Delta Danerea

Delta Danerea

The Danube Delta is a large section of Northeastern Romania. Here the long Danube enters into the Black Sea and forms a wide area of marshes, lakes and reed beds. Much like the more famous Mississippi and Nile deltas, the Danube Delta is an ideal place for birds and wildlife. Travel occurs by boat and the settlements are small fishing villages that have begun to turn to tourism as a livelihood.

Nancy and I and Jane Walker, a long time friend visiting from the United States, took the opportunity to spend four days in the Delta last week. We were guided through the narrow channels and canals to view all sorts of waterfowl and other birds. The list of new species that are now checked off our birder’s life list include Sea Eagles, red beaked and regular pochards, great crested grebes, squaeca herons, black woodpeckers, hoopoe and the amazingly blue Romanian kingfisher.

The kingfisher is smaller than our belted kingfisher and has the most vivid iridescent blue on its back and wings when it flies. It has an orange breast and the combination of orange and blue reminds one of the University of Virginia school colors.

We found it sitting on reeds and small limbs hanging just above the water in the canals. When still, it was hard to spot, but when it flew ten meters further along the waterway it shown brilliantly. It would fly from one resting spot to another, staying just about the water. Only after leading us a long way would it over fly us back to its original fishing place. It is the symbol of Nancy’s Birdlife Romania organization so it was doubly worthwhile whenever we ran across one of the species.

We arrived in the Delta area after a two day conference in the mountain resort of Sinaia. This conference was the final gathering of our Peace Corps group which we’ve shared experiences. I presented two slide shows of pictures that the group had taken over the last two years and both were well received. Hopefully the presentations can be used as a collective remembrance of Romania.

The first of our group will be leaving country the first of June. We’re planning to check out around the 20th of July and do some exploring through parts of Europe that are still new to us. The Danube runs through eight countries and now that we’ve seen the Delta, perhaps we’ll take a hydrofoil up river to Vienna to start our journey home.

The pictures included with this entry do not show any birds. My little camera is great at landscapes, but I’m not much of a wildlife photographer. The two pictures include one of the water and reed beds and one of the rapeseed fields that line the roadway between Tulcea and Bucuresti. Rapeseed is used as an oil and as a primary ingredient in the formulation of Biodiesel.