Cyprus day 4 - Easter Sunday

We didn't pick mum and dad up until the early hours of the moring so there were no early starts today.

The morning was spent looking around the area local to the villa before have an easter Sunday meal of BBQ chicken and lamb at a local taverna. We still managed to add a few birds to the list with 3 purple heron over and a shag past offshore.

Slightly random moment when one of the local policemen who were also having lunch wanted to try out our bins! Apparently the Viking 8x30 are better that my Swaro EL's.

After relaxing by the pool for a bit we had another look at Mavrokolympos Dan. Cuckoo and a smart male subalpine warbler were added to the list.

Cyprus day 3 - relaxed pace

Decided to take things a bit easier this morning with a stroll around the local area. There is a nice bit of scrubby habitat along the coast with bare fields, banana plantations and garden just inland.

Most of the yellow wagtails from yesterday had moved on but there was still plenty of other stuff. A fine red throated pipit near the villa followed by a quail flushed from under a bush. Although the wagtails had moved on, nightingales had certainly moved in. At least 9 birds were logged on the walk.
A flyby flock of 19 little and 2 cattle egrets were added to the list along with a female marsh harrier in/off the sea. 2 common sand on the rocky shoreline and a spur winged plover were added too.

Heading just inland produced several whinchat along a fenceline. It paid to check the whole field as it produced a stone curlew and a scrub-singing great reed warbler! Further up the road a magpie was mobbing a great spotted cuckoo giving nice scope views. Not far from the villa we picked up our first Woodchat of the trip, a smart singing male.

The rest of the morning was spent relaxing with great reed warbler and nightingale singing in the background.

Checking out Paphos Headland on a warm sunny Easter Saturday wasn't the best idea, the place was MOBBED with nowhere to park. Early morning visit I think.

Check out the Paphos sewage works area which was rather disappointing apart from one irrigated field. The whole SF is now covered so has no attraction for birds now. However, just close to the SF was a field that was being irrigated with a small wet area in the corner. When we arrived there was at least 100 yellow wagtails bathing  along with 4 wood sand, ruff and a gloas ibis. The rest of the field was stuffed with wagtails although the crop was too high to see them but in flight there mus have been at least 1000 birds. A spectacular sight. Overhead we had 2 alpine swift and a smart pair of red footed falcons.

A look around the fields at Madria produced 9 squacco heron in an irrigated field, a nice fall of northern wheatears and a single male black eared, hoopoe and 2 stone  curlew.

We didn't get Cyprus warbler on a quick stop on the way home but there were good numbers of Cyprus wheatear. Ticked off little owl and chukar for the list too.

Pics

A few pics from ringing this morning

Cyprus day 2 - Ringing

Ringing with Mike and Richard today.

Despite breezy conditions we managed to process 104 birds in just a few hours.

Blackcap made up the bulk of the catch but there was a nice supporting cast including wood, sardinian, reed and sedge warblers, corn bunting, whinchat, lesser and common whitethroats and pied fly.

There was even time for a short ringing demo for a group of Dutch birdwatchers who turned up halfway through the morning

Around the site were a couple of ortolan bunting, golden oriole, hoopoe, lots of serin and tree pipit.

A great morning and massive thanks to Richard and Mike for their help. 

Cyprus day 1 - the travelling

The first day of any trip is always a long one with all the travelling and time difference. Thankfully the 2 hour difference to Cyprus isn't too bad.

The birding started while we were still sat on the tarmac at Gatwick  with 2 peregrines hunting pigeons over the terminal buildings!

Straightforward flight got us to Paphos on time and we were soon on the road to our villa at Coral Bay. Birding started straight away with male redstart and whinchat over the road in front of us.

The villa is in a great location right on the coast surrounded by scrubby vegetation.

Despite a brisk wind a quick boot around the area produced a nice selection of birds.
Loads of house with a few Spanish sparrows, crested larks and sardinian warblers were most evident, 2 tawny pipits, 6 short toed larks, wryneck, male whinchat, black eared & northern wheatears and a few feldegg wagtails although none would land.

A nice little start to the trip

South-West road trip

Although family live a long way from Norfolk, it does give us a good opportunity to sneak in a spot of birding on patches old and new. This recent trip was no different with a new site visited in Dorset and an old favorite in Somerset.

First stop on our trip was Canford Heath on the edge of Poole for Dartford warblers. Although they are resident in Norfolk, it is always nice to see them in good numbers on the Dorset heaths. 
The dark foggy weather put pay to any chances of seeing any reptiles but the birds did perform. A walk round a large part of the heath produced 3 male Dartford warblers and 5 pairs of stonechats. It was interesting the see at least one of the male darties in the company of a pair off chats, presumably feeding together in a small 'flock'. A singing chiffchaff on the edge of he housing estate was the only sign that spring is around the corner.

Friday was much better, bright and breezy, for a look around part of Poole harbour in the company of Shaun Robson and Terry Elborn. 
The long staying lesser yellowlegs and green-winged teal were on the agenda for the day along with visiting the new reserve at Lychett Fields. Despite being seen the day before, we couldn't find the yellowlegs amongst the feeding redshank although good numbers of blackwits and a couple of greenshank were about.
As we arrived at Lychett Fields, a female marsh harrier had spooked all the teal but thankfully the didn't go far and the drake green-winged teal was soon located. After a spot of displaying it went to sleep!
Although there were not many birds, it was good to look at the habitat and talk to Shaun about the ideas behind the habitat design. The tidally flooded grassland with the ridge and furrow, to me, looked similar to that a Ryan's Field at Marizion in Cornwall. My first swallow of the summer put in a brief appearance but I managed to miss the sand martin.
A quick look around Canford Heath saw a couple of new darties, both singing males, but it was too breezy for much else.

The journey across the border into Somerset produced plentiful buzzard sightings and even a couple of flyover sand martins just over the border. Apart from adding a calling med gull and green woodpecker to my sisters new house list, much of the day was spent holiday planning and being a climbing frame to my two nieces!

Sunday had an unexpected bonus. Not only did we manage to get out with my other two nieces, we went to one of my old haunts for a walk. I have seen much talked about all the great work that has been happening at Steart Marshes so it was good to get a glimpse of it. The site used to be one of my regular sites (saw a fantastic Wilson's phal there) but it had been over 20 years since my last visit. I was very impressed by the developments but didn't really have time to do it justice.  The highlight was a single LRP but the strong wind and low tide probably didn't help the birding.

All in all, a good few days combining family and birding.

Roosting waders and spring sunshine

Having had the car checked over at the garage I decided to check the coast between Heacham and Hunstanton for early spring migrants.

Having heard about the recent purple sand at Hunstanton I thought I'd have a good chance of seeing a few waders as the tide was high.
Sadly I'd forgotten how disturbed this part of the coast is and a combination of people and high water meant that there were very few birds about.

I did find a small flock that was rather approachable and allowed good views. I did manage to pick out a few colour ringed turnstones but it was only possible to get a bunch of incomplete combinations. Very nice to get close views and get a few phonescoped shots.

The field on the inland side of the inner seawall on the way back towards Heacham looked very good for an early wheatear but it wasn't to be. Plenty of feeding pipits and wagtails around the horse paddocks and several territorial reed bunting.

The ploughed fields beyond the golf course produced 61 golden plover and 180 curlew. I managed to read 6 colour flag combinations on the curlew before 2 red kites flushed them!

Surprisingly no chiffchaff but a gorgeous in the spring sunshine ☺