Winter in the Danube Delta: Ice, Eagles and Geese from the North

A winter day in the Danube Delta is for the brave, and it is an experience few people ever have. Many ask us why anyone would come in winter, and what there is to see. The answer: the Danube Delta changes its guests. Birds you never see in summer arrive from the north, and the landscape becomes a frozen, frosted world of water, or rises slowly out of the mist. It is a season for birders and wildlife photographers who know what they come for and accept the cold that comes with it.

The birds of winter

Winter is the time of geese and ducks, of the large birds of prey that hunt them, and of the tiny long tailed tits that look like little balls of snow. One by one:

Swans. They put on real shows when they gather on the ice or on the open lakes. Winter is the time to see the whooper swan, a guest from the north.

Geese. Greater white fronted geese and the much rarer lesser white fronted geese cross the sky in large flocks, from the lakes where they sleep to the fields where they feed. With luck, among them you find a few red breasted geese, splendid birds that are very easily scared.

The red breasted goose. It spends only the cold months with us, from about November to March. Almost the whole world population winters around the western Black Sea, in Romania and Bulgaria. By day the geese graze in the fields of Dobrogea and at night they sleep on the water; in the morning you see the flocks fly out to the fields, and around midday they come back to the water. They often travel with greater white fronted geese. The species is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Read more about the red breasted goose.

Ducks. Besides the mallards you know from summer, there are velvet scoters, red crested pochards, tufted ducks, ferruginous ducks, teals, smews, goosanders and many others.

Birds of prey. The white tailed eagles, the largest birds of prey of the Danube Delta, gather in small groups and rule over the flocks of geese and ducks. Many come from the north to spend the winter here, so you are almost certain to see some of these majestic birds. Common, long legged and rough legged buzzards are here too, easy to see on the bare branches.

Herons. Not all herons leave. Grey herons, great egrets and bitterns stay, and they are easy to see along the stretches of water that stay free of ice, which become fewer as the cold grows.

Pelicans, cormorants and gulls. Not all pelicans go to Africa: many Dalmatian pelicans stay, and late winter is the best time to see them, in full breeding plumage, with long curly crests and the deepest colours on the bill and pouch. Great and pygmy cormorants stay too, and the Pallas’s gulls are as many as in summer, and easier to see.

Small birds. Blackbirds come in large numbers and are easy to watch, together with tits of every kind, goldcrests and other small birds that are easy to notice in the bare branches.

Other animals

With the vegetation bare, animals are much easier to see in winter, and the open water draws them like a magnet. You may watch an otter come out of the ice with a fish, raccoon dogs in their thick winter coats, golden jackals slipping along the reeds, roe deer, wild boars and wildcats.

Dress as if you were going to the North Pole

You sit still in an open boat for hours, over the water, in the wind, and the boat’s movement makes the wind feel even colder. Your clothes are all that keeps you warm, and we have no spare clothes on board. This is what you need:

• Insulated ice fishing boots with a thick felt liner; hiking boots are not enough, because you sit still
• At least 5 warm layers of very good quality, from thermal underwear up
• A windproof and waterproof outer layer
• A thick, warm, windproof hat, not a cap or a thin beanie
• Warm gloves, and sunglasses against the glare of the ice and the water

If you are not dressed for it, you will not last until the end of the day.

Food and drink

There is no lunch on the winter trips: bring your own food for the day and a thermos with something hot. If the boat reaches Mila 23, you can have a hot tea or a coffee at the village bar. Alcohol is a bad idea: it seems to warm you for a moment, and afterwards the cold feels worse.

The ice decides

Usually the trip goes from Tulcea towards Mila 23 and back, inside the short winter daylight. Some days there is so much to watch on the way that the boat never reaches Mila 23, and those are good days. The ice and the birds decide the route. And one firm rule: never walk on the ice. Its thickness changes from place to place, and over the currents it can be very thin.