Shearwaters from Istanbul Ferries (1 Viewer)

I'm going to be stopping in Istanbul for one night on my way back from my tour in the Caucasus. I only have one target bird there: Yelkouan Shearwater.

Most of the reports I've read talk about taking the boat tour up to the Black Sea and back. Is that really necessary or can you see them well from the regular ferries from Karakoy/Eminonu to the Asian side?

FWIW, I won't have a scope so looking for them from shore is not desirable.

TIA,

Jeff

Yes IMO. In May 2011 took the ferry back and across for good/great views. Cheap (was 1.75TL each way, but stayed on for the return crossing so only charged once). Didn't use scope, but viewable more distantly from the shoreline/promenade too - views with bins good enough for id at least.

There were lots of strings of birds moving through the channel, views when close at hand could be brief as the ferry moved on perpendicular to them, but plenty of them.

(Keep an eye out for Caspian Gulls on the seawall too amongst the other species - although probably not as exciting.)

Thanks, Dan. I suspected the regular ferries would be workable, but just wanted to confirm.

JH

Not sure it would even be necessary to take a ferry.

I've seen them very close to land (albeit from a boat I was working on) whilst passing through. See this link for further details.

There is also a monitoring project going on where they do land-based counts:

http://yelkouanshearwater.org/en/volunteer/

FYI, I took the Eminonu-Kadikoy ferry (return) yesterday morning and had a handful of Yelkouan shearwaters. I then took the afternoon loop tour at 14:30 for fun and had hundreds of them including some close views.

FWIW, I had them in both Europe and Asia! :king:

Thanks, all.

JH