2009 Tour Narrative
Eighteen years after Bryan first reconnoitred the Ukraine and planned this tour, our’ new Crimea venture provided a happy and satisfying mix of history, scenery, and above all outstanding birding. This was thanks in no small measure to the excellent planning of our ground agents and the fact that the director of the company, a birding friend of Bryan’s for some 35 years, accompanied the tour together with his delightful Ukrainian wife. Their knowledge of the country and their ability to adapt the itinerary to the vagaries of weather and migration ensured that each day brought new delights and an understanding not only of the special avifauna but also of the culture of this little-known peninsula.
The picnics were a daily highlight, memorable for the varied buffet treats and for the birds at each location: Demoiselle Crane, Great Bustard, and Saker at one (the last seemingly homing in on us from a distance to fly around low above our heads); Imperial Eagle, Barred and Eastern Orphean Warblers, and Chukar at another; Rock Thrush at a third; or Great black-headed Gull, Pallid Harrier, and Caspian Tern; Siberian Stonechat; and hundreds of Great White Pelicans at the last en route to the airport—suitably celebrated with caviar and champagne.
Roadside birding was also outstanding, with literally thousands of Red-footed Falcons, marsh terns, Calandra Larks, and Mediterranean Gulls, and a constant supply of Golden Orioles, Hoopoes, Lesser Gray and Red-backed Shrikes, Bee-eaters, Rollers, Pied Wheatears, and Black-headed Buntings. Typical was a verge-hugging sentry line of spindly little trees that yielded in rapid succession not only the Golden Oriole which prompted our stop but also Red-breasted and Pied Flycatchers and Common Redstart. Or the lake shoreline with Temminck’s and Little Stints, Kentish Plover, summer-plumaged Curlew Sandpiper, and displaying Ruffs alongside the coach. Or a seemingly unprepossessing phragmites-fringed pool with Paddyfield and Savi’s Warblers, Bearded Tits, Red-necked Grebe, Red-crested Pochard, and Ferruginous Duck. And another which offered Penduline Tits building a nest, Collared Pratincoles, and Spoonbills. Other from-the-coach species included Bittern, Purple Heron, Glossy Ibis, White Stork, Garganey, Montagu’s Harrier, Griffon Vulture, Common Crane, Stone-curlew, Slender-billed Gull, Little and Short-eared Owls, Syrian Woodpecker, Tawny Pipit, Great Reed Warbler, Woodchat Shrike, and Ortolan Bunting. Plus (still from the roadside) Black-throated Diver, Peregrine, Alpine Swift, Firecrest, Treecreeper, Wood Warbler, and Crossbill. Indeed, it would have been possible to amass a magnificent tally without any walking at all. Even Pygmy Cormorant, White-tailed Eagle, and Hobby were seen from the comfort of our silent electric boat gliding through the Dnipr tributaries from the very garden of our hotel.
Add to this wealth of birdlife the beauty of the little harbour of Balaclava and the many old palaces and fine houses from the 19th century, the fascination of the Odessa steps and the valley of the charge of the Light Brigade, the vastness of the steppe with such distant horizons contrasting with mountains rising so close to the sea, the range of other life from the wild peonies to Saiga, Asian Wild Ass, European Bison, and Przewalski’s Horse, and of course the excellent company, and the Crimea was certainly a very good choice to spend eight days in May.
- Bryan Bland
Created: 24 June 2009