Birdwatching in Turkey (1 Viewer)

Im off to Turkey in 33 days to see the Solar Eclipse, Its a good opportunity to explore some European species, however im only familiar with British birds.
Has anyone been birding in Turkey before, around the Manavagat area, any hints/tips on what to expect, also whats the commonest species there that we dont see in the UK.
Briefly looking on the net I seen that Kestrels are pretty common there, im just wondering if anyone has any pics of any birds I have a good chance of seeing, or know of any sites.
Thanks.

Hi Rob,

Last year I spent some nice time in Turkey in the middle of April. My trip report from there has already been uploaded at:

http://birdwatchingbulgaria.com/?page=trip_reports&in=turkey

I think it will be usefull for you to see what could be expected at that time of the year!
Regards,

Ivailo Nikolov


http://www.birdwatchingbulgaria.com

Birding and birdwatching in Bulgaria. Scheduled departures and anytime tours.

I envy you the trip, the birds - and the eclipse!

RobLowton said:

Im off to Turkey in 33 days to see the Solar Eclipse, Its a good opportunity to explore some European species, however im only familiar with British birds.
Has anyone been birding in Turkey before, around the Manavagat area, any hints/tips on what to expect, also whats the commonest species there that we dont see in the UK.
Briefly looking on the net I seen that Kestrels are pretty common there, im just wondering if anyone has any pics of any birds I have a good chance of seeing, or know of any sites.
Thanks.

Click to expand...

Have a great time while you are here in Turkey,hope the PM helped
Bob

Wont it be a bit dark for birding ?

Only for 3 1/2 minutes out of the 48 hours I'll be there lol, actually thats a good point, anyone ever done any research on the effect of Eclipses to birds, I guess they must sing when they think its going night and when the sun appears again, I wonder how confused they really get.
On a intresting note, did you know theres also ground "tides" too, where the moon pulls 1/4 of the Earth towards it, like with water..this raises the ground by some 3 inches, and during the Eclipse I'll be standing right underneath this gravitational "tug" on the Earth.

watcher said:

Hi Rob,

Last year I spent some nice time in Turkey in the middle of April. My trip report from there has already been uploaded at:

http://birdwatchingbulgaria.com/?page=trip_reports&in=turkey

Click to expand...

Thanks for that. I'm off to see the eclipse as well. I just hope we have the same weather as you had for the latter part of your trip.

hollis_f said:

Thanks for that. I'm off to see the eclipse as well. I just hope we have the same weather as you had for the latter part of your trip.

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Well it's been 70f all week so lets hope it stays or gets better,have a great trip

Seen a partial eclipse in Edinburgh around 5 yrs or so ago.
It went very gloomy for a while but that was about it, pretty disapointing really, though it did get all the women out of all the nearby offices for a while
I seem to remember the Blackbirds breaking into song as it got dark though, then the atmosphere all went strange and silent afterwords.

During the total solar eclipse in Bulgaria in 1999 a large team of birders covered different zones in the country (inland and coastal), where partial or total eclipse was expected to take place. We produced a nice paper after that about the behaviour of the birds in all of these zones. However as I had to monitor the birds right in the place with the longest time of total eclipse I had the chance to see some rather interesting things.
When the total eclipse started the temperature fell down with about 10 degrees C. The quick change in the weather conditions caused the appearence of higher waves in the sea... However most of the birds just before the phase with total eclipse realized that something strange is about to happen. Herons started to gather in the reedbeds, gulls, terns and Oystercathers landed on the beach just like they do before sunset... In other words most of the birds prepared themselvse for spending the night in the middle of the day, when the partial eclipse had already started. During the total eclipse they were ready for spending the night..... Sounds curious, but after the total eclipse they were rather confused what is going on... However soon after that they flew away again in the sea or along the shore to search for food. They gathered again before the real sunset, second time in one day.
Anyway rather interesting for all of us to enjoy this phenomenon not just watching the eclipse but also the reaction of birds...

:t: http://www.birdwatchingbulgaria.com
Birdwatching and birding tours in Bulgaria