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 strong 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.
My third Caspian stonechat of the holiday following the pair at Mandria the
other day. They really are stunning birds. As I said in a previous post,
Caspian stonechat is actually Siberian stonechat of the race
hemprichii.
The tail pattern makes it hemprichii. The regular Siberian and our
European stonechats have tails that are completely black.
This is the same isabelline shrike that I saw last December.
Night heron.
Back at Mandria this afternoon the approaching storms brought some dramatic
skies and also a passage of gulls, mainly yellow-legged but also about 20 Baltic
gulls. These are a race of lesser black-back but are much blacker than the
bird we see in the UK, blacker even than Greater black-back, if that's
possible!
Baltic gull.
Black-winged stilt on the beach at Mandria.
Run for it!!
Fortunately Paphos Headland is a World Heritage Site because of the archeological site and the mosaics are protected by buildings with roofs! Time to take in some culture......
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