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 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.
Greater flamingos looking like weird swans.
Armenian gull.
Caspian gull.
Great white egret.
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