Dermot Breen's Blog: cyprus

Showing posts with label cyprus. Show all posts

Sunday, 3 February 2019

Cyprus 3rd September 2018

I headed over to Paphos Headland which is one of the more famous sites in Cyprus. It proved to be one of those famous sites that was a massive let down for me I'm afraid. The site is an extensive and very rich archaeological site and worth a visit for that reason alone. I had great difficulty finding the actual entrance to the site however as there were no signs whatsoever for the place. The entrance building looked like a toilet block and was completely incognito with the one sign saying what it was perfectly hidden by green scaffolding netting. I ended up walking around the entire 4km length of boundary fence trying to enter the site only to come back to where I originally started! When I finally managed to accidentally stumble across the entrance and pay the entrance fee the staff inside were particularly obnoxious and apathetic. There were a few interpretive panels with bird information but these were in behind locked gates at the lighthouse, kind of defeats the whole reasoning for putting them up in the first place. Combined with the absent of migrants the place definitely left a very bad impression on me! The best birds were actually picked up outside of the site along the coast when I was trying to get into the place which in the form of a small group of Greater Sand Plovers. These were a new addition for my Western Palearctic list. The other new WP additions from the trip included Spur-winged Plover and Marsh Sandpiper.
I headed inland from here and checked Kannaviou Dam, Evretou Dam, Pikni Forest, etc. and apart from a Bonelli's Eagle, Long-legged Buzzards and a Masked Shrike there wasn't much of note. I saw about three of the latter during the entire trip but all were either seen as I was driving or were very brief.

Greater Sand Plover

Kingfisher and Whimbrel

Whimbrel

Long-legged Buzzard

Cyprus Wheatear

Northern Wheatear

The covert entrace to the Paphos Archaeological Park.

Sunday, 27 January 2019

Cyprus 1st September 2018

I managed to come across number four of my five targets sitting on the very top of a soil heap beside the roadside just west of Larnaca in the form of a male Black Francolin. A quick look around the Kiti Beach and Cape Kiti produced a few nice birds like Spectacled, Great Reed, Eastern Oliveacous Warblers and Isabelline Wheatear. Very few migrants about though. The next spot were the salt flats around Larnaca Airport but these were all dry. I happen to come across the Larnaca Sewage Works which are fenced off but has a very handy tower which overlooks the two large ponds. This was a very productive site and was jam packed with waterbirds and worth putting up with the rather pungent smell. https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48207542
I moved further east along the coastline later up to Cape Greco. https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48221919
I finished up the day at Oroklini Lake where a Terek Sandpiper had been found a few days previously. They are a rarity even in Cyprus and thankfully it was still present. The lake wasn't particularly big and there was very little water left but it still held an impressive numbers of waders. I stayed until dark and was rewarded with a Little Crake by the edge of the reeds and a large roost of Cattle Egrets. https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48221509
Between Oroklini and the sewage works I managed to see at least 17 species of waders in the day.

Male Black Francolin

Ferruginous Duck

Spur-winged Plover, Coot, Mallard, Garganey & Little Grebe.

Juvenile Whiskered Tern

Juvenile Gull-billed Tern

Terek Sandpiper

Eurasian Kestrel

Isabelline Wheatear

Laughing Dove

Spotted Flycatcher

Ortolan Bunting

Spectacled Warbler

Willow Warbler

Starred Agama Ladakia stellio cypriaca

Larnaca Sewage Works

Cape Greco

Oroklini Lake

Thursday, 24 January 2019

Cyprus 31st August 2018

I had another look at Limassol Salt Lake this morning but no sign of any cranes again. I checked an area of shrub around Kourion about 15km west of Limassol and had a nice selection of passerines in the area including my first Cyprus Wheatears. I had one probable fly-over Cretzschmar's Bunitng the previous day and another around the Kourion in the morning but I eventually had cracking views of an adult male feeding by the roadside further inland near Kouris Reservoir.
For the remainder of the day I headed inland and up to the Troodos Mountains. I caught up with all of the endemic subspecies up there excluding of course the Scops Owl which is very hard to pick up if they aren't calling like they do in Spring. At my first stop I could hear a pair of Jays kicking up a right racket and was amazed to see that they were mobbing a perched Goshawk. I haven't seen many perched Goshawks before.