I had an absolutely mesmerising morning at Akrotiri marsh today. I'd really
gone to try to see the long staying eastern yellow wagtail which I missed on
our previous visit. However, I arrived at sunrise and found myself surrounded
by the calls of black francolin. I've never experienced anything like it,
except perhaps calling corncrakes on a Hebridean island. I walked down a lane
and calls were everywhere, some really close, others more distant, there must
have been six or seven birds calling in total.
Sadly, just like corncrakes they were very hard to see, but I did accidently
flush one from the side of a track and had an all too brief view of it. A
fabulous birding experience.
The reason I was so keen to see the eastern yellow wagtail is because it was
my first definite confirmed sighting of the species. The only other bird I
have seen was the possible that I found at Moss lane, St Helens last
September, but that bird was only seen for less than an hour and didn't call.
The Akrotiri bird has been present for around four weeks and is very vocal and
at times shows very well.
There were so many other great birds and I never tire of seeing spur-winged
plover. There were about 50 present today, some displaying.
Eleven great white egrets were on the marsh.
The eastern yellow wagtail is starting to acquire some yellow in it's plumage,
though it is still very grey.
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