Cyprus Bird watching Tours - BIRD is the WORD Tour, Paphos & Akrotiri 29/03/17
On the 29th I guided Sian around the sites of Paphos and Akrotiri. It gradually became harder to find birds throughout the day concerning the winds picking up speed but started off well enough for that not to matter. We started at the Sewage Works, en-route checking out the lower Ezousas river area of which we managed to spot European Turtle Dove in flight and also sitting on a wire and 2 Squacco Herons in a tree. All the usual's were at the Sewage Works. Anarita Park was booming with life, here we got exceptional views of Wryneck, Creztschmar's and Ortolan Bunting, Lesser Kestrels, Great Spotted Cuckoos, Tawny Pipits, Chukar, Northern, Isabelline, Eastern Black-eared and Cyprus Wheatears, Little Owl which Sian was particularly fond of, plus a young Bonelli's Eagle showed up just as we were leaving. Then on to Mandria where we had an extremely close encounter with a Male Hen Harrier and ridiculously close views of Eurasian Hoopoe probing and feeding on caterpillars next to the car which was the highlight of the tour. In Akrotiri, we stayed at Zakaki marsh for no more than 10 minutes due to how poor it was ... which was a bit of a let down concerning my past 3 visits there being so fruitful. We scouted Lady's Mile and the Salt Lake which again had a large amount of Waders on and finally some Slender-billed Gulls way in the distance. The Curlew seen there on the previous tour seemed to have been joined by two others, due to time management we didn't manage to scout through all of the waders, that and waders were Sian's least priority on the tour (aside Greater Flamingo of which there was no shortage of - of which we ate our lunch infront of). Whilst heading back to Paphos we stopped in at Kensington Cliffs for the Griffon Vultures, sadly none showed up, though we had good views of a Long-legged Buzzard and Peregrine Falcon in the area and some fleeting views of Cyprus Warbler singing whilst floating around in the air. A great tour providing great memories and another great species count - 80 (which I feel could have been much higher had it not been so windy).
| Species: Mallard Chukar Black Francolin (heard) Greater Flamingo European Shag Little Egret Squacco Heron Cattle Egret Hen Harrier Common Buzzard Long-legged Buzzard Bonelli's Eagle Lesser Kestrel Common Kestrel Peregrine Falcon Common Moorhen Eurasian Coot Spur-winged Lapwing Little Ringed Plover Kentish Plover Black-winged Stilt Eurasian Curlew Green Sandpiper Wood Sandpiper Little Stint Dunlin Ruff Yellow-legged Gull Caspian Gull Armenian Gull Baltic Gull Black-headed Gull Slender-billed Gull Common Wood Pigeon European Turtle Dove Eurasian Collared Dove Great Spotted Cuckoo Little Owl Alpine Swift Common Swift Eurasian Hoopoe Eurasian Wryneck Greater Short-toed Lark Crested Lark Barn Swallow Red-rumped Swallow House Martin White Wagtail Yellow Wagtail (Feldegg) Tawny Pipit Tree Pipit Meadow Pipit Red-throated Pipit Water Pipit (Heard) Zitting Cisticola Cetti's Warbler Common Chiffchaff Eurasian Blackcap Lesser Whitethroat Sardinian Warbler Cyprus Warbler Spectacled Warbler Nightingale (heard) European Stonechat Northern Wheatear Cyprus Wheatear Eastern Black-eared Wheatear Isabelline Wheatear Great Tit Magpie Eurasian Jackdaw Hooded Crow Ortolan Bunting Cretzschmar's Bunting Corn Bunting European Greenfinch European Goldfinch Common Linnet European Serin (Heard) House Sparrow 80 |  Lesser Kestrel - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved  Tawny Pipit - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved  Little Owl - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved  Eastern Black-eared Wheatear + Common Linnet - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved  Eurasian Hoopoe - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved  Greater Flamingo - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved |
Eurasian Hoopoe with catch - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved
Eastern Black-eared Wheatear - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved
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