Cyprus day 8 - didn't go far

Rest day today so we didn't go far. Headed just up the coast to Cape Deprenon. The area looked great with some nice fields and nice well vegetated gardens. Pretty quiet for birds apart from a nightingale and a female black & white flycatcher in the 'nice garden'. The walk around the coast was 'interesting' requiring a combination of climbing, scrambling and paddling!!
Clearly an area of wealth with one villa having 3 porsche parked outside!

The gorge at Arakas was a really impressive walk. Several singing olivaceous warblers at the bottom of the valley but it was the narrow steep sided gorge that was the highlight. Tight and narrow which must be an incredible sight with a big flow going through it.

We decided to walk from the bottom of the valley up to Mavrokolympos Dam in the hope of finally getting good views of Cyprus warbler. Sadly not this time but we did have squacco heron and common sand on the res, 3 ortolan and a day-calling scops owl.

Cyprus day 7 - Akrotiri

The usual pre-breakfast walk produced a similar range of birds to the last few days although I did get good views of stone curlew and finally good views of a pair of black francolin that have been calling near the villa.

After breakfast we headed east to the Akrotiri peninsula in search of wetland birds.
First stop was Akrotiri Marsh and a meet up with Melpo from Birdlife Cyprus to have a look at the habitat works I had been involved with a couple of years ago. The improvements were looking good, plenty of cattle grazing, new fencing, pools and a nice tower hide. Still lots of work to do but a great start.
The site was pretty quiet for birds though. A few ruff, a couple of squacco heron and a hunting marsh harrier. From the tower hide, 4 fudge ducks were sculking in the reed edge, hopefully the females were on nests...

The gravel pits area was completely dead apart from a yellow wag and a squacco heron and the small chapel was quiet too holding Woodchat, 2 pied and a spotted fly, ortolan and an olivaceous warbler.

Zakaki Marsh did add mallard for the trip but that was all. We did finally find some waders along Lady's Mile but they were all ruff apart from a smart summer plumage marsh sand. Further along was a small group of black winged stilt and 10 close greater flamingos, closer than the pink haze on the main lake.

Final stop of the day was the impressive view over Kensington Cliffs. We had good views of 4 displaying Eleanoras falcons but the Cyprus warblers were really tricky in the strong wind. There were at least 6 calling birds but I only got brief decent views of one.

Overall it was a slightly disappointing day with the lack of waders but good to look round Akrotiri Marsh at the work.

The day did add some new species and pushes us over 100 species to 104.

Cyprus day 6 - Upcountry

Was a little surprised to have rain falling for an early walk around the villa patch but it didn't last very long. The first part of the walk seemed to be quiet with fewer migrants than recent days. Just past the taverna we flushed a cuckoo from the coast path and then there appeared to be a movement of hirundines with barn and red rumped swallows, house and sand martin and a few swifts. The highlight was a female pallid harrier over the fields but sadly it didn't hang about.
19 glossy ibis flying west offshore just as we got back.

Today's plan was to visit the Troodos mountains in search of the Cypriot races of jay and coal tit.
On arrival at the visitor centre carpark we were greeted by a female masked shrike and ticked off the Jay straight away. Although we knew it would be cooler at the higher altitude, going from 20 to 8 degrees was a bit of a shock. Fleece and gloves required.

A walk up the path into the forest quickly added the coal tit to the list. A particularly smart looking bird with its extensive black throat extends down onto the upper breast. The white head stripe seemed much reduced too.

Good views were had of short toed treecreeper, Cyprus wheatear and  a male masked shrike. We also added wren, chaffinch and blackbird to the trip list.  An unexpected surprise was a feeding family of crossbill.
Lunch stop didn't produce any birds but we did find some nice orchids. The power of social media identified them as giant orchid.

What I thought was going to be a random stop in the vineyards at a lower level on the way back turned into a bit of a surprise when I recognised the route. It turned out that I had visited the same place when out here with work a couple of years ago. We didn't get black headed bunting this time.

Final addition to the list was a group of beeeaters heading east over the villa late in the afternoon.

Trip list now on 92

Cyprus day 5 - Paphos and inland

Starting to venture a bit further afield with a first proper visit to Paphos Headland.  This time is wasn't quite a rammed as the other day!

The first thing that strikes you as soon as you get inside the complex is the impressive show of wildflowers. The place is completely awash with yellow, red and pink making it a rather pleasant place to spend a few hours.

Although largely quiet for birds there was a nice selection. An eastern olivacuous warbler showed well just inside the main gates followed by the first of 7 hoopoe we saw.
The bushes held 6 nightingale, 3 collared fly,  2 wood warbler, sedge warbler and a nice female masked shrike. 5 ortolan and black eared wheatear were the best of the rest.
A quick look around the ruins before escaping the growing crowds.

The area inland of Mandria and Asprokremmos Dam was largely disappointing. We did get at least 6 lesser kestrel and a nice little owl in the Anarita Park area but little else. Nata Ford added little ringed plover to the trip list and nice views of red rumped swallows collecting nest material from the river bed.

The scrubby picnic area near the dam held a few migrants. Several female 'black & white' flycatchers were difficult to pin down but a male collared was much easier. Good numbers of blackcap were present along with a male golden oriole and our first bonellis warblers. Even bumped into someone who knew me from work!!

Mandria fields were quiet and the irrigating had stopped near Paphos SF so the birds from the other day had moved on.

4 new species added today taking the list to 83

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