December in Cyprus (1 Viewer)

I'm in the middle of a two week break to Cyprus at the moment. It's my second visit to the island and I saw the endemics on the first, almost 20 years ago. It's a good job I did see them then because they've been notable by their absence this time. The wheatear is in its wintering grounds I suppose, but according to birders I've met there are still plenty of Cyprus warblers around. No sign of black francolin either this time.

However, I have seen some great birds, and three species which are new for me. The first was two stunning male Finsch's wheatears at the ruined village of Finikas on the shore of the Asprokremmos Dam. Fantastic birds, my number one target species for the holiday, they breed in Turkey but a few over winter in Cyprus.

The second new bird was greater sand plover. I saw five of these on the shore near Paphos lighthouse with about 50 golden plover.

Finally, 14 spur winged plover at Paphos sewage works along with 8 cattle egrets. I dipped on these in 1996 so it was particularly pleasing to see them so easily and so well this time.

Other good birds so far include a few hawfinches, woodlarks, chukar and an exceptional view of two Bonelli's eagles.

There's a full write up with lots of photos on my blog here.

One week to go, and plenty more target species to look for yet!

Sounds great Colin. Nice account and lovely photos too!

ColinD said:

... at Paphos sewage works ...

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What an unusual tourist attraction!

We were in Cyprus in October, but saw very few birds - not that it was a birding holiday - but birds were noticeably absent. We were on the outskirts of Limassol but did go up into the mountains and forested areas on trips.

Lovely photos.

Edited to add:

Just read your blog and enjoyed your travelogue and more wonderful photos. Lucky you having such nice friends! Thanks!

The second week of my holiday was no less exciting than the first, with a further five new species for me (possibly four depending on whether you prefer to lump or split!).

On the 12th December we visited the spectacular Avakas Gorge, and at long last I managed to connect with a Wallcreeper, just at the moment when I thought I was never going to see one! Possibly the highlight of the holiday. Also here, a probably long-legged buzzard and an unlikely red-footed falcon (the latter not id'd for sure, it's very late in the year for the species).

The following day we travelled up to Akrotiri to have a look for the striated heron which has been at Zakaki marshes and is a potential first for Europe depending on where you consider Europe to end, and assuming that your happy to split striated heron from green heron! 3 Anyway, on this day it wasn't a problem because I didn't see it anyway. However we did go onto Lady's Mile where I saw my first ever Caspian gull, and then realised that sitting alongside it was my first ever Armenian gull! Two ticks for the price of one!

On the 14th we visited the Troodos mountains but the weather was pretty awful and we had to abandon any plans for a walk, but not before we had at least seen the endemic Cyprus race of coal tit. We also saw lots of Hawfinches in the woodlands, apparently it's been an exceptional year for them in Cyprus, Greece and probably Turkey. Perhaps most interesting though was a chiffchaff which I managed to record calling on my phone. It's call was "peep" rather than the familiar "huweeet" we hear in the UK. After a bit of research and discussions with some leading experts in the field of chiffchaff races, it appears that it is of the race brevirostris. This is particularly interesting because brevirostris had never previously been confirmed from Cyprus, yet I heard it everywhere I went, several times a day, from a variety of altitudes and habitats throughout the holiday! A full account of this is on my blog, where you can also hear the sound recording.

On the 16th I managed to persuade my other half that it was worth going back to Zakaki for a second look for the striated heron. After an initial second failure, we headed back to Lady's Mile for another look at the gulls, and then called in again at Zakaki on our way back. This time we connected, there it was, a tiny little heron sitting on a concrete wall. I could easily have overlooked it on the first visit, it really was tiny.

The last two days were spent locally, walking in the vicinity of Nata village. We said goodbye to the Finsch's wheatears on the 17th and rounded off on the 18th with four hen harriers and yet more hawfinches. The final new bird of the holiday was a red-throated pipit at Paphos sewage works.

A full account is on my blog here, which also includes a discussion about the status of chiffchaff ssp. brevirostris on Cyprus.

ColinD said:

it's been an exceptional year for them in Cyprus, Greece and probably Turkey..

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Here too o

Sounds like a great trip. Cyprus is the only other country I've ever been to but it was in August and I didn't see much except for hooded crows, jays, wheatears and a barn owl.

Congratulations on the lifers :t:

Damn! I've only been once - on a family jaunt in December with a very elderly relative, so no real birding done. When the outstanding birds from a holiday are Kestrel, Woodlark and Kingfisher, you know you've missed a lot. That was also at Paphos. Mind you ,watching Kingfishers hovering over rock pools on the beach was pretty good. Oh well, gives me an excuse to go back ;-)

Congratulations on the Wallcreeper! Cyprus is great during spring migration which is when I went this year........didn't see Wallcreeper though.

Hi Colin

A great report, and account of all the species that you saw on your trip to Cyrus

Well done for the phot of the Wallcreeper - a fantastic bird to see.

We went to Southern Spain a few ago, and saw a Wall Creeper (The title of our bird trip with a Bird Trip arranged by a company) but it too far away for a photo.
We did see it through a scope so that was just as fabulous, and it made our day.

Regards
Kathy
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