Cyprus Bird Watching Tours - BIRD is the WORD Tour - Troodos 11/05/2018
Eastern Olivaceous Warbler - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved
On the 11th I had the pleasure of guiding John and Lesley around the Troodos sites. Lesley was quite keen on botany also, so I made sure we saw some good species and many endemics on the way. We started the day on the outskirts to find some Black-headed Bunting. We found some fairly quickly with many in song and providing some fantastic views of this colourful specialty. Corn bunting could be heard around the vineyards, some Common Linnets landed close to the car at one point but views were very brief. Not far away we found a singing male Cretzschmar's Bunting on territory providing great lengthy scoped views.
A pair of Masked Shrike evicted a Jay from a pine tree right next to where we parked the car which was incredible to see. The masked Shrikes provided some impressive views. A Hoopoe flew into a small valley though we couldn't find it on the ground, or a Nightjar that was churring very close to us. Quite a few red-rumped Swallow flew over here with nests in the area.
We then headed to the Troodos Square stopping at platres on the way for Grey Wagtail and to an area that usually has a good number of Short-toed Treecreepers. Sure enough I heard some and managed to track them down, providing pretty decent and lengthy views.
A Pair of Jays were foraging on the ground not far from where we was standing though they flew off the second they noticed us. A Woodlark was singing but we was unable to find him, though later on the way back we saw him in flight, though he was quite high up in display.
Many Swifts were shooting around collecting recent emerging orange flying insects. Many Pallid swifts were showing today with decent sized groups of them moving among the Common Swift and coming down low, even head height at times. I heard an Eastern Olivaceous Warbler singing
in a bush next to where I parked the car, some brief phishing got him sitting on the top of the bush showing incredibly well for around 20 seconds.
A pair of Masked Shrike evicted a Jay from a pine tree right next to where we parked the car which was incredible to see. The masked Shrikes provided some impressive views. A Hoopoe flew into a small valley though we couldn't find it on the ground, or a Nightjar that was churring very close to us. Quite a few red-rumped Swallow flew over here with nests in the area.
We then headed to the Troodos Square stopping at platres on the way for Grey Wagtail and to an area that usually has a good number of Short-toed Treecreepers. Sure enough I heard some and managed to track them down, providing pretty decent and lengthy views.
A Pair of Jays were foraging on the ground not far from where we was standing though they flew off the second they noticed us. A Woodlark was singing but we was unable to find him, though later on the way back we saw him in flight, though he was quite high up in display.
Many Swifts were shooting around collecting recent emerging orange flying insects. Many Pallid swifts were showing today with decent sized groups of them moving among the Common Swift and coming down low, even head height at times. I heard an Eastern Olivaceous Warbler singing
in a bush next to where I parked the car, some brief phishing got him sitting on the top of the bush showing incredibly well for around 20 seconds.
 Pallid Swift - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved |  Eurasian Jay - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved |
Short-toed Treecreeper - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved
Next stop was Livadi tou Passia where sadly the Crossbill were not showing, we even came back to this site later to eat our lunch in hope they would show, but they didn't. We also saw a Hoopoe in flight here quite close, but it vanished among the dense woodland.
Our next site was giant junipers where a flock of around 30 European Bee-eaters were resting in the pines and also hunting the flying insects. This is not a species I expected to see that day and was a bit of a treat. There didn't seem to be much here, we did get some more great views of masked shrike, I noticed a male catch a bug and not eat it, and then flew to a tree and then out. On further inspection it was actually a nest with a female inside, though we kept our distance and scoped them, not observing for long so as not to disturb them at this very sensitive period. I did take a photo from distance but do not wish to encourage people photographing nests, it is something I am strongly against.
On the way out we heard a Turtle Dove calling.
Our next site was giant junipers where a flock of around 30 European Bee-eaters were resting in the pines and also hunting the flying insects. This is not a species I expected to see that day and was a bit of a treat. There didn't seem to be much here, we did get some more great views of masked shrike, I noticed a male catch a bug and not eat it, and then flew to a tree and then out. On further inspection it was actually a nest with a female inside, though we kept our distance and scoped them, not observing for long so as not to disturb them at this very sensitive period. I did take a photo from distance but do not wish to encourage people photographing nests, it is something I am strongly against.
On the way out we heard a Turtle Dove calling.
Masked Shrike Nest - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved
Troodos Chamomile - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved
The next site was the Botanical Garden. On entry we saw a female blue rock thrush calling out constantly from a rock, and from the return calls we located the male. An obvious breeding pair who were successful last year. We managed very good views of both male and female, and managed good photo opportunities of the male. A few crag martin flew down to the river quite a few times. In the botanical garden we had incredibly close views of a Jay on the ground, Serin were darting around and another surprise bird was a Cyprus Warbler singing in the top of a pine tree, though the pine was outside the botanical garden on a lower height, so the bird was near enough eye level with us. A great way to wrap up a good day birding in the mountains managing 41 species, which is a good count for the mountains this close to summer.
*Note we did also visit Prodromos dam for flora and in desperation for the Crossbill
*Note we did also visit Prodromos dam for flora and in desperation for the Crossbill
 Blue Rock thrush - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved  Blue Rock Thrush - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved |  Violet Limodorum - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved |
| Species: Cretzschmar's Bunting Black-headed Bunting (h) Corn Bunting Spotted Flycatcher Common Linnet European Serin European Goldfinch European Greenfinch European Chaffinch Masked Shrike Eurasian Jay (G.g.glaszneri) Hooded Crow Eurasian Magpie Blackbird Red-rumped Swallow House Martin Crag Martin Barn Swallow Common Swift Pallid Swift European Nightjar Common Kestrel House Sparrow Sardinian Warbler Cyprus Warbler Eastern Olivaceous Warbler Eurasian Wren (T.t.cypriotes) Great Tit (P.m.aphrodite) Coal Tit (P.a.cypriotes) Eurasian Hoopoe Grey Wagtail Cyprus Wheatear (h) Common Nightingale Woodlark Dorothy's Short-toed Treecreeper (C.b.dorotheae) European Turtle Dove (h) Common Cuckoo European Bee-eater Blue Rock Thrush 41 | Flora and Fauna: Cynoglossum montanum subsp. extraeuropaeum Poppy of Troy Strawberry Tree Rose Acacia (invasive) Black Locust (invasive) Sequoyah Tree (introduced) Platanthera holmboei Limodorum abortivum Red Valerian Paeonia mascula Aphrodite's Spurge Anchusa azurea Viola alba Vicia tennifolia subsp. dalmatica Orobanche cypria Cyprus Cedar Allium exaltatum Ornithogalum chionophilum Scorzonera troodea Meklei's Poppy Troodos Chamomile Cynoglossum troodi Alyssum Troodi California Poppy (introduced/invasive) Centaurea aegialophila Scutellaria cypria Rock Rose Tassle hyacinth Silene Vulgaris Shaggy Ink Cap (fungi) Cyprus Water Frog Sling-tailed Agama Troodos Lizard Clouded Yellow Bath White Large White Small White Red Admiral |
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