A short break that would take you either to the Rhodope Mountains in south-western Bulgaria, or to the Southern Carpathian Mountains in Romania, depending on where it is easier to find the Wallcreeper at the time of your visit. This means that we will be flexible with this target birding tour, the idea being to increase to the maximum our chances to enjoy and photograph this magnificent bird.
Day 1
The tour starts from Sofia or Bucharest at 9.00 h in the morning at the latest. You will be picked up either from the respective airport, (if your flight arrives until 9.00 h (9 a.m.), or from your accommodation if you have arrived on the previous day. Transfer for about 3 hours to the Wallcreeper area in the Western Rhodope Mountains (near the border with Greece) or the Carpathians respectively.
Accommodation in the area for two nights.
Day 2
We will spend most of our time exploring the rocky gorges around, searching for the locally breeding Wallcreepers. We will also explore the conifer forests and mountain meadows in the vicinity, where we will be able to enjoy other specialty birds like the Grey-headed Woodpecker, Black Woodpecker, Alpine Swift, Eurasian Crag Martin, Red-rumped Swallow, White-throated Dipper, Rock Bunting, Ortolan Bunting, as well as rare and endemic flowers, a variety of orchids and many butterflies.
Day 3
Depending on the success with the Wallcreeper observation in the previous day we may either spend most of the day in the same area, or leave for Sofia / Bucharest earlier in the day, with extensive stops in other parts of the mountain foothills. There we will have good chances to see Lesser Spotted Eagle, Long-legged Buzzard, Pallid Swift, Crested Tit, Sombre Tit, Common Firecrest, Lesser Grey Shrike, Red-backed Shrike, Isabelline Wheatear, Black-headed Bunting, etc.
Overnight near the city of departure.
Day 4
Departure day. Depending of your flight schedule, we can visit the Vitosha Mountain near Sofia in the morning, where we expect to find Spotted Nutcracker, Ring Ouzel (ssp. alpestris), Willow Tit, Common Crossbill, Common Firecrest and Goldcrest. If you fly to / from Bucharest, we may explore the old forests to the north of the city where we can see a good variety of woodpeckers, Collared Flycatcher, Icterine Warbler and other forest birds.