Long-legged buzzard, ancient Kourion

This stunning Long-legged buzzard was at ancient Kourion today, it's a real cracker, one of the most rufous I've ever seen, with nice black carple patches.

Isabelline Shrike, Paphos Headland

An Isabelline shrike has been knocking about the Paphos area for about a month but has been wide ranging and difficult to connect with. Today I managed to see it through the railings at the archeological site on the headland. Isabelline shrike is also known as Daurian shrike these days.

Mediterranean Monk Seal and a Little Gull, Paphos Headland

This morning I was at Paphos Headland at dawn and as usual there were many great birds to be seen.  The golden plover flock had increased to 58 birds and a single grey plover was with them. Always keeping a slight distance were at least four greater sandplovers, the most that I have ever seen here, and there were the usual red-throated pipits.

Best of all though, I spotted a 1st winter little gull hawking over the sea. I'd never seen little gull in Cyprus before and knew that it was at best a scarce passage migrant and in winter was even less common. I took a few photos and then decided to get some video. On returning to our apartment I forgot about the video and concentrated on having a none-birding day out. 

Later in the evening I was editing the video and suddenly spotted what looked like a seal in the video. I posted the video and made a few enquiries and it turns out that it's a Mediterranean monk seal. This is the only seal found in the Mediterranean and is the rarest seal in the world, with an estimated 700 individuals world wide and only 20-22 individuals in Cyprus! In 1984 it was classified as one of the 12 most endangered animals in the world! What are the chances of accidently videoing one while watching a little gull?

Red-throated pipits, Paphos Headland

Red-throated pipits are one of the star attractions of Paphos Headland in winter, and this winter plumage adult was particularly obliging.

White-throated kingfisher, Akrotiri Marsh

It's long been an ambition of mine to see white-throated kingfisher in Cyprus, so when one was reported at Akrotiri Marsh about eight weeks ago I was keeping everything crossed that it might stay long enough for me to see it on this holiday. Unfortunately by the time of our first stop at Akrotiri at the end of November the bird hadn't been seen for nearly two weeks so I thought that my chance had gone. 

There was still a slim chance though, because the marsh was very dry at this time and white-throated kingfisher is just at home in dry scrub feeding on lizards as it is eating fish and amphibians, and in fact there had been a few sightings on the adjacent farmland during the early part of its stay. This made the bird very elusive and with relatively few birders about it was possible that it was still present but not being seen.

Since our first visit there has been a lot of rain, in fact a few days ago Paphos had the heaviest daily rainfall in over 100 years, with 113mm recorded on one day, more than the annual average for the whole of December. This has filled Akrotiri Marsh and as a result of this the white-throated kingfisher has been seen again and started to become much more obliging, presumably because it has now turned to eating fish. 

So this morning I arrived at Akrotiri at dawn, 06:45 and scanned the reeds. Within 10 minutes I had seen the bird and I watched it for a while at a distance of about 200m, before walking to the tower hide in the hope that it would be a little closer from there. Fortunately it was now only about 100m away and I watched in for about another 30 minutes. A few times it flew around like a giant butterfly, calling noisily, but it never came much closer. Still, it was a great sight and long awaited.  

Siberian Pipit, Akrotiri Marsh. A first for me.

Three days ago a Siberian pipit was reported at Akrotiri Marsh. I don't have a scope with me so I didn't hold out much hope of seeing it, but since I was visiting anyway today in the hope of seeing a white-throated kingfisher, I obviously kept my eyes open for it. Fortunately there were a lot of pipits close to the road and I found the bird within a few minutes. A combination of research beforehand and studying the original finders photographs paid off. 

Siberian pipit has a pale eye stripe behind the eye and pale lores with a distinct eye ring. It's also more heavily marked on the breast and flanks than water pipit and that's particularly noticeable in Cyprus were all water pipits are of the Caucasian race which are less heavily streaked than those we see in the UK.

Siberian pipit also has reddish legs and a large dark patch at the side of the throat. The Caucasian race of water pipit usually has black legs.

Paphos Headland

Paphos Headland is one of my favourite birding sites in Cyprus, and for good reasons. It attracts some great birds, especially during spring migration, but even in winter it's very good. It's probably the go to site in Cyprus for visitors who want to add greater sandplover to their lists, and there are great views to be had of red-throated pipits, Spanish sparrows and woodlarks.

This male Kentish plover was an unexpected bonus today, photographed here with two greater sandplovers.

Heuglin's Gull, Mandria

Who doesn't love a tatty gull, especially when it's a moulting Heuglin's (Siberian) gull?! An adult was initially on the sea at Mandria with yellow-legged gulls this morning, it then flew inland to feed on the local fields. 

Late moult is a key identification feature of Heuglin's gull in December. Unlike most other gulls it delays it's moult until it reaches it's wintering grounds, which are mainly in the Gulf states and India, due to the distance it has to migrate. Cyprus is about the only place where you have a good chance of seeing one in Europe, assuming that we can count Cyprus as Europe. Some authorities class Heuglin's as a race of lesser black-back, others count it as a separate species. I'm in the latter camp, it's on my list as a full blown species.

Agia Napa Sewage Works

A few days ago I discovered Agia Napa Sewage Works and I've been twice since. It's not the most productive sewage works that I've ever been to for birds, but at the moment it is the best birding site by a mile within easy reach of our apartment in Protaras. It consists of five reservoirs, one of which is small and always birdless and another which is not viewable from anywhere that I can find. The other three are viewable and have produced some decent birding over the past few days. 

Up to 30 ferruginous ducks have been present, along with around 45 shoveler, 20 teal and 4 mallard. Other waterfowl include around 80 little grebes, 40 coots and a few moorhens. 

Waders included a maximum of 21 spur-winged plover, 3 green plover, 2 common sandpipers and 2 redshank. 

Loggerhead turtle, Vyzakia Beach

Sad to see a loggerhead turtle washed up on the beach today, just 1km from our apartment near Protaras, Cyprus. At least it was an opportunity to have a good look at this magnificent animal which was around 1m long. It was clearly very recently deceased with no signs of decomposition, predation or injury. Loggerhead turtles lay their eggs on beaches in the nearby area, but are not usually seen in winter.

Agia Triada

A day of contrasts, we started at the small fishing harbour of Agia Triada just outside Paralimni and walked along the coast for a couple of kilometres enabling me to spot a greater sand plover with 7 grey plover, plus an Audouin's gull. The latter was a Cyprus first for me and the sand plover was the first I have seen on Cyprus away from Paphos headland. 

Then we went to Famagusta view point and saw the abandoned holiday resort of Varosha, apparently one of the most exclusive resorts in Europe until as recently as the early 1970's, a favourite of  stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Raquel Welch, and Brigitte Bardot. These days it's all distant views, photography is strictly prohibited and I couldn't even look at it through my binoculars. 

A visit to northern Cyrpus - Famagusta South Lake

Local birder Peter Bromley and I visited Turkish occupied northern Cyprus today. It's the first time I've been able to go because car hire companies in southern Cyprus which I rely on won't allow it, but as a passenger in Peter's car there were no problems. We had to show our passports at two check points before driving through parts of the no go zone in Famagusta, with abandoned houses and businesses falling into ruins. 

The reason for the visit was to go to Famagusta south lake where there have been two white-headed ducks for about a week. After spending an hour here, we headed off to Mia Milia just east of Nicosia, an outstanding site for water birds, before ending at the completely dry Kouklia wetlands where we saw a good selection of farmland birds including many larks. More of that later.

All of my previous sightings of white-headed duck have been in Spain with the last being at Laguna la Tarelo, Donana north of Cadiz in 2017. Smart little ducks and although there are apparently no recognised subspecies, I was still delighted to see these birds from the Asian population, most likely Turkey.

It's difficult photographing a bird with a white head and dark body in bright sunlight, hand held on your phone, through somebody else's scope at a distance of about 200m when the bloody things keep diving and are seemingly determined not to be on the surface at the same time, so give me a break here.....

Viewing at Famagusta was not particularly easy but the light was good. There were about 50 Greater flamingos, 50 ferruginous ducks, 40 pochard, loads of shoveler and teal, five great white egrets and about 30 cattle egrets, plus a couple each of Armenian and Caspian gulls. 

Continuing our journey in the north - Mia Milia and Kouklia Wetlands

Following our visit to Famagusta south lake we decided to make the most of our excursion into the north and pressed on towards Nicosia and Mia Milia sewage works. Regular readers will know that when on holiday abroad, nothing gets the Davies pulse racing like a visit to the nearest sewage works. In these hot dry countries they're often the only source of water for miles around and of course there's an abundance of food for the birds. In 2018 I spent three weeks in Melbourne Australia, of which two weeks were spent at Werribee sewage works (opens in a new window)! Sewage works are often top birding spots, I read somewhere that Werribee was rated as the second best wetland in the whole of Australia. So I was more than happy to visit Mia Milia today.

Highlight today was a juvenile common crane, a Cyprus first for me, as was an avocet, which obligingly posed in the same photo as the crane. There were good numbers of waders, with 50 spur-winged plover, 10 spotted redshanks, 3 Temminck's stints, little stint, ruff and redshank with 3 green, 8 wood and 3 common sandpipers, plus 110 lapwings.

There were lots of cattle egrets in the area, mainly roosting at the sewage works and feeding in nearby fields.