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May 08th, 2018

8/5/2018

 

Cyprus Bird Watching Tours - BIRD is the WORD Tour - Akrotiri 07/05/2018

Picture
Little Tern - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved
On the 7th I had the pleasure of guiding Antonis, Holly and Wendy around the Akrotiri peninsular. The morning was a little overcast with Black-crowned Night Herons flying in and out of Zakaki Marsh, and many Reed Warblers flitting around the reeds.
We headed for the Salt Lake. Only a few Temminck's Stints were present among the Little Stints before the lake itself, along with 3 Collared Pratincoles. Holly managed to spot a Rufous-tailed Rock thrush sitting in a low shrub which provided excellent lengthy views. 

Picture
Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved
Picture
Rufous-tailed Rock thrush - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved
On the salt lake itself we browsed through the many waders spotting a Ruddy Turnstone in Summer plumage and a Grey Plover in winter plumage, over 5 Curlew Sandpipers and the usuals with Ruff and Little Stint the most abundant. The part melanistic Greater Flamingo was showing well again among the large flock that were displaying, we also spotted a fair sized flock flying in to the salt lake. A few female Pintail were the only waterfowl.
Moving on to lady's mile we was treated to seeing a Grey Plover in summer plumage, a pair of Black-winged Stilts copulating briefly and many Little Tern diving meters from the car with one even presenting a fish to its mate ... though this moment was short lived as a grounded Little Tern nearby was not in the mood for seeing this happen a few meters from him and chased them off. We didn't have many great photo opportunities during this tour aside the Little Terns, Temminck's and Little Stint and Eleonora's Falcon.
​
Picture
Grey Plover - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved
Picture
Little Tern - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved
Bishop's pool held small numbers of birds, many Ferruginous duck were present though which was the target here. We stopped here to have our lunch.
Next destination was the gravel pits where we had good views of Woodchat Shrike, Red-backed Shrike and Winchat.
We stopped at Phassouri which held very little and then ventured to Kensington Cliffs where we had great views of many Eleonora's Falcons and Alpine Swift, though sadly the Griffon Vultures didn't show.
We decided to check the Salt Lake for a second time, driving past bishops pool I spotted a Golden Oriole land in one of the trees, also a few bee-eaters were about now.
We didn't see much else on the Salt Lake aside a Spotted Flycatcher and ended up with 
70 species. ​
Picture
Little Tern Courtship - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved
Species:  
(h) Black Francolin  
Mallard
Northern Pintail
Garganey
Ferruginous Duck
Little Grebe
Greater Flamingo
Glossy Ibis
Black-crowned Night-heron
Squacco Heron
Cattle Egret
Grey Heron
Little Egret
European Shag
Common Kestrel
Eleonora's Falcon
Common Moorhen  
Common Coot
Black-winged Stilt
Grey Plover   
Common Ringed Plover
Little Ringed Plover  
Kentish Plover
Marsh Sandpiper
Common Greenshank
Wood Sandpiper
Ruddy Turnstone
Little Stint   
Temminck's Stint
Curlew Sandpiper  
Ruff
Collared Pratincole
Yellow-legged Gull
​Little Tern

Rock Dove
Common Wood-pigeon  
European Turtle-dove
Eurasian Collared-dove
Alpine Swift
Common Swift
Pallid Swift
European Bee-eater
Red-backed Shrike
Woodchat Shrike
Eurasian Golden Oriole   
Eurasian Magpie    
Eurasian Jackdaw  
Hooded Crow 
Great Tit
Crested Lark 
Barn Swallow 
Common House-martin
Zitting Cisticola 
Cetti's Warbler
Eurasian Reed-warbler
(h) Sedge Warbler
(h) Eastern Olivaceous Warbler
Blackcap
Sardinian Warbler
Spectacled Warbler
Whinchat
Northern Wheatear
Cyprus Wheatear
Rufous-tailed Rock-thrush
Spotted Flycatcher 
House Sparrow
White Wagtail
European Greenfinch
European Goldfinch
Common Linnet

70 species

Comments are closed.
    Mostly all photos are taken with a
    - Canon 7D mkii (older photos with mk1)
    and a
    - Canon 400mm Ef-s USM l f5.6 Lens. 
    - no teleconverter.

    Macro: 
    Tamron sp 90mm f017
    (older: Canon sx50 HS)


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