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September 24th, 2019

24/9/2019

 

Cyprus Bird Watching Tours - BIRD is the WORD - Akrotiri 23/09/2019

Picture
Little Swift - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved
On the 23rd I guided Ian around the Akrotiri Sites.
We started off at Phassouri where we had brief views of Water Rail and good views of Gossy Ibis, Little Egret and Spur-winged Lapwing as well as Black-headed Wagtail. A Honey Buzzard took up on our arrival and a pair of Whiskered and White-winged Tern where flying in the area as well as some snipe and 2 Ruff. We also had good views of a male and female Black Francolin on the marsh. Round the back heading to the gravel pits we had great views of Red-footed Falcon in the trees and on the ground.
The gravel pits was still very much quiet as was last time, we did manage to spot 3 Tawny Pipit on the ground and a Turnstone still feeding around the oasis. 
We then ventured to the Salt Lake. Glossy Ibis, Greater Flamingo and some Spoonbill were on the salt lake as well as long lines of Grey Heron and Sleder-billed Gull. Some of the Slender-billed Gull took up and flew quite close to us. Pallid Swift and various hirundines were flying over and we managed to get on a rare Little Swift here. We only saw around 8 Honey Buzzard here high up and decided it was not the point that the raptors would come down for a drink and so we continued to Bishop's Pool. On the way we saw Crested Lark and Red-backed Shrike plus many Bee-eaters and a small party of Chukar, we didn't check the pools at Ladies Miile as we was tipped off that nothing much was on the water. 
As we approached Bishop's Pool a Honey Buzzard, Eurasian Sparrowhawk and Steppe Buzzard were not too high in a small kettle.
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Steppe Buzzard - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved
Sadly we didn't see any more large raptors at Bishop's Pool though we did get good views of a Blunt-nosed Viper crossing the road close, a Black Francolin meters from the car laying down and also the usuals on the lake. 
Picture
Black Francolin - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved
Next we ventured to the tower hide, having a look on the gravel pits again on the way. Not much was happening at the tower hide and so we headed to kensington cliffs where finally a few Griffon Vultures were on show. We had Eleonora's close on the cliff and many in flight and admired some of our endemic pygmy carlina thistles here and the adult Green turtle still in the bay.
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Green Turtle - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved
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Pygmy Carlina - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved
We stopped here for our food and then headed back to Phassouri to the Bee-hives area in hope of some raptors. Here we got many Red-footed Falcon, a disappointing number of Honey Buzzard for this time of year, a Hobby and also a Black Kite. We finished the day with 68 species.
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Red-footed Falcon - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved
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Black Kite - Cyprus Bird Watching Tours Bird is the Word © Matt Smith All Rights Reserved
Species List:

Chukar Partridge    
Black Francolin    
Mallard    
Northern Shoveler
Garganey   
Little Grebe
Greater Flamingo
Glossy Ibis
Eurasian Spoonbill 
Cattle Egret
Grey Heron
Great Egret
Little Egret
European Shag  
Common Kestrel   
Red-footed Falcon    
Eleonora's Falcon  
Eurasian Hobby
European Honey-buzzard
Black Kite   
Griffon Vulture
Western Marsh Harrier  
Eurasian Sparrowhawk
Steppe Buzzard
Water Rail
Common Moorhen  
Common Coot
Spur-winged Lapwing
Common Snipe 
Eurasian Curlew
Ruff 
Turnstone
Baltic Gull
Slender-billed Gull 
Whiskered Tern
White-winged Tern
Rock Dove 
Common Wood-pigeon   
European Turtle-dove
Eurasian Collared-dove
Pallid Swift   
LITTLE SWIFT   
Common Kingfisher
European Bee-eater   
Eurasian Hoopoe 
Red-backed Shrike 
Eurasian Magpie    
Eurasian Jackdaw   
Hooded Crow
Great Tit
Crested Lark  
Sand Martin
Barn Swallow 
Red-rumped Swallow   
Zitting Cisticola  
Eurasian Reed-warbler
Lesser Whitethroat 
Sardinian Warbler
Northern Wheatear 
Spotted Flycatcher
House Sparrow 
Yellow Wagtail (*Flava)   
Black-headed Wagtail 
Tawny Pipit  
Tree Pipit 
European Greenfinch    
European Goldfinch
68

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    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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