International Danube Day: Bird populations along Bulgarian banks of Danube on the rise

published on 6/30/10 10:05 AM

Photo: www.persina.bg

June 29 is marked as International Day for the Protection of River Danube – the largest European river next to Volga but also the most urbanized and most heavily polluted river of all. In its lower course, there are still regions of well-preserved, almost intact nature. These are the regions surrounding its delta as well as the islands and banks of the Bulgarian and Romanian section of the river. The surviving forests of mainly clambering plants are called by environmentalists “the European jungle”. At the initiative of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), ten years ago, the four countries along the lower course of the river, including Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, and Moldova, signed an agreement on the implementation of Lower Danube Green Corridor. It foresees for the preservation and reconstruction of more than 1 million hectares of wetland as well as the creation of 160 thousand hectares of protected natural territories in this section.

Veselina Kavrukova, in charge of the WWF program in Bulgaria, regards this agreement as one of the most ambitious for its time and one that is already yielding good results. So far, Bulgaria has been very active, declaring 7 new protected territories along the Danube, the most significant of which are Persina Nature Park near Belene and the protected territory Kalimok-Brashlen near Tutrakan. For the first time in this part of Europe, wetland and freshwater swamp forests (flooded forests) have been reconstructed along the banks as well as on the Danube islands. Recently, a scientific expedition was carried out along the Bulgarian course of the Danube River, showing incredibly good results. In the new protected zones, incredibly rich mixed colonies of water birds have settled. Ivan Hristov, coordinator of the scientific program, says:

“These colonies are something exotic as in Europe there is no other place where such colorful groups of birds can be watched. The grey heron, the common spillbill and the great black cormorant arrive here first, at the end of March, they make nests in the highest trees, and in May, they are visited by the squacco heron, the small white heron, the small cormorant, the night heron, and they form really noisy and picturesque colonies. The Bulgarian section of the Danube River has ten such colonies out of which 7 are located on islands. Birds generally feed on the Romanian banks of the river, that are less steep and more swampy, but they nest in Bulgaria where they feel better protected.”

The scientific expedition has ascertained the presence of 3,600 nesting pairs of the rare wetland species listed above. This figure is close to the results of the best year we have had so far – 2006. Experts witness a very optimistic trend of birds resuming their habit of forming bird congregations in the new protected zones.

“For the first time in years, we saw the appearance of entirely new congregations and not only on islands but also in the swamps near the banks”, Mr. Hristov says. “The two most important colonies are located in the two newly revived wetlands – Persina Nature Park on Belene Island and the Kalimok swamp near Tutrakan. The Kalimok swamp has a new colony of small cormorants amounting to 400 pairs, which is the most numerous group of this endangered species. In comparison, the largest colony of this species so far inhabited the Srebarna Lake Nature Reserve, with its peak being 300 pairs at a time. Thanks to the new colony, this rare species has increased its numbers more than twice compared to 2006. We can safely say that, in Bulgaria, there are two more mixed bird colonies of the significance of those in Srebarna Lake, which has already been included in the list of UNESCO’s World Natural Heritage sites. Now we have two colonies of such scale and biodiversity – in Kalimok and Persina. And even the pelicans that are the symbol of Srebarna are very likely to return to nest in the new swamps near Belene where there are already ideal breeding conditions.”

At the same time, the scientific expedition has found some alarming facts of diminishing or disappearing colonies of birds at certain sites:

“The bird colonies on the island of Vardim near Svishtov and on Mishka Island between Ruse and Silistra have diminished in numbers”, Ivan Hristov explains. “The colony of cormorants inhabiting the small island opposite the Srebarna Lake has disappeared. The most probable reason is the clearing of forests of poplar trees in the region. Although their clearing was made with official permission, perhaps it was carried out at an inappropriate time when birds were in the breeding season. We will investigate these cases so that we can prevent similar actions from happening in the future”, Ivan Hristov says in conclusion.

Translated by: Rossitsa Petcova

По публикацията работи: Maria Dimitrova

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International Danube Day: Bird populations along Bulgarian banks of Danube on the rise

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