Lady's Mile and Akrotiri

If you were to ask me my favourite birding site in the whole of Cyprus I would say Lady's Mile on the Akrotiri peninsular, and this is one of the main the reasons why, an adult Armenian gull in winter plumage. What a bird, one of the most beautiful of all of the gulls and this species alone makes winter my favourite season to visit Cyprus. Lady's Mile is a great place to see Armenian gull, and the Oasis Fish Restaurant  right on the pebble beach is an ideal place to see them from. Today there were about 30 Armenian gulls on the water in front of the restaurant, along with a nice selection of Caspian, yellow-legged, slender-billed and black-headed. I've seen some great views of some very special birds today, but this bird was the highlight.

Oasis

Wow, simply stunning.

Armenian gulls generally outnumber Caspian at Lady's Mile in my experience, unlike Larnaca where there are many more Caspian. However there are a few Caspians here, including this impressive 2nd winter bird which was quite approachable.

There were also a couple of slender-billed gulls on the sea in front of the restaurant, an adult and a 1st winter. In many respects these are very like black-headed gulls, at least until you see them together! They were very aggressive, frequently chasing away any black-headed gull which came too close, and not afraid to chase off the large gulls too! This is an adult.

1st winter slender-billed gull.

Next to Lady's Mile is Zakaki marsh and during a break from gull watching I had a quick look and managed to find not only this bluethroat, but also two moustached warblers and a male Penduline tit on the same small pool, all showing exceptionally well!

I also called in at Bishop's Pool where there was a nice selection of ducks including several ferruginous ducks.

However it was this juvenile Bonelli's eagle which nearly stole the show from the Armenian gulls. An unbelievable view at Bishop's Pool, it flew right overhead. I've never seen one so well.