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 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!

Two spur-winged plover have been in the area all week.

This purple heron arrived from over the sea and landed out of view just inland.

There were large numbers of marsh harriers about today, especially males. Normally I see one or two of these birds per day, but today it wasn't unusual to see five or six in the air at any one time, and I actually watched one come in from over the sea so it seems that there was a passage of harrier going on. Also today, the female pallid harrier was still about.

Here comes the next storm!

A cormorant takes it in it's stride.

Most of the pipits, wagtails and larks were in this field today, including 30 black-headed yellow wagtails, 100 white wagtails, 2 tree pipits and 20 short-toed larks.