The Red-breasted Goose, Branta ruficollis, is one of the most beautiful geese in the world, and the reason behind the Branta Tours name.
This page carries the original Branta Tours team and tour information from the former website, rebuilt into the current Branta Tours visual system. The team combines specialist bird guiding, conservation knowledge, ecotourism experience, interpretation, accommodation support and practical travel planning.
tour leaders and travel support profiles
years of field biology experience noted for the Balkans programme
Pavel has led wildlife and birdwatching tours since this period
Pavel Simeonov is a professional musician who loves birds and specialized in birdwatching for Bulgaria and Balkan countries. He is one of Bulgaria’s leading naturalists and ornithologists, one of the Swarovski Recommended Bird Guides.
Graduated High school of music (Bulgarian Conservatory) in 1981 he is one of the representatives of the Bulgarian Flute School, specialized in multi-instrumental composing. He speaks Bulgarian (native tongue), fluent French and English and fairly well Russian.
Being actively involved with conservation programmes at national and international level Pavel is able to provide a wealth of background information on wildlife matters, and indeed on cultural topics. He leads most of our tours personally. His unerring sharp-eyed vigilance ensures that you will not miss a thing and his no-nonsense-don’t-easily-suffer-fools approach to traffic situations instils the greatest of confidence.
He has conducted numerous trips as a bird-guide and leader throughout Bulgaria, Romania, Belarus, Croatia, Southern France and Norway. Qualified as an international expert on environmental and biodiversity conservation projects he is also the founder of the Le Balkan-Bulgaria non-profit organization.
He is involved in different studies on marine mammal and bird species in Western Mediterranean, as well as numerous monitoring programmes on the autumn migration of soaring birds on the Via Pontica flyway, several management projects on globally threatened species including Red-breasted Goose and Dalmatian Pelican, mid-winter counts of water birds and raptors and many other international activities for the development of the eco-tourism concept. Pavel is also an enthusiastic photographer. He provides most of the photographs presented in this site.
Branta Tours is equipped with Swarovski Optics to ensure the best possible birding experience for your trip.
Tatyana Simeonova is the owner and manager of the Branta-Tours Birdwatching Company.
Thanks to her numerous contacts with experts of the Council of Europe and their joint work on the territory of Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve in Belarus, Les Vosges du Nord National Park in France, Peak District National Park in the UK, as well as her visits to several national parks in the USA aimed at studying their ecotourism development models, she has acquired a great deal of experience in this field.
She spent more than 10 years of her life in the Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve in Belarus being in charge of overseas communications and working as a group leader and interpreter. She also worked as a Consulting Assistant to the Pripiatsky National Park and Belovezhskaya Pushcha Biosphere Reserve in Belarus, in elaborating programmes on wildlife-watching tourism for foreign visitors.
Her many years working in the field make her an expert in several areas. She is speaking Russian, Bulgarian, fluent English and fairly well French. Her Byelorussian nationality and a good command of the Russian language are of great advantage in organizing birdwatching trips throughout Belarus. Tatyana is also responsible for developing and operating Professional Birding Tours and General Nature and Wildlife Holidays in Bulgaria, Romania and Far-Eastern Russia.
Pencho Penchev is one of the top Bulgarian birders who has an extended experience indeed in the field of Research and Conservation Biology (more than 25 years).
He is the Head of Branta-Tours Balkans Programme and is actively involved in Biological and ecological scientific investigations, biodiversity inventories and monitoring. Pencho has been a naturalist and a bird lover from a young age.
He started his birding experience as a bird guide in 2007, being in touch with keen birders and nature lovers from different countries. He is a knowledgeable birder with good insight into bird behavior and identification, well acquainted with the Bulgarian countryside and main top birding locations in neighbouring regions.
Nikolai Spassov is a well known zoologist and palaeontologist. He holds an MSc in Vertebrate Zoology at the Faculty of Biology in the University of Sofia, Bulgaria. He specialised in Lab. of Paleontology at N.M.N.H. – Paris and the Inst. of Paleontology and Evolutionary Morphology & Ecology of Moscow. He is Head of the Dept. of Fossil & Recent Mammals in the National Museum of Natural History – Sofia.
Nikolai is actively involved in huge scientific activities, nature conservation projects and important field works such as inventories of the Mammals & Birds in the Central Balkan Range, investigation on the Bulgarian threatened carnivores etc. He is the Team Leader of numerous National Projects on the conservation and status of the Brown Bear, the Wolf, the Otter and the Marbled Polecat.
At international level he is the co-organiser of a Zoological Expedition of the N.M.N.H. – Sofia in Mozambique in 1983 and a Zoological expedition in Gobi Desert – Mongolia in 1990. He has become the winner for Bulgaria in the Henry Ford award for the conservation of the cultural & natural heritage in 1997. Since 2005 Nikolai is a tour leader of Branta-Tours Carnivore Programme.
Simeon is an experienced ornithologist and leader of birdwatching and natural history tours for more than 20 years. He has also participated in numerous ornithological studies and conservation projects, such as the establishing of the ecological network Natura 2000 in Bulgaria, monitoring of the wintering population of the Red-breasted Goose in South Dobrogea region, mid-winter waterfowl counts, Common Crane conservation and others.
Simeon has a bachelor degree in tourism management and interest in macro photography, hiking and cycling.
Simeon has been birding in many Southeast Europe and Middle East countries. He is a member of the Bulgarian Bird Rarities Committee and eBird Reviewer for Bulgaria.
Yordan has been birding, designing and organising birding and nature tours around Balkans since 2009 for individuals, couples, families and groups from different countries: UK, Ireland, France, Belgian, Netherlands, Germany, Australia, USA, Canada, etc.
His favorite destinations are: the Danube Delta, the Riverside marshes along the Danube in Bulgaria and Romania, the Black Sea coast, the mountains in Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece, the Aegean coast of Greece and many of the Greek Mediterranean islands. Thanks to his participation in many nature conservation projects and monitoring of biodiversity in the protected territories of Bulgaria, he has many back-up options for finding some of the most sought-after species, away from developed tourist sites where they are still undisturbed.
When designing and leading a tour Yordan always attempts to interpret what our visitors really want.
We provide comfortable accommodation at picturesquely situated and highly attractive private establishments, charming family hotels and local cosy guesthouses. We also offer two or three day overnight stay at beautiful Birding Lodge and Nature Conservation Center.
Single rooms are always available, though a supplement is often charged for single occupancy.
Meals will be taken at folk-taverns and national restaurants, which offer traditional local and pan-European cuisine.
For the moment, and owing to the very tense situation in the region, we are not set up to accept credit cards.
Please contact us if you would like further clarification: info@branta-tours.com.
