Birdwatching Holiday Romania

Romania: birds and mediaeval monasteries

Friday 24 August to Sunday 2 September 2012
with Bryan Bland and Tudor Blaj as leaders.

Cost: £1690 plus about £370 for flights (2012)
Single room supplement: £190

Please click here for details and an explanation of the price breakdown

Maximum group size: 12 with 2 leaders.

Bird List

Tour Map

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The remote province of Bucovina in the north of Moldavia is a land in a time warp. Far from the rush of the twenty-first century, White Storks follow black-clad nuns as they scythe hay, while Black Redstarts sing from nearby monastery rooftops. These beautiful monasteries are remarkable enough to distract the most ardent of birdwatchers from matters avian. Founded during our own Tudor period, the condition of their frescoes, covering the entire walls both inside and outside, can only be described as ‘miraculous’. We’ll combine relaxed visits to these rural monasteries with birdwatching nearby among remarkably rich forest, hay meadows and hill-village habitats. The second part of the tour involves three nights afloat on a modern houseboat in the Danube Delta, the largest wetland reserve in Europe.

This unique tour combines some of Europe’s more elusive birds – Pygmy Cormorant, Pallid Harrier, Dalmatian Pelican, Pied Wheatear, Sombre Tit, and a great deal more – with the mediaeval landscape of one of the most attractive areas of Eastern Europe, the Carpathians and their foothills. This tour is tailor-made to appeal to a variety of interests; the villages, mountains, and hayfields of Bucovina are notably rich in flowers and butterflies, as well as rural tradition in dress, farming practice, and building. We have chosen our accommodation so that those who would prefer to study the human history of the area rather than its wildlife can do so – right outside the door of where we stay.

Day 1: The tour starts in London with a flight to Bucharest. We’ll have an early dinner in the city centre in a traditional restaurant before returning to the airport for an internal flight to Suceava. From Suceava's airport we'll drive directly to our accommodation where we'll spend the next three nights in the Sucevita Valley. We'll base ourselves in a very comfortable family-run chalet beside steep, flower-filled hay meadows on the edge of primary forest. Grey-headed Woodpecker, Red-backed Shrike, Fieldfare and Serin breed here, and we might even see Nutcracker from our bedroom windows. Night in Sucevita.

Day 2: This morning we'll visit more of these forested areas, then later in the day we’ll visit the fortified monastery in the village. As Sacheverell Sitwell, visiting in the twenties, wrote: ‘ This first view of the painted church of Sucevita is among the most impressive revelations of the whole Byzantine world’. In the cool of the late afternoon we’ll search for Red-breasted Flycatcher, various woodpeckers, and other woodland birds in the surrounding forest. Night in Sucevita.

Day 3: Pre-breakfast birding around our hotel could produce six species of tit, Hawfinch, and Middle-spotted Woodpecker. Later we’ll drive up to a wooded pass at 4,000ft in search of Collared Flycatcher, Crossbill and Crested Tit. A raptor viewpoint on the edge of the forest will give us a good chance of seeing Montagu’s Harrier, Honey Buzzard, Lesser Spotted and Booted Eagles, and Goshawk. We’ll continue to Moldovita Monastery, remarkable for its eyewitness battle scene based on the Turkish siege of Suceava Fortress. After a picnic lunch we’ll explore a second tributary valley leading from Sucevita. Night in Sucevita.

Day 4: Once we leave our rural accommodation we’ll have the option of visiting two more 16th century painted monasteries – Voronet and Humor – but on route we shall make many birding stops for a range of species from Red-footed Falcon and Lesser Spotted Eagle to Whinchat and Great Grey Shrike. In the afternoon we’ll reach Neamt Monastery. Built in the 12th century the Monastery resembles a fortress with high stonewalls and is the oldest monastery in Moldavia. The orchard nearby is a good spot for woodpeckers (Black, Green, Great Spotted and Syrian). Night in Targu Neamt.

Days 5-7: After breakfast we’ll visit the nearby Agapia Monastery. Built in the 17th century, the outer plain white-washed walls belie the splendour to be found inside. Nicolae Grigorescu, the country’s foremost painter, stayed at Agapia for two years and painted the interior frescoes, a visual feast of rich and colourful images. Later in the day we continue our journey southeast towards the Danube Delta. This is a scenic journey through the rolling mediaeval strip fields of Moldavia, possibly with roadside Short-toed and Booted Eagles, Crested Lark, Roller, Bee-eater and Golden Oriole. At Tulcea we’ll board our private houseboat in time for dinner, with an evening cruise towards the heart of the Delta. With luck we’ll see the first of the usual Delta species with flocks of Glossy Ibis and Night Herons flying to and from their roosts.

Our next two days will be spent exploring the heart of the Delta. The exact locations visited will depend on the water levels at the time, but are likely to include large areas of freshwater surrounded by reed beds hosting thousands of Ferruginous Duck and hopefully White, and the occasional Dalmatian Pelicans. Little Egrets and Whiskered Terns will be almost constant companions. Squacco, Night and Purple Herons are abundant and we’ll see the occasional Little Bittern. Marsh Harriers will be frequently sighted, while White-tailed Eagle, though less frequent, is likely. Red-necked and Black-necked Grebes should be seen, together with good numbers of waterfowl and Pygmy Cormorants. There are stands of willow and poplar above the reeds and along the banks where we can expect to see Hobby, Roller, Hoopoe, and much more, while any muddy edge may hold Little or Spotted Crakes.

The pleasure of relaxing under the canopy of the observation deck, sipping endless tea or coffee (or even the occasional beer or soft drink) and gliding past a succession of exciting birds, cannot be over-emphasised. Nights on the houseboat.

Day 8: We’ll drive a short distance from Tulcea to Celic Dere Monastery (a good site for Sombre Tit) and then south to Enisala where a large deciduous forest reaches the shore above a fine reed-bed, fish farm, and sewage works. Here we’ll visit a colony of Bee-eaters below a ruined castle, and Long-legged Buzzard, Mediterranean Gull, Black-winged Stilt, and Crested and Calandra Larks could all be seen here. The pools at Vadu could hold Red-necked Phalarope, Broad-billed and Marsh Sandpipers, Temminck’s Stint, Collared Pratincole and even White-tailed Plover which has bred here in recent years. We’ll then continue to our beach hotel at Mamaia on the Black Sea.

Day 9: We’ll explore the coast around Histria and its reserve on Grindul Saele adjoining Lake Sinoie. Both species of pelican, Spoonbill, Spotted Crake, Short-toed Lark and Paddyfield Warbler are all possible here. Istria is also the oldest settlement in Romania, inhabited for 1300 years, and we shall spend some time at the ruins and excellent museum there. We shall then drive across the Gura Dobrogia plateau looking for larks, Tawny Pipit, and Isabelline Wheatear and continue to the gorge at Cheia Dobrogea. This is a fine area of rocky steppe adjoining oak forest. Pied and Black-eared Wheatears breed here and other species in the area could include Levant Sparrowhawk, Imperial Eagle, Little Owl and three harrier species (Hen, Pallid and Montagu’s). Overnight at Mamaia.

Day 10: After some birdwatching along the beach and around the hotel grounds, where migrants could include Olivaceous Warbler, we’ll return to Bucharest and catch our flight back to London.