Brown Fish-Owl above Adana (1 Viewer)

[opisska]

We are going next week to SE Turkey and one of the obvious targets there is the owl. A friend of ours has identified the Berdan Cayi valley near Camliyayla (yes, I know that I am botching the names by not doing the diacritics, but I am lazy to figure it out) as a good area. Is there any more info on those, or is it a closely guarded secret? Thanks!

 

[opisska]

Well, I answer myself - at Kadıncık Barajı there is an old man with a picture of a juvenile BFO on his cellphone, from 2019.

 

[wolfbirder]

There is so little info out there about BFO other than the usual site at Oymapinar Baraj not far from Side.
I've never seen much literature other than that they are thought to exist in other similar sites.
Very secretive and not common at all.

 

[opisska]

Our Slovak colleagues have spend a week looking for them near Side, but they see to be gone due to the recent forest fires.

 

[Diedert]

We spent two nights near Mersin, at a sort-off hydrodam. There is an overgrown, out-of-use, nest which is now abandoned, where we were supposed to see it. Since it was no longer in use, we searched the surroundings and waited for two nights for the owls to become active. Supposedly, according to the guide, the owls were breeding somewhere in the canyon. Apart from one very vague sighting for 10 seconds, we didn't see anything.
After this, we flew from Adana to Antalya to try the site near Side, but we spent two nights here from 2030-0330 and didn't see anything. Some friends of mine were quite succesfull here in end of April, so mid/late May seems also a very bad time for the Owls. Especially since our guide said he went there 10 times and saw the owl on all occassions; he almost guaranteed it. However, now we were the anomaly and missed it both times (0/4, 0/2 at Side). Our guide told us to come back in late June, when the chicks are there. He would also give us a very special price, so at least we got that.

There is much vagueness surrounding the information about the owls. Both guides said different things about how they behave, where they will sit and go, what they will eat etc. I think much is just still quite unknown...

The classic place, Green Canyon, where they would organise boat tours is not available this year. One thing was mentioned was that the water level dropped and the other thing is that due to covid, the boat tours stopped and now the owls have resorted back into a 'human-fearing' routine and are no longer easily found (not active during daytime anymore). They expect that with covid now on hold, the touristic boat tours will resume and the owls will become used to human presence again. We'll have to wait and see.

Edit: Ah, I see Jan is staking out at the place we visited twice as well last week, with the abandoned nest just across in the mountainside. Good luck, Jan, hopefully you are successful there!

 

[opisska]

There was a sighting on observation.org from the dam (Kadıncık Barajı) about a week ago. It was briefly public, so we know it was exactly the same spot, now it's obscured again (I still don't understand what is this supposed to protect two owls from, nobody is physically getting anywhere close to them anyway). So we spent the last night there, mostly just looking through thermal scope across the water, occasionally walking/driving out to explore other areas, but nothing was found.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Sorry you guys are struggling. I am sure that you will have seen this but added any way:-

https://twitter.com/x/status/1525772698512773121

Brown Fish owls Turkey

Brown fish owls. Brown Fish owls are considered to be extinct in the world, but in recent years there has been an increase in the number of fish owls in the Manavgat region. Boat tour to watch Brown fish owl in Oymapınar Green Canyon dam lake.

vigotours.com

Good luck

Paul

 

[opisska]

I'd been at night to some mountain rivers, just probably not the right ones ...

 

[Diedert]

There was a sighting on observation.org from the dam (Kadıncık Barajı) about a week ago. It was briefly public, so we know it was exactly the same spot, now it's obscured again (I still don't understand what is this supposed to protect two owls from, nobody is physically getting anywhere close to them anyway). So we spent the last night there, mostly just looking through thermal scope across the water, occasionally walking/driving out to explore other areas, but nothing was found.

Hi Jan,
This is the sighting I talk about. It was one of my crew members that recorded it on observation.org. I don't tick that sighting, he (most likely) does. I think the place we were is off-limits without a guard; it is on the actual dam. They supposedly breed down the canyon beyond the dam which you probably won't be able to see. They have been seen feeding in the artificial lights near that dam by the security guards, so they say.

@Paul, thanks... But, as I said, I think we were just at the worst time of the year for them.

 

[opisska]

That's interesting to hear! Anyway, this is an annoying area with all the hydroenergetics. I think we'll come back another year at a time they are calling and will just look for some more sites that way.

 

[Diedert]

That's interesting to hear! Anyway, this is an annoying area with all the hydroenergetics. I think we'll come back another year at a time they are calling and will just look for some more sites that way.

I'd say Side and the Green Canyon sites are the best bet. The best time is end June when they have chicks. You can come back when they are calling, but the sound usually only carries like 100 meters or so, it's fairly inaudible. They also don't respond to tape, the buggers... When they have flegded chicks is the best time cause you'll be dealing with 3/5 Owls and now probably only 1 maximum (one brooding the small naked chicks), only the male outside the nest.
The guide at Side will get in touch with me when they are 'twitchable' again, since he was very upset we didn't see them, he'll probably take us again for free. At least there is that.

 

[opisska]

I have just come back from Turkey, where we spent there nights (~20 hours total) turning the 13-km road-accessible stretch of the Manavgat river valley around Üzümdere upside down, still with no owls. We even met a guided group - while the guide was obviously keen for the guests to avoid any contact with us, one of the birders defied him and chatted us up a bit - he was quite surprised to hear we were there independently, because he thought that it's not possible to find the sites without the tour agency, but they are simply posted on observation.org. But I am not sure it's possible to find the owl (no idea if they saw it, but they did not come back for the next night).

Nevertheless, it's one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to, with sycamore trees lining the emerald clear karstic waters just starting to put on leaves.

 

[Benedict Macdonald]

I have just come back from Turkey, where we spent there nights (~20 hours total) turning the 13-km road-accessible stretch of the Manavgat river valley around Üzümdere upside down, still with no owls. We even met a guided group - while the guide was obviously keen for the guests to avoid any contact with us, one of the birders defied him and chatted us up a bit - he was quite surprised to hear we were there independently, because he thought that it's not possible to find the sites without the tour agency, but they are simply posted on observation.org. But I am not sure it's possible to find the owl (no idea if they saw it, but they did not come back for the next night).

Nevertheless, it's one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to, with sycamore trees lining the emerald clear karstic waters just starting to put on leaves.

It's commendable the efforts put in and I am sorry you did not succeed. I was very fortunate to see one male near the fish farm here in early September, but the following week, birders came for 4 nights with no luck. This is an incredibly difficult species, made worse by a very bad ecotourism operation that doesn't properly pin down breeding areas or have the latest info - you can get lucky but there is no plan. Please feel free to DM me to share info.