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. 

This is Cyprus at this time of year, visible migration in action. I've seen loads of birds come in off the sea over the past two weeks. This just happens to be the most photogenic.

So that really was the end of the holiday. In 14 days full on birding, usually dawn until dusk, in all weathers from gales and torrential rain and thunderstorms at the start of the trip, to snow in the mountains and the heat of the last week, I saw 162 species. To put that into perspective, so far this year I've seen 157 species in the UK. An amazing holiday and one that I hope to repeat again next year.