22/5/11 Istanbul (Camlica - Kadikoy)
256. Pallid Swift 3
257. Caspian Gull 2
The bus to Istanbul dropped me off sometime after midnight. A free minibus then dropped me at a bridge somewhere that I was assured was the nearest point to the famous raptor viewpoint that is Camlica. The guy sat next to me on the bus had said it was beautiful. I wouldn't go that far. Spurning the taxi, I then walked all the way to the top of the hill, considerably further at that hour than I would have liked if I'd been thinking straight. Kipped in the bushes, disturbed momentarily in the night by a hedgehog having trouble with my rucksack straps two feet from my head, to wake properly at half seven and the sound of voices. Lots of voices. Half seven and the place was already heaving! It was a sunday, which explained the myriads of people, young men in suits, families, extended and otherwise, but it didn't explain the early hour. Obviously the concept of the 'lay-in' isn't a part of the turkish national consciousness. Anyway, I tried to bird it. Blackcap, Turtle Dove and Eastern Olly the highlights in the quieter corners. I was hoping for some raptor passage but not a glimmer. The swifts were a surprise bonus early on, along with an Alexandrine Parakeet obviously on an important mission to another part of the city.
Lunchtime came and went mostly uneventfully. Walked back down the hill and to the area of Kadikoy, down by the river by the ferries that I had originally birded nearly 3 weeks earlier. Quiet. Found a hotel to dump my stuff and spend the last night for 30TL (£12 or so, most expensive so far, but cheapest in the area, and they weren't haggling), off out and belatedly discovered one of the most important facts of the trip; ice lollies are really cheap. Vanilla ... Pineappple ... and a Chocolate one. Half a turkish lira ... 0.75TL, 0.5TL. Still less than £1 combined. Along with the cheap kebab meal deals one of the bargains of the trip. I had hoped for Olive-tree Warbler in this, the final leg of the trip. Described as 'surprisingly elusive' in green areas in and around the city I had no hope really, considering I was finding those self-same green areas surprisingly elusive themseves; I'd identified a few good looking areas from Camlica, but could I locate them on the ground? So I took the ferry back to Europe and back instead. Two Caspian Gulls in particular standing out from the hundreds of Yellow-legged Gulls present on the breakwater, although there could have been more. Back in my hotel room and listening to the cheers greeting what were presumably the successes of the 'local' footie team Fenerbahca from the streets down below, I became aware of a strangely familiar twittering call emanating from outside the fourth floor window. Pulling the curtains back; Alpine Swifts on their late evening sorties. Ten or so in the immediate area, another twenty or more over the distant railway station. The baleful eye of a sitting Yellow-legged Gull on its chimney-top nest coldly regarding me from fifteen feet away, and yes indeed, almost the final curtain call of the city which has it all, the distant strings of Yelkouan Shearwaters moving out on the waters beyond.