March 24th, 2021

24/3/2021

Cyprus Bird Watching Tours - 12 Day tour with (alias) Aladdin 07/03/2021

From the 7th of March I guided Aladdin island wide on a 12 day tour. I had previously given Aladdin a 4 day tour back in 2018.
We had scheduled to do a day in the North of Cyprus but unfortunately the border crossing was closed and also we cancelled the day in Nicosia in favour of repeat visiting a few sites.
Some of the highlights of this tour included 2 Great Crested Grebes in full breeding plumage, a species that only recently started nesting again in Cyprus a few years ago in the famagusta area at Achna Dam. Greater Flamingo still engaging in their courtship dance at Larnaca Salt Lake. Red-crested Pochard, a species only found at one site in the republic of Cyprus, a single nesting pair. A Little Bittern calling at the Phassouri Tower hide, a bird that surely must have over-wintered. 2 Pallid Harriers, one at Timi and another at Kensington Cliffs, both female. A Greater Sand Plover at Mandria pretty much in full breeding plumage.

A Cream-coloured Courser was probably the best find of the tour located on the last day in Larnaca.

We also managed to see one of the rarest breeding birds in Cyprus, a Common Raven (The first I had seen in the Republic) which are listed as critically endangered in Cyprus with only a few nesting pairs, none of which in the republic, this was spotted by Aladdin on the Akamas peninsular near Fontana Amarosa of which we had a very good day at a site very rarely birded, with great numbers of migrant warblers in nearby bushes.

All the endemics posed nice and close for us, although the Cyprus Wheatears newly arrived were a little bit tricky to get close to. Many Cyprus Warblers showed close and also at a day roost we had great close photo opportunities with a Cyprus Scops Owl and hearing two others at different sites.

An Ehrenberg's Redstart was a great find at Cape Greco along with an early Masked Shrike and lastly one of the two bluethroats we saw was singing meters from the car for over 10 minutes.

Probably one of the most memorable moments of the tour for me was spotting a traumatized Cetti's Warbler on the main road at Oroklini, stopping to pick it up, check over and successful release at a quiet area of the lake.

An amazing tour with great company managing 148 species and good numbers of each.
There was a few species we just couldn't manage though; Pallid Swift, Stone Curlew and Sandwich Tern seemed to evade us, all being fairly common species. We also missed out on the Griffon Vultures despite visiting one of their nesting sites twice. We tried twitching a female Hooded Wheatear of which we was at the site 5 minutes after I was alerted to its presence but unfortunately it had left. So 148 out of a possible 163 reported.

Species List: (many numbers are estimated)
Chukar Partridge 30+
Black Francolin 7+
Common Quail 2h
Common Shelduck 20+
Ruddy Shelduck 1
Mallard 50+
Northern Shoveler 200+
Northern Pintail 2
Garganey 400+
Common Teal 100+
Ferruginous Duck 7
Red-crested Pochard 2
Little Grebe 10+
Great Crested Grebe 2
Greater Flamingo 10,000+
Glossy Ibis 4
Little Bittern 1h
Cattle Egret 50+
Grey Heron 30+
Great Egret 4
Little Egret 10+
Great Cormorant 200+
European Shag 10
Common Kestrel 20+
Peregrine Falcon 1
Western Marsh Harrier 10+
Hen Harrier 2
Pallid Harrier 2
Eurasian Sparrowhawk 2
Northern Goshawk 1h
Common Buzzard 3
Long-legged Buzzard 6
Bonelli's Eagle 1
Water Rail h
Common Moorhen 30+
Common Coot 300+
Black-winged Stilt 20+
Pied Avocet 1
Spur-winged Lapwing 20+
Eurasian Golden Plover 5
Grey Plover 4
Common Ringed Plover
Little Ringed Plover 10+
Kentish Plover 20+
Greater Sand Plover 1
Common Snipe 20+
Black-tailed Godwit 5
Spotted Redshank 1
Common Redshank 20+
Marsh Sandpiper 1
Common Greenshank 1
Green Sandpiper 4
Wood Sandpiper 1
Common Sandpiper 1
Little Stint 20+
Dunlin 1
Ruff 50+
Cream-coloured Courser 1
Heuglin's (Siberian) Gull 1
Armenian Gull 8
Yellow-legged Gull 100+
Caspian Gull 1
Baltic Gull 1
Black-headed Gull 1000
Slender-billed Gull 50+
Mediterranean Gull 1
Rock Dove 4
Common Wood-pigeon 1000+
Eurasian Collared-dove 15+
Laughing Dove 9
Great Spotted Cuckoo 5
Cyprus Scops Owl 3 (2h)
Little Owl 4 (3h)
Alpine Swift 30+
Common Swift 30+

Common Kingfisher 1
Eurasian Hoopoe 30+
Eurasian Wryneck 1
Woodchat Shrike 1
Masked Shrike 1
Eurasian Jay 2
Eurasian Magpie 10+
Eurasian Jackdaw 1000+
Hooded Crow 30+
Common Raven 1
Coal Tit 10+
Great Tit 6
Eurasian Penduline tit 2h
Greater Short-toed Lark 8
Crested Lark
Wood Lark 2
Eurasian Skylark 10+
Sand Martin 6
Eurasian Crag-martin 1
Barn Swallow 50+
Red-rumped Swallow 20+
Common House-martin 10+
Zitting Cisticola 5
Cetti's Warbler 10+
Sedge Warbler 3 (2h)
Eurasian Reed-warbler 1
Common Chiffchaff 10+
Eastern Bonelli's Warbler 4
Blackcap 2
Lesser Whitethroat 7 (5h)
Eastern Orphean Warbler 2
Rueppell's Warbler 15+
Sardinian Warbler 10+
Cyprus Warbler 6
Eastern Subalpine Warbler 10+
Spectacled Warbler 6
Eurasian Wren 3
Dorothy's (Short-toed) Treecreeper 7 (6h)
Common Starling 16
Eurasian Blackbird 3
Song Thrush 7
European Robin 2
Common Nightingale 2h
Bluethroat 2
Western Black Redstart 11
Common Redstart 1 +(Ehrenberg's Redstart 1)
Common Stonechat 40+
Northern Wheatear 20+
Finsch's Wheatear 1
Eastern Black-eared Wheatear 11
Cyprus Wheatear 5
Isabelline Wheatear 30+
Blue Rock-thrush 3
House Sparrow 30+
Spanish Sparrow 200+
White Wagtail 50+
Yellow Wagtail (*Flava, *Superciliaris, *Dombrowskii)
Black-headed Wagtail 100+
Grey Wagtail 1
Tawny Pipit 6
Tree Pipit 2
Meadow Pipit 50+
Red-throated Pipit h
Water Pipit (*Caucasian Water Pipit) 7
Common Chaffinch 20+
European Serin 200+
European Greenfinch 10+
Eurasian Siskin 5
European Goldfinch 20+
Common Linnet 100+
Red Crossbill 3
Corn Bunting 50+
Cretzschmar's Bunting 30+
148

March 24th, 2021

Cyprus Bird Watching Tours - 12 Day tour with (alias) Aladdin 07/03/2021

Bird is the Word

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