March - Home and Away Birding Cyprus Part 2

Day 5

Most of those interested in the birds were up early and out to walk the area around the hotel before breakfast.  As  I exited our building almost immediately I heard the distinctive call of a Black Fracolin, a species that we last saw in India many years ago and it didn't seem to be that far away.  When all were gathered we headed off on our walk and as we walked the sound of the francolin sounded closer and a few hundred meters up the road there was a gap in the hedge line to give access to a small field of barley.  Across the field was the Black Francolin sitting on top of some dead looking hedge and it was calling away stating its territory and it was being answered by another further along the coast somewhere. 

Black Francolin - Aphrodite Beach Road  Nick Hull

We took this walk every morning of our stay and the francolin was in the same place every morning. Though Sardinian Warbler was certainly one of the commonest species we saw on the holiday but I had very few chances to get any shots of one but one morning at the end of the hotel drive I manged to get one or two shots of one singing.

Sardinian Warbler - Aphrodite Beach  Nick Hull

On this walk on the first morning we had a bird fly up of the small valley that led down to the beach coastal path, it flew passed us up the valley and into a small citrus orchard and just disappeared. There was several suggestion on what it might have been ie bird of prey, a small Bittern/heron species or perhaps a Nightjar or female Black Francolin but none of us had a long enough view to get any feature pointers to what it was. We saw the bird on two mornings then not again. We never managed to get a real handle on the bird but my best bet would be that it was a female Black Francolin which had come down to the spring to drink it would explain the rufous brown upperparts and the black I saw on the tail and the fingered primaries, but it was one of those birds you get on occasion that gets away.

After our morning walk it was back to the hotel for our buffet style breakfast, then out on the bus to our first location of the day at Peristerona Pafos, a location in the foothills of the Troodos Mountains.  This was a view point overlooking a gorge where it was hoped we might see Bonelli's Eagle but unfortunately they didn't show.   However, we had good views of a pair of Long-legged Buzzard and our first Cyprus Wheatear singing it's very buzzy insect like song.  Though it was along way off I did take a couple of shots for memories sake.

Cyprus Wheatear - © Nick Hull

I also took a memory shot of the Long-legged Buzzard which was half a mile away or more.

Long-legged Buzzard © Nick Hull

Just to give you an idea of how far away this bird was here is the full size shot that I took. You can try and find the buzzard.

There is a Long-legged Buzzard in this shot. © Nick Hull

After some time we left and continued up into the mountain range to Stavros Tis Psokas here we had a break for a picnic lunch whilst we watched the Cyprus Coal Tit and Jay moving around in the forest. We had seen them earlier but only briefly. Unfortunately I didn't get a shot of one so this photo is from Birdlife Cyprus.

Cyprus Coal Tit © Birdlife Cyprus

We also saw the Cyprus subspecies of our Jay which looks similar to ours though perhaps a little darker in colour and lacked the whitish streaky forehead and crown which shows on our Eurasian Jay.

Just down from our lunch site was a fenced reserve where they bred Mouflon for release into the mountains, which has been successful but they still keep a small number in case the population declines again.

Ram Mouflon - Stavros Tis Psokas © Nick Hull

Day 6

Morning walk then breakfast as usual and then it was off to Bath of Aphrodite Tropical garden not far down the road.  The weather was now warmed up nicely with blue skies.  As with all the walks it was split between botany and birds though reptiles and butterflies were also seen and identified if we could.

Almost the first birds seen here were two Raven that moved along the ridge of the mountain 'cronking'
as they went.  Not long after, when the group was looking at some flowers, I was scanning along the ridge and through the gap between two of the peaks came a really mature male Hen Harrier which circled for height and drifted north along the ridge.  At Aphrodites Bath a natural spring runs into a rock pool here we found what was probably the nearest anyone can get to genuine Rock Dove with four that looked very good to the original species.  Jane our leader said that they still have a few areas scattered around the island that is said to be genuine birds though they were getting fewer every year.

Rock Dove - Bath of Aphrodite © Nick Hull

We had two male Cyprus Wheatear further along the coastal path but neither were close enough to get a better shot unlike this Serin which sang from the top of a tree on our return route to the bus.

Serin - Bath of Aphrodites Tropical Garden © Nick Hull

We also saw two lizards here one we had seen before the Cyprus Rock Agama the other was a similar to Wall Lizard we find here in Dorset but this species is endemic to Cyprus.

Troodos Rock or Wall Lizard - Aphrodites Tropical Garden © Nick Hull

Though we had seen Paphos Blue butterflies before on several occasion I had my first chance to photograph one at rest

Paphos Blue Butterfly - Aphrodites Tropical Garden © Nick Hull

Next we went off to Andorlykou and then to Smygies both these site were mainly for orchids and other botany but on the bird front we had Blue Rock Thrush, Wheatear,  Lesser Whitethroats and Marsh Harrier. We also heard two separate Cyprus Scops Owls calling and during the day which was a pleasant surprise. Though the terrain wasn't very good to investigate where the birds were calling from and they didn't call for very long which made it hard to locate them.  Most of the rest of the day was taken up looking at rare flowers and Orchids, more on these in part 3 of this blog as need to put name to species.

Day 7

Our before breakfast walk produced the usual Black Fracolin still calling from the same hedgerow perch.  There were a mass of hirundine moving through with Barn Swallow, Red-rumped Swallow, House Martin plus Alpine and Common Swift all moving north.  We noticed a few taking time out resting on the electricity wires which gave us excellent views and a chance to get a photograph or two.

Barn & Red-rumped Swallow and a single House Martin © Nick Hull

After breakfast we headed to the coast to Agios Geargios this was a very arid area where we hoped to see freshly arrived migrants. Though we started with a single male Linnet resting on the shoreline rocks.

Linnet - Agios Geargios © Nick Hull

Off the coast there was a small rocky Island which Jane our guide told us was the only Yellow-legged Gull colony in the area.

Yellow-legged Gull Colony © Nick Hull

We also had a few Grey Heron moving along the coast and two Black-crowned Night Heron were also seen, though both Jackie and I missed them but fortunately it is a species that we have seen many times over the years so neither of us minded to much.

Grey Heron passing by - Agios Geargios © Nick Hull

Another fairly common species which I had failed to get any shots of during our time here was Zitting Cisticola but I did manage to get a poor shot or two of one bird that perched up atop of a dead shrub.

Zitting Cisticola - Agios Geargios © Nick Hull

Continuing our search a little after I heard some larks calling and it wasn't the usual Crested Lark which seemed to be everywhere.  It was a call that I hadn't heard for a while and I turned to Jane for confirmation and in doing so saw a small flight of larks flying by us.

8 (Greater) Short-toed Lark - Agios Geargios © Nick Hull

A little later we had them on the ground feeding and I managed a passing shot of two birds on a bare piece of track.

(greater) Short-toed Lark - Agios Geargios © Nick Hull

As we walked back to the bus we had a Hoopoe fly in and give us some fairly close views as it searched for food.

Hoopoe - Agios Geargios © Nick Hull

We moved on back up the hill and parked to explore an area behind another archaeological site and it appears Cretzschmar's Bunting seam to like these sites as we had three birds feeding in and around the dig site.

Cretzschmar's-Bunting - Agios Geargios © Nick Hull

I did manage a passable shot of a Sardinian Warbler that popped up in a bush and sang before it realised I was just a few meters away and it disappeared as quick as it appeared. 

Sardinian Warbler - Agios Geargios © Nick Hull

The rest of the afternoon was taken up with a drive back over the hills  to the hotel, we saw a few species on the way and one of them was a Cyprus Wheatear but unlike all our previous sighting of this species, this time it was a female and I managed a couple of shots through the bus window.

Female Cyprus Wheatear - Andorly kou © Nick Hull

Day 8

Our last morning in Cyprus and we had time for a visit to the Mandria coast which was near to the airport, which only really produced species we had seen before and my last bird photograph was of a male Kestrel hunting grasshoppers and insects by running in and around the ground vegetation and doing it just a few metres from us.

Kestrel - Mandria Coast © Nick Hull

Well that's the end for the birds seen of the holiday but I'm putting together part 3 which will show the many Orchids that we saw to. 

March - Home and Away Birding Cyprus Part 1

Jackie and I visited Longham, Middlebere and around our local patch of Lytchett Bay though we saw many of the usual species we didn't manage to add anything new to our year list.  I was lucky whilst doing one of my reptile surveys, I managed to catchup with Dartford Warbler and had a Woodcock which was flushed from a damp area of heathland before any of us saw it on the ground on the 12th.  On the 14th Jackie and I did a preliminary walk on our Heathland Bird Survey area on the Purbeck NNR. which was interesting we recorded Woodlark and Dartford Warbler and had an early Tree Pipit fly over north calling.  

Woodlark - Purbeck PNNR © Nick Hull

A visit to Durlston with friends on the 17th March proved hard work with the only highlight being a male Cirl Bunting at the start of our walk though we did manage a single Fulmar for our year list.

male Cirl Bunting - Durlston CP © Nick Hull

The next day Jackie and I went off to Cyprus to try out a Naturetrek Go Slow Holiday for Birds and Botany.  We were not expecting a large bird list but hoped for the chance to see the endemic species and a few species that we haven't seen for a while.  Cyprus has around 87 breeding species 30 of which migrate to the island to breed. The island has around 120 species that over winter, 57 of which are considered resident species.  Going in March there was hope that a few of the wintering species would be still present and a few of the migrant breeding birds would have returned plus migrants that would be passing through moving on north but like any birding trip it depends alot on the weather condition at the time of your visit.

It's about a 4 hour flight to Paphos in southern Cyprus where we were to stay for three days before moving to the Aphrodite Beach Hotel further up the coast for the remainder of the holiday. 

After clearing the airport where we met our leaders Jane and Yiannis we headed towards our hotel via the Pathos Sewage Works. Here we saw our first new species or lifer in Spur-winged Lapwing which was standing on the edge of one of the filter beds.  But we walked on up the road to the fields and we found 13 others in a more natural habitat which made for a better photograph.

Spur-winged Lapwing - Paphos Sewage Works

We also had our first Spanish and House Sparrow, White Wagtail, Wood Pigeon, Kestrel, Ruff and a Green Sandpiper.  Then it was off to our hotel to unpack and relax, I was looking at the view from our balcony and watching Swifts zooming around.  I caught sight of a large swift with an off white belly, bins up and yes an Alpine Swift passed by, not a bad start. Then it was to meet for the introduction and brief on what was to come and then walk out to a local restaurant for our evening meal.

Day 2

There were three locations planned The Tomb of the Kings, Aprokremos Reservoir and Agia Varvar as with day one the weather was windy and cool and there had been some early morning rain. The short journey to the Tombs of the Kings didn't take long and we were soon out exploring around this archaeological site.  Here we had views of our first Laughing Dove, Yellow-legged Gulls, Hoopoe, Crested Lark, Sand and House Martin, Swallow and Red-rumped Swallow, Sardinian Warbler, Black Redstart, Northern Wheatear, Greenfinch, Linnet, Goldfinch and the highlight here for us and particularly for me as I spotted them first was a pair of Cretzschmar's Bunting our second lifer of the trip. 

Hoopoe - Tomb of the Kings © Nick Hull

Laughing Dove seen almost everywhere © Nick Hull

male Cretzschmar's Bunting - Tomb of the Kings © Nick Hull

Our next location was Aprokremos Reservoir (Dam).  We had a picnic lunch here before we started our walk.  During lunch we had sightings of 3 Long-legged Buzzard and Kestrel. After our luch we walked up towards the dam and recorded many Sardinian Warbler, Zitting Cisticola we also had a very distant Chukar which was nice for Jackie as she missed seeing the species when we visited Bulgaria.

male Chukar - Aprokremos Reservoir © Nick Hull

We continued on and eventually arrive at an area where we should see our first Cyprus endemic.  After a while we heard one singing and eventually there were three males singing and one was very close to us.  With a little 'pishing' it popped up near the top of a bush then flew across the front of us giving  close flight views of a cracking looking Cyprus Warbler. It pitched in more or less in front of me and I had brief views of it moving around in the bush until it flew again over us into the scrub behind.  We continued to get brief views and eventually it was decided we should leave before we disturbed them too much.  

male Great Spotted Cuckoo (1 of 4 seen) © Nick Hull

Our next location was Agia Varvar this was a set of settling pond further along the valley. Unfortunately  due to the the dry condition the ponds had dried up considerably but we managed to add a few species of water birds such as Coot and Moorhen, Green Sandpiper and a Spotted Crake other birds sen in the area were Water Pipit, Serin, Linnet, Goldfinch, Great Spotted Cuckoo, Green Sandpiper and hundreds of Swift and Alpine Swift, Sand and House Martin, Red-rumped and Barn Swallow.

Green Sandpiper - Agia Varvar © Nick Hull

few of the many Barn Swallow - Agia Varvar © Nick Hull

Day 3

Our visits today were to Kensington Cliffs, Zahaki, Ladies Mile, Bishop's Pool and Akrotiri Marsh. 

On the bird perspective Akrotiri Marsh was the outstanding location for the birds. Though we did get our first views of Greater Short-toed Larks and Lesser Whitethroat at Zahaki along with a flock of 50 feeding Little Stint with a couple of Dunlin. Little Ringed Plover and our only Kentish Plover of the trip.  A little further on we had Great Flamingo at Bishop's Pool (Salt Lake) though they were very distant and in heat haze.  

Black-winged Stilt - Zahaki © Nick Hull

At the Akrotiri Marsh we had closer views of Spur-winged Plover, Ruff, Wood Sandpiper, Black-winged Stilt and probably the outstanding bird for me was a Marsh Sandpiper. We also had Yellow Wagtail of the race known as Black-headed Wagtail M.f.feldegg in the reeds and flying over.

Ruff - Akrotiri Marsh © Nick Hull

Wood Sandpiper - Akrotiri Marsh © Nick Hull

Marsh Sandpiper - Akrotiri Marsh © Nick Hull

Other birds seen on the marsh were at least 4 Garganey our first Little Grebe, Pintail, Gadwall, Teal, Mallard, Snipe and Marsh Harrier. A further up the road we stopped again and added Cattle Egret, Little Egret, Spoonbill and Starling.

drake Garganey - Akrotiri Marsh © Nick Hull

Day 4

Halfway through our holiday and this morning we were changing hotels but we had time to visit Paphos Archaeological Park before moving along the coast to our next hotel. The park covered a large area with scrubby patches dotted around between various remnants of old buildings foundations which had been excavated. 

Our first real sighting here wasn't a bird but a lizard, a Cyprus Rock Agama which was a fairy large lizard compared to our British species. We did see other species but photographing them was next to impossible as it was so hot they were very alert and sped off very quickly.

Cyprus Rock Agama - Paphos Archaeologycal Park © Nick Hull

 It was here that we saw our first Isabelline Wheatear, a species we hadn't seen before though they are often recorded in the UK.  They are similar to Northern Wheatear in size though paler in colour and they have a very upright stance. They have a very narrow dark eye-stripe with a whitish supercillium and a peachy coloured breast and brown upperparts white rump black tail and primaries.  Though the black centre tail feathers do not extend as far up the middle of the tail as in Northern Wheatear. Isabelline also shows a small black alula on the bend of the wing.  Isabelline Wheatear is a fairly common species here in Cyprus though it took us four days to find one. In fact there was a couple of pairs around the site.

Isabelline Wheatear - Paphos Archaeologycal Park © Nick Hull

Here we also had our first Blue Rock Thrush which was first thought to have been a Starling until it was scrutinised through binoculars.  It was sat on the corner of a bungalow in the grounds not where you would imagine it to be. Though saying this we saw one in Stow on the Wold and that was on a house roof.

Blue Rock Thrush - Paphos Archaeologycal Park © Nick Hull

We also saw Hoopoe, Sardinian Warbler, Corn Bunting, Cretzschmar's Bunting, Linnet, Black-headed Yellow Wagtail, Spanish and House Sparrows, Black Redstart and Robin,  Goldfinch and Greenfinch  the latter species seem to be much more yellow toned here and look much brighter than our UK birds.
Jackie was finding the heat and the walk was about as far as she could do, so we did a short cut through the middle back to the entrance/exit whilst the rest of the group continued on around the parameter of the site.  I managed to get a few close shots of Crested Lark a species we saw every day but rarely had them in camera range.

Crested Lark - Paphos Archaeologycal Park © Nick Hull

WE obviously were back before the rest of the group so we took the opportunity to go and have a coffee in a cafe on the sea front called the Pelican Cafe/Restaurant. As we were leaving we found out why it was called the Pelican.

Resident Pelican at the cafe © Nick Hull

After our coffee break we met up again with the rest of the group and found we actually didn't miss anything we hadn't seen already which was a real bonus.  Anyway we boarded the bus and were off to the Aphrodite Beach Hotel.

February 2025

We just missed out on seeing a 100 species in February finishing the month on 98 but we added 9 species to our year list bringing us to a respectable 132 for the year and without travelling too far staying inside Dorset and mainly around Poole.

We started the month going back to Jerry's Point to make another effort at seeing the Long-tailed Duck and after possibly an hour of viewing over Brand's Bay and the South Deep I manage to find it associating with a few Red-breasted Merganser.  I'm not sure if it is the same individual that I saw at the end of 2024 as that one was in totally immature type plumage and the one we were now watching was approaching full summer plumage, checking references it appears that Long-tailed Duck have a variable moult as individuals do not moult at the same time. 

Long-tailed Duck off Jerry's Point Poole Harbour ©Nick Hull

After leaving Jerry's Point Jackie and I dropped into Norden and checked out the Sewage works and heard a Green Woodpecker a species that seems to have declined around the harbour area in the last few years. We also had at least a dozen Chiffchaff, Pied and Grey Wagtail lots of Chaffinch and Goldcrest and Firecrest.

Chiffchaff taking off to catch a fly Norden, © Nick Hull

Firecrest - Norden © Nick Hull

We decide to drive back across to Middlebere and checkout the field the Highland Cattle are in as a Cattle Egret had been with them the day before. As we crossed the railway bridge we could see seven egrets in with the cattle so I moved the van to a good viewing position to see over the hedge and there was still a single Cattle Egret with the Little Egret feeding in the field.

Cattle Egret near Norden © Nick Hull

Winter thrushes have been very scarce this year in general and passing Slepe Copse Jackie spotted a thrush in the field, so we had a brief stop and a scan across the field and in the tree and we managed to find three Fieldfare which made another year tick which made three for the day.

On the 4th we had a morning walk at Middlebere which was very quiet birds wise but we did catchup with two Spotted Redshank from the hide out in the Middlebere channel. 

Duck Mallard, 2 Redshank, Spotted Redshank, Redshank,
Spotted Redshank and Drake Mallard © Nick Hull

Next day we met friends for a walk at Hengistbury Head, the walk out to the beach was fairly unproductive but on the sea off the Head by the beach huts we found the two Velvet Scoter.  Then we walked along the beach keeping and eye on the groynes to find the Purple Sandpipers which added two more species to our year list.

It wasn't until the 19th when we added Guillemot to our list off one of the Birds of Poole Harbour boat trips which added another species, then on the 25th a walk in Wareham Forest added Woodlark and Crossbill.

Male Adder Lytchett Fields © Ian Ballam

Just a reminder if you come across an Adder basking please do not disturb it. Use a long lens to take a photograph. These animals have just emerged and need to warm up in the sun to get into prime breeding condition and to stay healthy.

On our local patch of Lytchett Bay Ian recorded our first Adder on the 22nd February which I think is the earliest record since we have been recording he also had Speckled Wood on the same day. I also had a Brimstone in the garden also on the 22nd.  I recorded my first Solitary bee at Bestwall which turned out to be Andrena clarkella Clark's Mining Bee which is the earliest I've recorded them there.  So it appears the inverts species have started to appear a little earlier this season so hopefully things will be better than 2024 as many species of different taxa were recorded in lower numbers than previous years due to the very wet spring. 

Red Admiral - Home garden © Nick Hull

With Wheatear and Sand Martin having already been seen in Dorset and Stone Curlew seen in back in the UK spring migration has already begun.