Barred Wobbler
Well-known member
Thanks Brendan.
I'm hoping to be back late spring to learn a bit more about the area.
Alan
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Bird watching dalyan Turkey (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter turkeylandman
- Start date
Thanks Brendan.
I'm hoping to be back late spring to learn a bit more about the area.
Alan
turkeylandman
Well-known member
Just to let people know I have finally managed to put directions to Covenli Yalasi . Click on www.dalyanbirding.com, the sites tab ,and drop down to Covenli Yalasi. Don't forget to refresh the page to see the changes!
Brendan
Brendan
An excellent site, thanks Brendan.
My wife and I are visiting Dalyan again in May (not for a birding holiday though, I have assured her
). I shall be making great use of your site and all of the relevant directions as well as referring to the may 2013 trip report - thanks Alan.
My wife and I are visiting Dalyan again in May (not for a birding holiday though, I have assured her
). I shall be making great use of your site and all of the relevant directions as well as referring to the may 2013 trip report - thanks Alan.
Barred Wobbler
Well-known member
Pleased you like the report Alf.
I've made arrangements to be back there again in May, this time a little earlier than last year, maybe to pick up a few migrants.
Looking forward to it, especially the trips into the hills.
Alan
I've made arrangements to be back there again in May, this time a little earlier than last year, maybe to pick up a few migrants.
Looking forward to it, especially the trips into the hills.
Alan
turkeylandman
Well-known member
An excellent site, thanks Brendan.
My wife and I are visiting Dalyan again in May (not for a birding holiday though, I have assured her
Thanks Alf ..glad it can be of help, like Alan I hope everyone can make use of it and report sightings
turkeylandman
Well-known member
new trip report for Feb and April just been posted
http://dalyanbirding.wordpress.com
www.dalyanbirding.com
http://dalyanbirding.wordpress.com
www.dalyanbirding.com
Visiting Dalyan
Hi, I'm visiting Turkey from the U.S. and will be in Dalyan around May 21-24 or thereabouts. I am a birder in the U.S. and hope to do some birding at a few spots during my trip and Dalyan is one of those places I want to visit. I wonder if you can give me any advice on where to go, if there are any trips planned that I could join, should I try to book a tour, where to stay. Anything at all will be appreciated. I also hope to visit Izmir Bird Paradise and hopefully somewhere around Cappadocia like the Sultan Marshes and/or Seyfe Gölü. I had thought of Manyas but it looks like drought has been disastrous there. Just to give you an idea of my overall plans, my trip starts in Cappadocia, then heads to Antalya, Olympos, and Kaş (I hope to do some hiking along parts of the Lycian Way). After Dalyan I want to head to Denizli before going to Izmir and finally to Istanbul.
Thanks so much.
Hi, I'm visiting Turkey from the U.S. and will be in Dalyan around May 21-24 or thereabouts. I am a birder in the U.S. and hope to do some birding at a few spots during my trip and Dalyan is one of those places I want to visit. I wonder if you can give me any advice on where to go, if there are any trips planned that I could join, should I try to book a tour, where to stay. Anything at all will be appreciated. I also hope to visit Izmir Bird Paradise and hopefully somewhere around Cappadocia like the Sultan Marshes and/or Seyfe Gölü. I had thought of Manyas but it looks like drought has been disastrous there. Just to give you an idea of my overall plans, my trip starts in Cappadocia, then heads to Antalya, Olympos, and Kaş (I hope to do some hiking along parts of the Lycian Way). After Dalyan I want to head to Denizli before going to Izmir and finally to Istanbul.
Thanks so much.
Ruby
Well-known member
Hi,
If you go to Brendan's site http://www.dalyanbirding.com/ you will find a section which outlines a number of the favoured sites in and around the Dalyan area - you can print out maps and directions from there...
Good time to go in late May - beautiful scenery, plus butterflies and dragonflies to be seen too, as well as lots of good bird species.
Hope you have a good trip...
Rgds.... Ray
If you go to Brendan's site http://www.dalyanbirding.com/ you will find a section which outlines a number of the favoured sites in and around the Dalyan area - you can print out maps and directions from there...
Good time to go in late May - beautiful scenery, plus butterflies and dragonflies to be seen too, as well as lots of good bird species.
Hope you have a good trip...
Rgds.... Ray
Ruby
Well-known member
This trip report might be of some help to you.... From my very first trip in 2008!
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=115569&highlight=dalyan&page=2
Quite enjoyed reading it again (all these years later - ah, such innocence!) ....Dalyan was such a great place that have been back every year since - not really birding holidays, usual form being for me to get up at first light and have 3hrs birding before meeting up with Mrs R for breakfast at 9-ish.
Haven't been back to Korkuteli since - have instead spent one day each year exploring the hills directly inland from Dalyan... Lovely area - may not have quite such good birds, but a good deal closer!!
Loads of other trip reports on the forum too - including some of my own probably...
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=115569&highlight=dalyan&page=2
Quite enjoyed reading it again (all these years later - ah, such innocence!) ....Dalyan was such a great place that have been back every year since - not really birding holidays, usual form being for me to get up at first light and have 3hrs birding before meeting up with Mrs R for breakfast at 9-ish.
Haven't been back to Korkuteli since - have instead spent one day each year exploring the hills directly inland from Dalyan... Lovely area - may not have quite such good birds, but a good deal closer!!
Loads of other trip reports on the forum too - including some of my own probably...
Thanks very much, Ray. I enjoyed your report and your nice pictures, too. Makes me wish I had a good camera to bring, but only have a point and shoot. But the binocs are good and I am looking forward to this. I have been in touch with Brendan, too.
Also wanted to know if anyone has any local contacts for visiting Izmir Bird Paradise, I'm headed to Izmir sometime around may 27-28. Thanks so much. Tom
Also wanted to know if anyone has any local contacts for visiting Izmir Bird Paradise, I'm headed to Izmir sometime around may 27-28. Thanks so much. Tom
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Barred Wobbler
Well-known member
I'm arriving back in Dalyan tomorrow night for a return trip.
Looking forward to it immensely
Looking forward to it immensely
Barred Wobbler
Well-known member
When the rain eventually stopped today we popped out for a quick look around the locality. There wasn't much to be seen until I pulled up at the Eskikoy outcrop. As I was parking the car I got my eye on a group of sparrows that were making a fuss on the other side of the stream. Then I saw what was panicking them. A ringtail harrier came past at point blank range. I managed to fire off some badly-focused shots in terrible light in the few seconds before it disappeared behind the tree at the corner of the pomegranate orchard and I found that it wasn't the expected Monty, but an adult female pallid harrier.
I drove back along the track past the farms on the opposite side of the t-junction that we passed but I couldn't relocate it.
The sky was looking as if it might finally brighten up by then, so I went back to the outcrop. I walked the ditch behind the car, following a warbler that I couldn't catch up with to identify and I flushed a spotted crake that flew up from the stream and flopped down out of sight behind tall vegetation a few metres away.
There were also good numbers of rufous bushchats singing from various points. A good end to a frustrating day.
I drove back along the track past the farms on the opposite side of the t-junction that we passed but I couldn't relocate it.
The sky was looking as if it might finally brighten up by then, so I went back to the outcrop. I walked the ditch behind the car, following a warbler that I couldn't catch up with to identify and I flushed a spotted crake that flew up from the stream and flopped down out of sight behind tall vegetation a few metres away.
There were also good numbers of rufous bushchats singing from various points. A good end to a frustrating day.
Rob Smallwood
Well-known member
Nice start. Looking forward to next instalment.
Barred Wobbler
Well-known member
The weather was just as dull yesterday, but without the rain. Saturday was cracking.
I had planned on heading for the hills yesterday, but I changed my plans because of the cloud. The weather looks better tomorrow, so I'm planning to go then.
Yesterday managed to pull some stars out of the cloud. I set off North hoping for a Smyrna kingfisher and saw three. Two totally unexpected at Koycegiz and another at Hamitkoy. The last one was an overhead, flying west from Koycegiz town. I saw a bird with a truncated shape flying high as we entered the town on the way home from Kaunos. I thought 'this can't be right', stopped the car, opened the window and as I pointed the bins at the bird I heard the 'dabchick gone wrong' call of the kingfisher as it headed west.
Another nice bird at Koycegiz was very confiding spur-winged plover. We first spotted it on the south side of the bridge on the west side of town, but it vanished when a cyclist rode along the levee. We found it again on the rubbish dump area next to the river mouth. We just sat in the car and it came closer and closer, feeding as it went to within about ten metres.
The first Smyrna kingfisher was in the same place. We were in the car photographing the plover when I looked through the windscreen and saw the kingfisher coming head on. I said something along the lines of 'what the f is this coming' when it turned, giving brilliant views of the turquoise on its wings and the carrot of its nose and then perched all too briefly on a reed stem about 30 yards away. In the second it took me to gather my wits and point the camera it was gone. We'd heard one, or maybe two in the reeds and the woodland about an hour earlier, but this was the first view.
The hamitkoy bird flew up from the opposite side of the river and vanished into trees. It called a couple of times, but then the calls receded and we never saw it again.
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Barred Wobbler
Well-known member
A dark phase Eleonora's falcon gliding around the hill on the north side of Dalyan was the sole highlight of an otherwise drab and damp day today.
Barred Wobbler
Well-known member
Well, that was better!B
The day didn't look much cop at first, with a solid overcast and steady rain, but by 09.50 the rain was easing and the overcast was breaking, so we hit the road.
I was looking at a map on the wall of our digs last night and noticed a few small villages on quiet roads between Ortaca and the coast that didn't appear on my road map, so we set off to see what was there.
Shortly after turning south from Ortaca, with the light still poor and the rain still just tailing off, I spotted three birds that weren't doves and not hooded crows sitting on some wires a few metres into a field, so I stopped to see what they were. Good move.
Three red-footed falcons, two males and a female, drying out after the rain. A good start.
A few km further on, driving slowly along a quiet road with the windows open, I couldn't believe my luck. A river warbler was singing from some undergrowth within feet of me. I stopped and gave it some time, hoping it would appear for the camera. It appeared, but it flicked across a track to some reeds, showing its undertail and looking like it might show well, but in a couple of seconds of climbing the reeds it went back into cover and I never got it in focus. Can't win them all, I suppose. Lifer.
A couple of km further on a roller sat on some roadside wires and let us park close. Just about a couple of hundred metres past that a raptor sitting on a pole in a pomegranate orchard turned out to be a male Montagu's that allowed time for a couple of shots before it went off.
The road led us to Sagrigerme, which didn't produce much, but a pair of steppe buzzards displaying above a cliff were the first of the trip.
I found a track to investigate and followed it for a few km, spotting a group of lesser kestrels hunting over a field on the opposite side of the track from a cliff. We stopped and had our sandwiches while we watched them, but the light was poor and they were a bit distant, so we pressed on. The only bird of note was a masked shrike that perched briefly on a wire, so after a while I turned back to go to look for the lesser kestrels in still-improving conditions.
When I pulled up at the spot there was nothing to be seen at first. Then I spotted three falcons overhead. But they weren't the kestrels. They were three juvenile peregrines, sparring along the cliff top and also perching, while an adult hung overhead before departing. Then six lesser kestrels turned up, so the entertainment really began. The peregrines played overhead, engaging in dog fights, while the lesser kestrels hunted the field opposite. At one point I had the three peregrines perched on a rock, with twelve lesser kestrels hunting the filled and a short-toed eagle hanging overhead. Then just as the short toed eagle had left I got my eye on a falcon drifting by that looked 'wrong'.
A pale phase Eleonora's, in view with three peregrines and twelve lesser kestrels all at the same time, and the sun was getting out.
One of the peregrines flew in with a kill and although I can't be certain, looking at the image on the back of my camera shows what appear to be the yellow legs and white wing patches of a little bittern.
This was just brilliant entertainment and we spent an hour and forty minutes lapping it up before we departed and left the falconfest behind. BB B
The roller was still posing for snaps by the side of the road, by now in full sunlight, but the river warbler had either departed or was saving its voice for the evening performance.
What a cracking day this turned out to be.
Tonight I will be mostly drinking raki.B
The day didn't look much cop at first, with a solid overcast and steady rain, but by 09.50 the rain was easing and the overcast was breaking, so we hit the road.
I was looking at a map on the wall of our digs last night and noticed a few small villages on quiet roads between Ortaca and the coast that didn't appear on my road map, so we set off to see what was there.
Shortly after turning south from Ortaca, with the light still poor and the rain still just tailing off, I spotted three birds that weren't doves and not hooded crows sitting on some wires a few metres into a field, so I stopped to see what they were. Good move.
Three red-footed falcons, two males and a female, drying out after the rain. A good start.
A few km further on, driving slowly along a quiet road with the windows open, I couldn't believe my luck. A river warbler was singing from some undergrowth within feet of me. I stopped and gave it some time, hoping it would appear for the camera. It appeared, but it flicked across a track to some reeds, showing its undertail and looking like it might show well, but in a couple of seconds of climbing the reeds it went back into cover and I never got it in focus. Can't win them all, I suppose. Lifer.
A couple of km further on a roller sat on some roadside wires and let us park close. Just about a couple of hundred metres past that a raptor sitting on a pole in a pomegranate orchard turned out to be a male Montagu's that allowed time for a couple of shots before it went off.
The road led us to Sagrigerme, which didn't produce much, but a pair of steppe buzzards displaying above a cliff were the first of the trip.
I found a track to investigate and followed it for a few km, spotting a group of lesser kestrels hunting over a field on the opposite side of the track from a cliff. We stopped and had our sandwiches while we watched them, but the light was poor and they were a bit distant, so we pressed on. The only bird of note was a masked shrike that perched briefly on a wire, so after a while I turned back to go to look for the lesser kestrels in still-improving conditions.
When I pulled up at the spot there was nothing to be seen at first. Then I spotted three falcons overhead. But they weren't the kestrels. They were three juvenile peregrines, sparring along the cliff top and also perching, while an adult hung overhead before departing. Then six lesser kestrels turned up, so the entertainment really began. The peregrines played overhead, engaging in dog fights, while the lesser kestrels hunted the field opposite. At one point I had the three peregrines perched on a rock, with twelve lesser kestrels hunting the filled and a short-toed eagle hanging overhead. Then just as the short toed eagle had left I got my eye on a falcon drifting by that looked 'wrong'.
A pale phase Eleonora's, in view with three peregrines and twelve lesser kestrels all at the same time, and the sun was getting out.
One of the peregrines flew in with a kill and although I can't be certain, looking at the image on the back of my camera shows what appear to be the yellow legs and white wing patches of a little bittern.
This was just brilliant entertainment and we spent an hour and forty minutes lapping it up before we departed and left the falconfest behind. B
B B The roller was still posing for snaps by the side of the road, by now in full sunlight, but the river warbler had either departed or was saving its voice for the evening performance.
What a cracking day this turned out to be.
Tonight I will be mostly drinking raki.B
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Rob Smallwood
Well-known member
Were the Lesser's near a hill with some wooden/metal masts/pylons? We had some probables there a few year's ago but couldn't get good enough views to clinch id.
Ruby
Well-known member
Sounds like a great day....
I wouldn't mind some more info on this area.... If it's where I think it is, we drove around it on our last trip out, but got there via a side road off the main road to Iztuzu - just as you start to climb up and over the hill, with a sign advertising (I think!) off-road jeep-safaris...
Anyway.... If you follow that road you come out onto a flatter area of mainly agricultural land, criss-crossed by numerous small roads and tracks - one of which eventually leads out to Ortaca, others to the D400 towards Dalaman...
It's a bit of a maze, and we only spent a couple of hrs there, just kinda following our noses... Quite good for shrikes as I recall, but of course, we wouldn't have been there until very late May/early June, by which time many migratory species would have been and gone...
Wouldn't mind another look when we go out in 2 weeks, but would appreciate knowing if we are talking about the same place...
All the best.... Ray
I wouldn't mind some more info on this area.... If it's where I think it is, we drove around it on our last trip out, but got there via a side road off the main road to Iztuzu - just as you start to climb up and over the hill, with a sign advertising (I think!) off-road jeep-safaris...
Anyway.... If you follow that road you come out onto a flatter area of mainly agricultural land, criss-crossed by numerous small roads and tracks - one of which eventually leads out to Ortaca, others to the D400 towards Dalaman...
It's a bit of a maze, and we only spent a couple of hrs there, just kinda following our noses... Quite good for shrikes as I recall, but of course, we wouldn't have been there until very late May/early June, by which time many migratory species would have been and gone...
Wouldn't mind another look when we go out in 2 weeks, but would appreciate knowing if we are talking about the same place...
All the best.... Ray
Barred Wobbler
Well-known member
It sounds like the same area Ray.
We went out via Ortaca and turned south just after joining the D400. That's where I spotted the red-footed falcons. The whole area had a birdy feel to it.
I just went out for a bit of a recce and I never dreamt it would turn out the way it did.
We got back to Dalyan by heading west through a village called Mengenli and it brought us out on the Iztuzu road at Gokbel. The river warbler was on the outskirts of a place called Ovacik.
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Barred Wobbler
Well-known member
I don't recall anything like that. They were hunting over a field sandwiched between a track and some marshland adjacent to the dalaman river. There were some blokes heading off towards the marsh with a fishing rod, so it must be extensive as a water body.
The track ran towards dalaman along the route of the river.
