The Paphos Mosaics

A quieter day today. We visited the Roman mosaics at Paphos, which were very impressive and amongst the finest in the World apparently. The site is also pretty good for birds, with the highlight today being a flock of about 20 Woodlarks. There were also plenty of Sardinian warblers, Spanish sparrows, fan-tailed warblers, black redstarts, stonechats, crested larks and hooded crows.

Still no sign of the Cyprus endemics, Cyprus warbler or Cyprus wheatear. The latter is probably long since gone from these shores, on its wintering grounds until next spring, but the warbler is still around in reasonable numbers, or so I'm reliably informed. Still no black francolin either, which although not endemic, is here in its only European stronghold. I have been to Cyprus before though, and did see all of these endemics then, so it wouldn't be disastrous to miss out on them this time, and I wouldn't swap them for the three new species I have had so far, but would still be nice to see them again.

Woodlark, always a good find, even on the continent.

Spanish sparrow.

One of the mosaics.

Paphos

I could get used to waking up to this view every day. Not bad for the middle of December!