A visit to the Avakas Gorge

For many years wallcreeper was a major bogey bird for me, despite several visits to the Pyrenees, the Alps and various other suitable mountain ranges, e.g. Greece, I had failed to see one. That was until our last visit to Cyprus in December 2014. Although they don't breed in Cyprus, they do regularly winter in the Avakas Gorge just 15 miles or so north of Paphos. On that first occasion it was raining while we were in the gorge, the rocks were slippy and treacherous and rocks were falling from above, and we were keen to get out alive. By the skin of my teeth I saw a wallcreeper on the cliffs high above just as we were about to leave. It was one of the highlights of the last holiday, albeit a little distant.

Today I went back for another look, hoping to get a closer view on a mild sunny day. There are also other reasons for visiting the gorge, in particular the impressive array of rare flora which occur there. One species in particular, Akamas knapweed Centurea akamantis named after the Akamas penninsular in which the gorge is situated, grows at nowhere else in the World. It's a purple flower not unlike a thistle flower, but this plant like it's common British relative Centurea nigra doesn't have thorns. Having built it up, now I have to confess that its flowering season is over by December and all that remains are its leaves and seed heads. However there are other species which do flower in December, including the endemic Cyprus cyclamen Cyclamen cyprium the national flower of Cyprus. 

Of course the gorge is impressive enough in its own right, unlike any gorge I've been to before, in places the cliffs come so close you could touch both sides at the same time. It's not a huge gorge and the cliffs are white making any dark bird stand out, so there's always a decent chance of seeing an active wallcreeper, but it's still only one bird you are looking for in half a mile of cliff (on both sides), so not particularly easy.

Today though I got lucky, and just before I got to the narrow part of the gorge, I spotted a wallcreeper fluttering around the cliff face like a giant butterfly in its search for food. This was a much better and closer view than last time, perhaps only 10 - 15m away.

It was very active and in the shadow of the cliff photography was difficult, but who cares when you get such good close views of a wallcreeper? However I did have to remind myself to enjoy watching the bird rather than try to get yet another rubbish photo, but it's a compromise and the photos are a nice momento.

There are warnings not to go into the gorge in rainy conditions, due to the risk of falling rocks and flash floods. You can see why.

Cyprus cyclamen.

When we first arrived in Cyprus 10 days ago everywhere was very dry and dusty, much more parched than when we were last here in 2014. However it had rained the week before we arrived, and it's rained since occasionally overnight, and the place has started to green up. These narcissus have started to appear in lots of places, including around the gorge. They really are a beautiful plant, sometimes they just seem to spring out of an ant hole, often singularly, but also in groups, and on such occasions I couldn't say if its one plant or several, or if it's coincidence that they're in an ant hole or if it's planned in some way, a kind of ecological interaction with the ant. Somebody will know no doubt, I just appreciate it's beauty.

Waders at Paphos Headland

Question: What does Paphos Headland, Cyprus share with Four Mile Beach, Queensland, Australia? Answer: They are the only two places in the world where I have seen greater sand plover.

Having failed spectacularly to see the greater sand plover at Paphos Headland last Saturday, today  was a different story, with quite stunning views of four birds down to about 3m. I almost stood on one it was so close when I first got there! Apparently the birds which winter in small numbers on Cyprus are unsurprisingly a different race to those which winter in Australia, and therefore are a potential armchair tick at some point in the future!

In Britain grey plover always seem to me to be one of the more unapproachable waders, and I've never managed a photo anywhere near as good as this, but like all of the waders I've seen here in Cyprus they're quite tame. I got within 5m of these birds, and they just walked away from me.

Here's another bird I almost stood on, this dunlin didn't fly away from me, it just walked quickly away and even allowed me to approach it again to take these photographs.

Whimbrel.

Around 100 golden plover were on the Point at Paphos Headland, and seemed quite tame until some bloke walked straight through the middle of the flock for no apparent reason, putting them all up. Also today, four turnstones.

Finsch's wheatears at Kidasi

Finsch's wheatears are cracking birds and possibly the star attraction of any birding visit to Cyprus at this time of year. All of my previous sightings have been in the deserted Foinikas village near Nata on the banks of the Asprokremmos Dam. Today however I decided to try my luck at a second well known site for the species, near Kidasi in the Diarizos valley. To access this site you park near the old road bridge just north of the village and walk up the valley. The trick here is to walk up the right hand side of the valley, not the left which is what I did at first, before realising my mistake. The track on the right hand side is easily drivable (at your own risk!), but I prefered to walk. After about 1km the track bends to the right, and this is where the the best birding is to be had. I saw two male Finsch's wheatears in this area. Apparently the males outnumber the females in Cyprus, and this is certainly my experience, I've had about six sightings of the species and never seen a female yet.

This species is rather timid compared to the northern wheatear which we get in the UK, and usually flushes at about 40m, sometimes a lot more. Digiscoping is probably the best bet for a photograph, but there was no way I was carrying my telescope and tripod up there, so I had to make do with these bridge camera photos.

Finsch's wheatear is superficially very similar to Cyprus wheatear, but the latter does not overwinter on the island and is long gone by December, and also Finsch's wheatear has a diagnostic creamy white back.

Kidasi is also an excellent place for raptors, but today I had to be content with this single griffon vulture. Other birds I saw today included about 30 woodlarks, several chukar and the ubiqiutous stonechat.

Road bridges old and new.

The track bends to the right and this is where most of the action is (at least in December).

Endemic races in Paphos Forest

Cyprus has three endemic races of common birds, two of which we get in the UK, and all are fairly easy to see in the Troodos Mountains and Paphos Forest. Today we managed to connect with them all with very little effort, namely coal tit, short-toed treecreeper and jay, but only coal tit was obliging enough to stick around for the photo shoot.

Paphos forest.

Awesome Saker at Paphos Sewage Works

Dawn this morning found me (minus Elaine) at that well known Cypriot hotspot, Paphos sewage works, surely a must see on every visitors agenda. It's an excellent site for birds and particularly at this time of year for spur-winged plover, and today I counted 14 birds. At first they were on the sewage works themselves, but I noticed that they kept flying towards some distant horse paddocks so I had a drive down and with the permission of a farmer walked around the perimeter of the paddocks for a good look at them. It was great to see them and photograph them in a more natural habitat than the sewage works, but ironically the light always seems better at the sewage works, and combined with the associated infrastructure makes for arguably better photos.

Bird of the day by a mile though was an awesome saker falcon which had 200 woodpigeons scattering in panic. What a bird! It was absolutely huge, and at close range for a few seconds, I saw its upper and lower parts well, and I had to pinch myself to rule out gyr it was so big and pale looking, especially above. That's my second new bird of the holiday and I'll have to go some to top that! 

Also at the sewage works today, 13 cattle egrets and a red-throated pipit. I counted 10 chiffchaffs, eight were peeping breverostris, plus two huweeting abietinus.