At the end of July 2017, I went back to some of the parts of Bulgaria and northern Greece that I visited in April 2016, however this time together with my sister Hester and her 18-year old son Ebe. They both like wildlife in general and also love watching birds.

We stayed the entire 5 days in the lovely town of Melnik in the south of Bulgaria and explored its surroundings, including the beautiful historic Rozhan Monastry, where I managed to find my only lifer of the trip: White-backed Woodpecker. Of course we spent time (two visits) accross the Bulgarian border at Kerkini Lake in northern Greece, where on 29 July 2017 we took a boat trip from the town of Kerkini around the lake. We were very fortunate having Arampatzis Vasilis as a skipper/guide who enthusiastically showed us the best places on the lake and told us passionately about the lake and its wildlife.

Summer time isn't the best time to go out birding, but still we managed to see around 84 different species in 4 days. And quite a few have made it to this website, and also lots of butterflies, dragonflies, beetles, some other critters and even a red fox, a tortoise and a bat!