terns. Later we’ll continue to Feodosia, a small historic resort town on the southern coast of Crimea, where we’ll spend the night. 

Days 4-5:  We have two days to explore this region.  One day we’ll travel east along the southern shore of the Kerch peninsula to visit Opug Nature Reserve and Uzunlarskoe lake area. The first site is an area of mixed forest and sea cliffs, while the latter is a coastal wetland surrounded by rolling hills and wonderful, flower-strewn steppe habitats. This is good raptor country and we’ll look for Steppe Eagle, Saker and Lesser Kestrel. The feather-grass Bagerova steppes will be another destination where we can find a wide range of birds and reptiles, including Stone Curlew, Rose-coloured Starling, Isabelline Wheatear, Calandra, Short-toed and Lesser Short-toed Larks, Tawny Pipit and Black-headed Bunting and there is always a chance of an elegant Demoiselle Crane or two or even a Great or Little Bustard. Flower enthusiasts should find much to entertain them with a fine array of orchids and wild tulips possible. Nights in Feodosia.

Day 6:  We’ll leave Feodosia and head west for the famous town of Yalta, founded by Greek traders and scene of the Allied conference in February 1945 between Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill that decided the post-war geography of Central and Eastern Europe. Before arriving, we shall spend much of the day exploring the woodlands and mountains en route, including the beautiful Karadag Mountains Reserve, searching for mountain and woodland birds such as Egyptian Vulture, Short-toed Eagle, Eastern Imperial Eagle, Long-legged Buzzard, Peregrine, Goshawk, Alpine Swift, Pied Wheatear, Rock Thrush and perhaps Rock Bunting, with additional possibilities for Rock Thrush and Rock Bunting. Night in Yalta.

Day 7:  Most of today will be spent in the spectacular Crimean Forest Nature Reserve, which covers 34,500 ha and a range of altitudes. The habitats range from lowland broadleaf forest, through conifers to the sub-alpine zone and affords a stunning view over Yalta bay. The highlight of our visit will be a station where we can get close views of the resident Griffon and Black Vultures. We will have another chance to see woodland and mountain birds not seen previously.  Night in Yalta.

Day 8:  Today we begin the journey back towards Odessa, but there is still plenty of birding to be done. We’ll begin by travelling further west, to explore the coastal mountains for raptors and vultures, and surveying the deceptively benign 'Valley of Death' near Balaklava, famous for the Charge of the Light Brigade led by Lord Cardigan during the Battle of Balaklava on 25 October 1854.  After our picnic lunch in this area, we’ll proceed north to visit the artisanal freshwater lagoons around Krasnoperekopsk, where we should find a good range of ducks, herons and waders, including Ruff, Little and Temminck’s Stints, Kentish Plover, and Spotted Redshank – all in splendid breeding plumage. Ospreys are frequent visitors here, along with Montagu's Harrier. Night in Gola Pristin, situated in the Black Sea Biosphere Reserve.

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Last updated August 2008.