Homeward bound - almost.

Well that was it. The holiday was over and I was heading to the airport to hand back the hire car. I'd had a good day, I started birding at first light, 5.30am and hadn't stopped until now, 2.30pm, a full nine hours birding. The car was due back at 3pm so I reckoned I couldn't squeeze much more out of it. Wrong!

My phone beeped, I instinctively pulled the car over, read the message and turned the car around. I was heading back to Mandria! It was a 10 minute drive back and then I would need another 10 minutes to get to the airport when I left, so with just 30 minutes before the car was due back, that would leave me 10 minutes birding. I had to rely on the bird showing immediately and well, and also pray that it wouldn't be flushed by some over zealous birder or photographer. Or even a child. Oh well, in for penny.....

Swings on a childrens playground on the beachfront at Mandria. Nothing unusual about that you may think. Until you look closer and see that there's a long-eared owl sat in the hedge behind! It's on migration and had just flown in off the sea exhausted and landed in the first potential cover it could find. 

Agia Varvara and Anarita Park

It's only as recently as last December that I first "discovered" Agia Varvara and even then although I was aware that there were three sets of pools, I only went to the middle set. This holiday, spurred on by advice and reports from other birders, I managed to get to the other two sets, the top pools and the motorway pools and they've been a revelation. 

Today the motorway pools had three species of crake, little x 2, spotted and best of all my first Baillon's of the trip. Very similar to little crake, there are subtle differences that enable us to tell the two species apart. Most obvious is the streaking on the flanks of Baillon's, similar to water rail, which little crake lacks. Baillon's also has better marked upperparts with lots of black and white speckling which again little crake lacks. Finally something that I have never been able to see, little crake has a small red mark at the base of the lower mandible. These crakes are smaller than starlings, they're generally pretty shy and even when they do show well they're often moving quickly either feeding or heading for cover which usually consists of a reedbed. Seeing a tiny red dot on the base of the lower mandible is just beyond me. I suppose if you get a decent photo it might be visible, but not with my camera! I'll just rely on seeing the streaky flanks!

Baillon's crake.

Kourion Stadium

I decided to spend most of my last full day in Cyprus at Kourion stadium near Episokpi. It's just a wonderful place, especially at this time of year with many colourful flowers and some great birds hoping around on the ruins, including Cretzschmar's buntings, eastern black-eared wheatear and Cyprus wheatear.

Cretzschmar's buntings are just fabulous birds, the combination of the grey head with a white eye ring and the red /brown of the wings and body just works so well!

This annoyed little guy is a singing male Cyprus wheatear. Some of my best views of this species have been at the stadium.

From the snowy peaks to the desert finch at Geroskipou

Eight days after we left Cyprus last December, a desert finch was found on Paphos headland. I was disappointed to have missed it, especially since it hung around for over a month. However, it was seen regularly and it got to the point where I was beginning to hope that it might stick around long enough for me to see it on this holiday. Sadly though, a week or two before my arrival in the middle of March it went missing and was thought to have gone.   

Obviously I thought that was it, my opportunity to see it had gone. Amazingly though, right out of the blue, it was relocated yesterday at Pioneer beach, Geroskipou. So following my trip to Troodos today, I headed straight there to try to at last catch up with the bird. 

When I arrived it hadn't been seen for about five hours but I joined a group of other birders and very soon after I arrived a flock of greenfinches flew into a bush and we managed to pick out the desert finch, much to my relief. Unfortunately though, they didn't settle and flew off north up the coast.

The other birders drifted off content with having seen the bird, but I wanted a better look, so followed the promenade north for about 400m until I came to a small grassy headland outside the Ivi Mare hotel where I could see that a few woodpigeons were feeding. Sure enough, my hunch paid off and there was the greenfinch flock on the ground and the desert finch was with them. Now I had some great views and I watched it for about 15 minutes before the flock was spooked by a passer-by and they headed off back south.

To the snowy Troodos for a few endemics

No birding holiday to Cyprus is complete without a trip to the Troodos mountains to see a few of the islands endemic subspecies, specifically the coal tit, short-toed treecreeper and jay. Today I managed to see them all pretty easily

Semicollared flycatcher, Asprokremnos Dam

Flycatchers are beginning to arrive now, with collared, semicollared and pied all reported of the past 48 hours. Ironically the two I have seen have both been the rarest which is semicollared

The white on the median wing-coverts which is diagnostic is reduced to a dot on this bird.

Note the white border to the tail feathers which goes all of the way round which is also a feature of semicollared. 

Agia Varvara

I found another three pools at Agia Varvara that I didn't even know existed prior to today. They held a similar array of birds to the other pools including a male little crake, but also a really smart spotted crake which showed briefly at close range. Too brief for a photo, so here are some more little crake photos.

Masked shrike, Akrotiri

I'd all but given up with masked shrike, there's been a few around but I just couldn't seem to connect with them. Today I was looking at orchids near Agios Georgios chapel at Akrotiri, when a fabulous male suddenly popped up on a branch nearby. A really gorgeous bird.

Semicollared flycatcher at Bishops Pool

At Bishops Pool today there was a wonderful semicollared flycatcher which was a new bird for me. Also here, lots of eastern Bonelli's warblers.

A trip to Larnaca and an unexpected phalarope

Since the weekend Mandria and the Paphos birding sites have faced an invasion of British birders, and this had coincided with better weather which has slowed down migration compared to last week. In a bid to escape the crowds and freshen up my birding I decided to have a trip to Larnaca today. 

The one thing that the Paphos area is missing is good wader and duck habitat so Spiros Pool and Larnaca waste water reservoirs were an ideal antidote. They're 130km from Mandria and a 90 minute drive, but the roads are really good, dual carriageway almost all of the way, so it's not really a problem and with an early start there's hardly any traffic enabling me to arrive at Spiros Pool at 7.15am.

I didn't really go for anything in specific but there has been a red-necked phalarope on the pool for a couple of days and it was nice to see that. 

Photo: Marsh sandpiper.

Also here, several marsh sandpipers, black-winged stilts and Kentish plovers, plus a decent array of other waders including little stint, ruff and black-tailed godwit.

Little crakes (and water frogs!) at Agia Varvara

I called in again at Agia Varvara this afternoon and at least one little crake showed well again, so well in fact that I was able to take this video. I recommend turning your sound up, because the real stars of this production are the Cyprus water frogs! It almost sounds like they're talking.

Noisy blighters! A Cyprus water frog. 

Eastern orphean warbler, Paphos headland

Earlier in the holiday I had a couple of fleeting glimpses of eastern orphean warblers, but since it was a new bird for me I was hoping to get better views before I left. Today at the archaeological site on Paphos headland a couple of birds showed well. 

They look a bit like outsized lesser whitethroats. Really robust for a warbler with a chunky bill, but notice also the white eye ring.

Little crakes at Agia Varvara

Four little crakes were at Agia Varvara this afternoon, with two males chasing each other around while a couple of females watched with disinterest. Also here a moustached warbler.

I thought that the Ezuosa river was in full flow the other day, but today it seemed like it was about to wash the bridge away! It really has rained a lot over the past few weeks. When I was here in December it was barely a trickle!

Cyprus warblers, Mavrokolympos Dam

This morning I headed up to Mavrokolympos Dam just north of Paphos, hoping to ensure that I saw Cyprus warbler during this holiday. It's not a species that I see a lot of owing to the fact that generally I visit Cyprus in winter when there are only a very few overwintering birds about, and they are not so easy to see. Also they have become scarcer in recent years in part due to the spread of Sardinian warblers. I don't know if they're being outcompeted by their slightly larger cousin. Anyway, a couple of birds did their duty and showed quite nicely this morning. Other birds at the dam included a male Cretzschmar's bunting and several easter bonelli's warblers.

Cyprus warblers are one of three endemics that are found in Cyprus, the others being Cyprus scops owl and Cyprus wheatear. By the time you read this there may well be others if the jay, coal tit or treecreeper ever get split. Black francolin is also at it's only European location, but that does occur elsewhere outside Europe so not an endemic.

Sardinian warbler.

Namaqua Dove on my doorstep in Mandria

A major rarity in Cyprus today, just 200m from my apartment in Mandria. A male Namaqua Dove! It's the size of a sparrow with a long tail like a budgie. The only place it breeds in the western palearctic is southern Israel. I saw a female distantly in Kuwait a couple of years ago, but todays bird was much closer, photographed from the car as it fed on the other side of the road! An amazing bird. 

When I got back to Mandria from Paphos there had just been a torrential downpour and the bird had not unreasonably gone missing and there was a tense 30 minutes or so of no show. Eventually though somebody spotted it further down the road. We all got into our cars to use them as hides and the bird just walked down the road towards us, feeding as it came.

Finsch's wheatear and the Isabelline shrike at Paphos Headland

My original plan was to stay in Mandria all day, but when a Finsch's wheatear was found at Paphos Headland followed by a masked shrike I decided to spend the afternoon there instead. I've seen a few Finsch's wheatears in winter in Cyprus, though it's never a common bird, just a handful overwinter at traditional sites, but it would be the sixth species of wheatear that I've seen on this holiday, so I was keen to see it just to complete the set. Also I thought that since I'd be in Paphos late afternoon, I could take the opportunity to call in for meal in a favourite restaurant on the front. That was the plan but it didn't work out that way.

The wheatear played it's part and was easy enough to find, though it lived up to it's reputation as one of the most skittish of all the wheatears, and wouldn't allow even moderately close approach. 

So that's seven species of wheatear for the holiday so far, Northern, Isabelline, Eastern Black-eared, Desert, Cyprus and Finsch's. What will the next species be?

The masked shrike was never seen again but I managed to relocate the isabelline shrike and it showed better than ever. It was a 1st winter when I saw it back in December but now it's really taking on some decent adult plumage. Gone is the barring on it's flanks, it now has a rusty crown and it's tail is getting redder. Meanwhile, two woodchat shrikes were in the same area.

All great to see and I was starting to think about food, but then I got news of something that I just could not miss back in Mandria and my plans were abandoned. A Namaqua dove had been found just 200m from my apartment. Doh! I knew that I should have stayed in Mandria! Back to the car.

Baltic gull and Caspian tern passage as the storms crash into Mandria

The storms that hit the island in the second half of yesterday continued overnight and were still with us until lunchtime today, though the rain wasn't quite so intense, the wind a little lighter and the gaps between each storm a little longer. You still didn't want to get caught outside in one though so the order of the morning was to bird from or near the car. I parked at a decent looking vantage point on the coast and looked out to sea for a while. There was clearly a passage west of gulls and I hoped for a Pallas's gull, but no such luck on that score. I was however thrilled to see so many Baltic gulls pass by, with 58 birds counted, mainly adults, with the largest flock being 20 birds.

Suddenly I spotted two Caspian terns flying quite close inshore, heading west. I only later discovered that these are very scarce birds in Cyprus. Even more amazing, three hours later I was talking to local birder and legend Colin Richardson about the terns when two more flew past!

Thunderstorms roll in but the birds keep coming

Some great birds today at Mandria and Paphos headland. It was a beautiful warm and sunny morning but this afternoon after 2pm thunderstorms rolled in one after the other with not much more than 20 minutes break between them and they're still going now at 7pm here. It's dark here now but I just drove to the supermarket and at times the whole sky turned white as lightening struck and then seconds later it felt like the earth was shaking as the thunder came. Torrential rain during the storms, I'm glad I brought my wellies! A breathtaking experience but one afternoon is enough thanks very much. Hopefully the weather will bring yet more birds.

Anyway, best birds today were wryneck, rufous-tailed rock thrush, Caspian stonechat, a decent passage of Baltic gulls, isabelline shrike, black-winged stilt and a night heron. In between the storms a female pallid harrier flew through Mandria.

Wrynecks are fabulous birds and this is the best view I've had for a long time.

This rufous-tailed rock thrush was associating with one of it's cousins, a blue rock thrush.

Citrine wagtail, another bogey bird bites the dust

What a morning! My major bogey bird bites the dust! Not only that, I found it myself and it was a stonking adult male. I've had many a close shave with citrine wagtail over the years but they've always eluded me both at home and abroad. Not anymore, despite being a scarce bird in Cyprus I managed to pick one out of a flock of 100 yellow wagtails at Mandria, and it obliged by walking straight towards me until it was the closest bird. An absolutely breathtaking bird!

It's hard to explain to a non-birder the excitement of seeing a bird such as this after all these years of pain. I honestly could have cried when I saw it! This will probably be the bird of the holiday for me, whatever else I might see. The excitement of finding this was exhilarating! I make no apologies for dedicating the whole post to photos and video of this bird.

Citrine wagtail looks like a mix of white wagtail and yellow wagtail, and it behaviour seems more like white than yellow to me.

An influx of greater short-toed larks at Mandria and more wagtails

There's definitely been an influx of short-toed larks, with a flock of 38 near the shack just east of lark corner and a few others scattered around.

Greater Sandplover, Timi beach

This stunning greater sandplover in breeding plumage was on Timi Beach this morning. I've seen plenty of these previously in Cyprus and also in India and Australia, but I've never seen one that looked anywhere near as good as this before.

Slightly less photogenic but no less exciting, male and female eastern orphean warblers were also here but refused to be photographed. This is the best I could get of the female.