Klooiplek

The Black seacoast

Primorsko and national park Strandzha

To the east

As the days went by in the Kresna area, our time in the field was limited more and more by bad weather. Chances to find any of the central European species in their habitats higher up in the mountains seemed very slim. In the early morning of day 4, the ongoing rains thus made us decide to change plans and move to the southeast.

Our decision proved right. On approaching the Black Sea coast, dark clouds made way for sunny spells. Close to Sozopol, just north of Burgas, we couldn’t hold it anymore and parked the car to check out a promising spot close to the road. We soon discovered several European glass lizards, a Large whip snake and a tiny second year Spur-thighed tortoise. This was an encouraging start in a new area. We checked in at a hotel in Primorsko, our base for the next three days.

Primorsko

This lively town held everything we needed to feel comfortable in between trips. A decent hotel, plenty of restaurants, a good bakery ... And coffee machines with acceptable coffee on every corner! Parking was allowed anywhere. No-parking signs seemed to have no meaning here.

Unspoilt coast

We explored the area north of Primorsko. Due to its variety of habitats – forests, patches of grassland rich in flowers and insects, and a lake with reedbeds - the area yielded many herps, such as quite a few nose-horned vipers, both spur-thighed tortoise and Hermann's tortoise and an Aesculapian snake. Under a piece of wood a group of eight male grass snakes chasing a female was discovered. Two of our group saw a golden jackal. Our observations of Primorsko can be found in table 3.

Unfortunately we failed to spot two species of snake we were very eager to find, Blotched snake and Reddish whip snake. The latter in particular is a rare species, with a very limited distribution in Europe. Both species are recently recorded in the Primorsko area.

This section of the Black Sea coast is surprisingly untouched by human development. Extensive forest, apparently not grazed by goats or sheep, grow all the way up to the rocky coast, only dissected by some unpaved roads. Unspoilt coastal areas such as this one are increasingly rare in Europe. Hopefully, the Bulgarian politicians realise this in time to stop the expansion of Primorsko, which is now taking place in al its uglyness.

Nightly chorus

The Arkutino swamp lies within Ropotamo Reserve, north of Primorsko. Visitors have to pay an entrance fee of two leva. A 50 m boardwalk crosses the reedbed after which there is an open view over the lake and the wooded hills surrounding it. Ferruginous ducks were plentiful. A little bittern was spotted crossing the lake. On top of our wish list for this area was Fire-bellied toad, which we found soon. Among the numerous Marsh frogs, several European pont terrapins, shy as ever, were spotted.

An after-dark visit to the lake was even more impressive. The sounds of zillions of Marsh frogs, and quite some Common tree frogs filled the air. Our torches discovered Fire-bellied toad, Balkan crested newt, and several large and creepy medicinal leeches.

Revisit in 2010

In the final week of may 2010 we revisited Primorsko coming in from Greece (see tripreoprt Eastern Macedonia). We took the frontier at Svilengrad and drove through the Strandzha region (by Topolovgrad, Elhovo and Sredets) in a couple of hours (5) to Primorsko.

We took-in at the same hotel in Primorsko as we did in 2007. The woman even remembered us to our surprise. That evening we went to see the Bat Hotel again. Not that we found much, but it's still very exciting to revisit a plance where you just know from former experience that there're a lot of interesting species around.

We were a little bit shocked by the very many newly built hotels along the beach. The bizarre part of this story is that they were all empty this time off the year, so this real-estate investors paradise seemed totally desolated. An extremely heavy thunderstorm that just bursted out at twighlight completed the scene. But were just thinking: 'good, lets first habe a nice meal. Meanwhile the rain will bring out the amphibians like Eastern Spadefoot'. And yes, indeed we saw some the next night. Together with treefrogs, green toads and a common toad.

The habitat at the Bat Hotel was much dryer and hotter than in 2007. This wasn't all that surpeising, for we're closer to summer than last time. Places that held water by then were barren dry now. We had to dig the moisty stones out of a deep well in order to find some Triturus karelini and Palobates syriacus. But at least we found both species again. Together with almost everything that we found here before, exept from.....reddish whipsnake.

Finally...reddish whipsnake!

It was so hot actually that we decided to check out of the field and have our main dinner in Primorsko. After 16.00 it started to become nicer again in the field. We went to a new klooispot, an archeological site that displays some neolithic giant granite stones. It's a few kilometers walking through the forest to get there, but it's really an amazing place!

As the evening set in we scattered around the field, chasing any subject to photograph. Ben and Bart were stunned by the beautiful green lizards basking in the last sunrays. Guido got hold of a giant European-rhinoceros beetle. Kosta and Arjan were after lizards when suddenly Ronald and Nicolay screemed that they saw a fast and extremely thin snake slendering through the leaflitter.

Gone, gone, gone it was. No matter how we lifted almost every leave over about ten meter in square. After this small awakening we dropped back into what we were doing before. Everyone but Kosta, who - as if he had given up - strolled aimlessly between some large stones. At a sudden his eye caught another slender snake. He dashes after it and in less than no time he found himself in the presence of Ronald, Nikolay and Guido who all took up searching and yes! There we got our first ever reddish whipsnake. What a beauty!

Go back to Eastern Macedonia and Thrace

Strandzha »

list of observations Black Seacoast (Primorsko)

Black Seacoast (Primorsko)


Reptiles & amphibians		5-2007	5-2010
Balkan crested newt	Triturus karelinii	Numerous	3
Common newt	Lissotriton vulgaris	About 5	larvae
Common toad	Bufo bufo	-	1
Fire-bellied toad	Bombina bombina	> 10	Chorus
Eastern spadefoot	Pelobates syriacus	2	8
Common tree frog	Hyla arborea	chorus	3
Agile frog	Rana dalmatina	Abundant	4
Marsh frog	Pelophylax ridibundus	Chorus	> 20
Edible frog	Pelophylax kl. esculentus	Some	Some
Hermann’s tortoise	Eurotestudo hermanni	3	-
Spur-thighed tortoise	Testudo graeca	3	4
European pond terrapin	Emys orbicularis	4	2
Kotschy’s gecko	Mediodactylus kotschyi	2	4
Green lizard	Lacerta viridis	Abundant	Abundant
Balkan green lizard	Lacerta trilineata	1	-
Common wall lizard	Podarcis muralis	> 10	Abundant
Balkan wall lizard	Podarcis taurica	About 10	-
Slow worm	Angius fragilis	2	1
European glass lizard	Ophisaurus apodus	About 20	6
Montpellier snake	Malpolon monspessulanus	1	1
Large whip snake	Dolichophis caspius	8	3
Reddish Whip Snake	Platyceps collaris	-	3
Aesculapian snake	Zamenis longissima	2	-
Grass snake	Natrix natrix	Abundant	> 10
Dice snake	Natrix tessellate	1	1
Nose-horned viper	Vipera ammodytes	About 20	2
Other highlights
Golden jackal	Canis aureus	2	-
Fallow deer	Dama dama	1	-
Red deer	Cervus elaphus	A few	-
Wild boar	Sus scrofa	A few	-
Little bittern	Ixobrychus minutus	1	-
White-headed duck	Oxyura leucocephala		1
Large copper	Lycaena dispar	> 10	-
Medicinal leech	Hirudo medicinalis	> 10	-
greater horseshoe bat	Rhinolophus ferrumequinum	>10	some
unidentified small horseshoe bats	Rh. hipposideros, Rh. euryale and/orR. mehelyi	abundant	some
Schreiber’s bat	Miniopterus schreibersii	some?	some
Geoffroy’s bat	Myotis emarginatus	abundant	some
European rhinoceros beetle	Oryctes nasicornis		1

Moederdochter
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No coffee at this family shop, but plenty of smiles in stock. On our revisit in 2010 (3 years later) this shop was closed down...
BG_Arjansearching_BV
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Arjan searching for herps by turning stones.
BG_Ronaldsearching_BV
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Ronald scrutinizing the vegetation. In this place we only found some green lizards (Lacerta viridis), a Kotchy’s gecko (Mediodactylus kotchyi), and a Spur-thighed tortoise (Testudo graeca).
zwartezeekust612
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One of the rare places where the forest still grows up to the sea. Habitat of reddish and caspian whipsnake, aesculapian snake and spur-tighted tortoise.
Klooiplekbadhotel612
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This never-finished building in the woods was meant to become a refuge for the last Bulgarian dictator Todor Zhirkov. But after the fall of the Berlin wall it was abandoned and left to ruin. To the grace of many animals. We saw twice a jackal here.
insidehotel612
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The dark subterranian part became a real bat hotel.
Bathotel
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Standing in the bats’ flight path, Ben and Nikolay felt the beat of black wings on their ears.
Our bat detector pointed out several species of Rhinolophus, Myotis, and Miniopterus.
BG_MemarginatusB_BV
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There were colonies of nine bat-species. Here Geoffroy’s bat
(Myotis emarginatus).
boomkikkers612
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Common tree frogs.
GRBL_vleermuis1_GL
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We visited the bat hotel again in 2010... And off course the bats were still there...
lakeprimorskoBGKP
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A reserve alongside the main road near Primorsko. Habitat of fire-bellied toad, Balkan newt, tree frog, marsh frog, edible frog and European pond terrapin.
BG_nightshot_BV
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Same place at night. Timer shot by Ben.
Knoflookpad
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Eastern spadefoot (Pelobates syriacus) were active at night, just after a drizzling rain.
Knoflookpad-Bart-Siebelink
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Look how well it's designed for jumping. In full swing the 'fat' body turnes into a streamlined projectile.
Bombibombina bulgarije
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Fire-bellied toads (Bombina bombina) live in the bigger lowland waters of the coastal
region.
BL_bombinabombina_GL
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Bombina bombina, same specimen.
StrandzaL
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Adult Male of the eastern subspecies of green lizard, Lacerta viridis meridionalis.
Esculaap
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We found this Aesculapian snake (Zamenis longissimus) in the humid undergrowth of a
forest, less than 100 meters from a Black Sea beach.
Ringslang II Bulgarije
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Erect grass snake (Natrix n. persa) The most numerous snake species over here. Some days we saw over 50 specimens.
Testudo graeca
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Spur-thighed tortoise (Testudo graeca). Differs from T. hermanni, by the (in most cases) dark head and much higher front of the plastron (better protection against falling off rocks?).
BG_ticks_BV
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Many Testudo's (here Spur-thighed tortoise) are parasitized by ticks. These "pains in the
ass" typically gather around the hind legs and tail.
kotschiiBGKP
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Kotchy’s gecko (Mediodactylus kotchyi).
ammodytes612
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Horn nosed viper, Vipera ammodytes subspecies montandoni, can be recognized by its green tail. On the body they are less colourful than the nominate species.
BG_Kirinia_BV
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In several locations we found this eastern European specialty: the satyrid Kirinia roxelana.
Hotels-Primorsko-2007
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It's really scary to see how fast the Black Sea coast gets built full with ugly hotels. This shot is taken at 24 may 2007...
Hotels-Primorsko-2010
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... and on this one, taken exactly three years later, we have two vast yellowish new blocks! (Compare the balconies that stick out of the block to the right). They were empty and looked desolated.
Griekenland-Bulgarije 2010-5
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Revisit Primorsko in 2010: an extremely rainy welcome!
Griekenland-Bulgarije-2010-©BartSiebelink (54)
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Nevertheless it had been much dryer than three years ago. These Trituris Karelini were hid much deeper into the soil than before.
Griekenland-Bulgarije-2010-©BartSiebelink (44)
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And a large toad was around
Dolichophis-caspius©BartSiebelink
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Caspian whipsnake (Dolichophis caspius) can be splendidly blue this time of the year.
GRBG2010_en nog warmer
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Large boulders south of Primorsko.
collaris2612
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And finally we found one of flagship species: reddish whipsnake (Platyceps collaris)!
GRBG2010_4611_collaris
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Reddish whipsnake, we found 3 of these very slender and fast snakes close near de black sea coast.
GRBG2010_4635_schelt_Prim
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European glass lizard (Ophisaurus apodus) can be quite common, but is always impressive. This one was at exactly the samelocation as where we found the reddish whipsnake.
GRBL_muurhagedis_GL
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Common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis).
Violet-Lindamore-BartSiebelink
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Also present in the area: violet lindamore. Just a tiny little specimen of this wonderful orchid.
GRBL_neuskoornkever3_GL
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An European rhinoceros beetle (Oryctes nasicornis). An indicator of old forests.
GRBL_syriacus_GL
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Eastern spadefoot (Pelobates syriacus).
Mannetjes-Bart-Siebelink
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We left the place very fulfilled!