Romania Part 1: Brown Bears

A the start of June I accompanied a group from Ramblers Worldwide Holidays on a birdwatching tour of Romania. We started in the Carathians, where the highlight was an evening visit to a bear hide. The bears were baited with biscuits, mainly and the first individuals came almost instantaneously. We saw about a dozen individuals, including a mother and two tiny cubs, which I didn't get any photos of.

Nearly all the bears were females of various ages plus young bears of indeterminate gender. When a male turned up, he was flirted with by one of the females, leading to a bit of a game of chase through the forest and the rest scarpered.

One of the highlights for me was hearing bears roaring in the forest. Awesome racket!

A battered older female who visited several times to the clearing. She had a round patch on her right flank and what looks like scarred skin on her left rear leg. Also her left eye looked liek it had been in a scrap...

This is the large male which appeared to have started its summer moult. He typically had the horn for females

The last couple of photos are of a ?year-old bear which was always a tad nervous

Most of the last few photos are of the battered looking female I mentioned earlier

Brown Bears can look remarkably like dogs!

Spot the Great Knot

"A Knot in Turnstone's clothing"

Rude Brown Bear, Romania

A new male Adder

This lovely male Adder was, we believe, a new one at our survey site. It was one of a record haul of Adders and other reptiles we counted and recorded on Sunday (22.5.16). The total of 144* individual reptiles comprised:

105 Slowworms*

17 Common Lizards

11 Adders*

11 Grass Snakes

* = record site count for us

Black-necked Grebe pair at Ferry Meadows CP

Found by Donal Gardener, I believe, on Saturday morning, these beauties were possibly the same pair I found a few weeks ago on the Nene Washes at March Farmers. Like those, this pair were in full breeding plumage and were very sleepy, not attempting to dive to feed during the few hours I was watching them. Also like the Nene Washes birds they expectedly departed overnight. I believe the female of the pair is the one with slightly brighter yellow (rather than orange) ear tufts, which was also slightly smaller. This was also the case with the Nene Washes pair (which were much more distant than these, so beyond photography). If you look carefully you can see at her fluffy rear, above the feet is rather black and white (grey) whereas 'his' fluffy rear has a buff infusion. Lovely birds!

Lapwing at Deeping Lakes LWT

8 Black Terns, DLLWT

Adder close-ups

A large female

Young male, perhaps two years old

A mature male slithers over the head of a female

That same female give me the glare...

Red-necked Grebe, Crown Lakes, Farcet

A nice 2016 PBC year tick was this superb breeding-plumaged Red-necked Grebe found by Kevin Eldred. My first in this plumage around here, and only my third Red-necked Grebe in the Peterborough area, after birds in 2004 and 2005.

Polish miscellany

Northern caudatus Long-tailed Tit

Marsh Tit

European Bison

Aliens not welcome, thank you