Still more from fifty years ago
CONTINUING my nostalgic delve into my notes from 1973, we had more than a week still left of our holiday in Romania, when we returned from our trip to the Danube Delta.
I rented a Dacia 1300 (a Renault 12 in disguise) and we set off inland, headed for the Babadag Forest.
There I listened to thrush nightingale, and saw a speeding goshawk, then a lumbering steppe eagle.
Ortolan bunting sang the opening bars of Beethoven’s fifth (as they do) and a pair of hawfinches flew over.
The road disappeared into a lake that wasn’t on the map, but our resultant detour brought views of lesser grey shrike and roller.
We approached Lake Razelm, where ferruginous duck and red-crested pochard were plentiful, then agitated hooded crows led us to the source of their irritation – a young greater spotted eagle (little did I know how familiar they were to become in later years, here in Alicante!)
Waders of several species were plentiful in the shallows, and collared pratincole were clearly breeding there.
We had one more day of hire-car, and used it to visit an inland lake that looked promising on the map.
And so it proved to be: there was a colony of at least 170 spoonbills, and I was very pleased to find a ‘new’ bird – pygmy cormorant – of which there was a small colony.
Glossy ibis, squacco, grey, purple and night herons were all present, and the nearby villages all had their white storks to bring their babies!
A patch of woodland was worth a look, and sure enough, there was a Syrian woodpecker as well as olivaceous warbler and huge numbers of tree sparrows.
A pied wheatear was another ‘tick’ for me, as we crossed a railway bridge, on our way back to the hotel.
It had been a memorable holiday, in a country soon to be thrown into turmoil, in the Ceaucescu era.
We logged a total of 129 species in the fortnight – with the benefit of hindsight, I suspect it could have been more.
With that I will conclude, for the moment, these reminiscences, but 1973 was far from over, and I may well revisit those far off days.