This time we headed for their river site to the south of Polis. On the journey over we finally managed to catch up with long legged buzzard for the trip. We also had a harrier and falcon sp over the car that remained unidentified. Just before we reached the ringing site a cracking roller was sat on the roadside wires. Apparently they breed in the farm close by.
Richard and Mike had already been on a net round so there were bags of goodies waiting for us. Being in a river valley the species composition was very different. In the olive grove last week it was mainly blackcap, this week it was reed warbler (30).
The main highlight of the morning was an adult spotted crake, only the 6th to be ringed in Cyprus and a new bird for Richard. You forget how small they are and have a wing length the same as a blackbird (122mm).
The best of the rest, and they were all good birds, we're 3 olivaceous warbler, 3 great reed warbler, spotted flycatcher, female ortolan bunting, tree pipit and turtle dove.
We had another impromptu ringing demo with another birding group visiting. They arrived just at the right time to see great reed, ortolan and the turtle dove in the hand. Another great opportunity to tell the stories about ringing
There were also some good birds around the site with long legged buzzard, 2 redstart, wood warbler, 2 female black&white flycatchers and a spotted fly.
We have been incredibly lucky with the hospitality shown by Mike and Richard allowing us to join them and ring many of the birds that were caught. Over the two session we've spent with them we've caught nearly 200 birds, handled some nice species, made some good contacts for the future and most importantly learnt loads.
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