WILD LIFE

22.10.2011

Migration record for Bulgaria

40 000 + buzzards flew over the Burgas lakes in a single day!

On 19th October 2011 a record number of Common and Steppe buzzards have been recorded to fly over the Burgas lakes just in single day - the amazing 40 000 + birds! The weather during the previous week was very cold and snowy and most of Eastern Bulgaria was covered by half a meter of snow, something pretty unusual for October here. The weather further north was even worst for the raptors and once it improved it obviously forced all these raptors from huge areas to move south. This is a record number even for Bulgaria where big numbers of raptors in a single day are often recorded in late September or early October. But not in such vast numbers!

This amazing spectacle was observed by few ornithologists monitoring the migration on behalf of the Central Laboratory for General Ecology, based in Sofia, Bulgaria.  Some of the people here have started to monitor the migration along the Via Pontica migration route back in 1978 and have done it every year since then.

More data you can get on the following link, where you need to click on 19th October and will have a file opened in Word. The first column will show you the numbers for that day, while the next four columns are given the maximum numbers for 4 of the years throughout the whole period.

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