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Another beautiful sunny day! Near the port of Tulcea, we have some last minute viewing atop the boat before breakfast, then pull into port, load up the two vans and head south. Through old villages of stucco houses with red tile roofs, stone walls, apple trees in bloom, small plots of grape vines, fields with wheat or rape seed, or rocky hills with little topsoil, there are continual windmill farms interspersed with solitary shepherds overseeing their goats and sheep.
At noon in the Babadag Hills we stop for a few birds as well as a picnic lunch complete with folding tables, stools, tablecloths, a spread of meats, cheeses, veggies, and pickles for sandwiches, with fruit (grapes, apricots, strawberries, bananas). Continuing our drive through fields, stopping throughout the afternoon, eventually we come upon a small rocky gorge. We've picked up some small, but localized birds before heading to Constanța for the night: larks, the Ortolan Bunting, wheatears, plus an uncommon Black Stork (with red bill). The hills are also home to Sousliks, a type of ground squirrel that ressembles a prairie dog; they pop up and down from their holes, standing on hind legs to survey the territory. We saw dozens of them, but fortunately got a good look at a Red Fox loping through the nearby hills, undoubtedly hoping to find an inattentive Souslik.
Constanța is on the Black Sea and is the fifth largest city in Romania. All of a sudden we are back in modern Romania. Our hotel, along with other tourist hotels and lots of new construction, is on a sandy peninsula between the lagoon and the sea. To get here we drive over locks on the Danube through which oil tankers are waiting to pass. Our room is nice and big, allowing us to spread out after three nights in the ship's tiny cabin.
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Cousin Kermit Glad for your sake and the objective of bird watching that the weather has been so cooperative. Even ground squirrels aka prairie dogs pop up to view.