14 April. Lithuania - Cyprus.
Groan, a 9.20 pm scheduled flight didn't manage to leave Vilnius till 10 pm. Further delayed by the need to avoid Ukrainian airspace, it was over three-and-a-half hours later that we did a bleary-eyed landing in Larnaca, the car rental place fortunately remaining open. Picked up the car, tootled the few kilometres into Larnaca town, checked into accommodation near 2.30 am.
15 April. Larnaca.
After not very long in bed, rose and drove round to the area south of the Larnaca airport, a fantastic area of mixed habitat - salt lagoon, coastal marshes, agricultural meadows and, top of the lot, the large pools of Larnaca Sewage Treatment Works. Black Francolins calling from scrub all around, a nice male strutting out into the open, Zitting Cisticolas and Crested Larks even more widespread. After a quick look at the salt lagoon (essentially full of Greater Flamingos and Black-winged Stilts), I then sat myself in the hide overlooking the freshwater sewage pools - a very nice place to spend an hour or so, two Ruddy Shelducks and at least 45 Garganey among the many wildfowl present, a good mix of waders picking their way along the margins, Ruff, Wood Sandpipers and Little Stints in the main, but also Spur-winged Lapwings too, perhaps 40 in all, including those on adjacent fields. The undoubted highlights here, however, were two Collared Pratincoles that hawked the pools for most of the time I was present, plus a female Pallid Harrier that cruised through about a half hour after I arrived. Also nice, several Little Terns active, a party of Gull-billed Terns passing through and a dozen or so Glossy Ibises.
Quite happy with that, I then continued to Spiro's Pool a couple of kilometres further - had been a Caspian Plover here some days earlier, but if it was still present, I certainly did not find it. Huge numbers of waders present though, Ruffs and Little Stints in their hundreds, Wood Sandpipers also abundant. Sifted through them, adding Marsh Sandpipers and Kentish Plover to the day tally, plus Ringed Plovers and Little Ringed Plovers, but nothing even remotely similar to a summer-plumaged Caspian Plover! Some compensation in the neighbouring agricultural fields - very impressive indeed, a mixed flock of about 25 Yellow Wagtails and 30 Red-throated Pipits, the former in mixed races and the latter in full summer colours, nice indeed.
Assorted extras this morning included several Marsh Harriers, one Purple Heron, a flushed Quail, four Hoopoes, a Northern Wheatear and two Ortolan Buntings.
It was now midday, fairly hot and full glorious sunshine …time to look for butterflies. My main target in the Larnaca area was Little Tiger Blue, a species that likes arid area and is particularly fond of Zizyphus bushes. Unfortunately, this species is generally a later season specialist and though they can fly in mid-April, 2022 had been an unusually cold winter and chances of it already being on the wing were somewhat low. And that is how it turned out, several hours of walking the margins of Larnaca Salt Lagoon yielded not a single sign of one. Butterfly numbers in total were actually very low, the totals amounted to about 50 Small Whites, one Clouded Yellow, eight Painted Ladies, one Red Admiral, one Common Blue, one Small Copper and, top of the day, two Lesser Fiery Coppers, one Mallow Skipper and one Pigmy Skipper.
In the course of searching for the Little Tiger Blues, some bird action too - one Great Spotted Cuckoo, one male Collared Flycatcher and two Marsh Sandpipers.
Day one over, 73 species of birds, nine species of butterflies.
