Cyprus Interlude

Willow Warbler

An autumn trip to Cyprus, following on from a successful spring trip to the island in April, seemed like a good idea and so it proved, although the birds made us work! That didn’t seem so on the first afternoon as we were soon enjoying long legged buzzard and bonellis eagle from the villa patio whilst enjoying the inevitable first cup of tea (and cake).

Sunday morning saw the four of us out early and this willow warbler  was an initial reward. The rest of that first walk produced Cyprus wheatear, which look stunning at this time of the year, but little else. 

We moved onto Paphos headland, a promontory of parched scrub adjacent to the harbour and with some probably splendid roman mosaics at the centre. The mosaics were not on our agenda so we ‘made do’ with isabelline wheatear........

Isabelline Wheatear

.....and greater sand plover, a rare visitor to Cyprus but where this one was stood in almost exactly the same spot as the spring version.

Greater Sand Plover

Monday morning and we headed for Zakaki Pools, most of which can’t be seen really but the single hide looks out over one small pool, surrounded by a large reed bed. 

Kingfisher

This kingfisher was a largely constant visitor for the hour or two that we stayed whilst the water rail was predictably more elusive. Our one view of spotted crake involved a dashing across the pool at high speed, never to be seen again.

Water Rail

We then headed off down Ladies Mile beach road, sand and a few beach cafes on one side, mostly dry salt pans on the other. There was nonetheless life on the little water we did find, dunlin and kentish plover being the dominant waders  and a rather approachable young flamingo  providing something of a contrast to the diminutive waders.

Dunlin

Flamingo

Bishops pool was a bit too much like hard work but included this bee eater, of which there was a constant stream throughout the week; if we couldn’t see them, we could frequently hear them

Bee Eater

The plan today was for a long (6k as it turned out) walk through the hills and scrub of the Akamas area, specifically the marked paths beginning at Smygies picnic site. We were hoping for a few passage raptors but aside from one distant large raptor (might have been honey buzzard), these were basically absent. The walk, enjoyable as it was, didn’t give us a vast array of birds. However, we did come across whinchat, red backed shrike and spotted flycatcher, all giving nice views. One of our number (to remain nameless) tried to assist by bird finding using the old clock method with ‘'small bird at 9.00 o’clock'', bins swing that way…’oh err actually, 3.00 o’clock’. Never did see that one!

Red Backed Shrike

Spotted Flycatcher

Whinchat

Crested Lark

Wednesday morning saw us at Mandria for the first time, an area of agricultural fields sitting between the sea and the village of the same name. Then place has a good name at migration time but as  with the rest of the week, the winds weren’t really with us. A chance for a photo of sorts of crested lark (very common out here) but apart from an unusual view of stone curlew (in flight, I suppose I knew they could of course, never really seen it!), not too much about and a mandatory coffee stop in Mandria soon followed.

We did however return to Mandria in the evening to be rewarded with tawny pipit, dustbathing in front of us, and a flock of maybe thirty plus greater short toed larks, a great way to end the day (at least before we all stuffed ourselves on Cypriot food and local wine).

We tried the Larnaca end of the island today. Our main site was Oroklini, which was brilliant for us in April, totally dry today with this rather forlorn looking spur winged plover the only obvious inhabitant.

Spur Winged Plover

Cattle Egret

We therefore drifted back west, another stop at Zakaki, Ladies Mile and our by now favourite coffee stop before trying Phassouri Reed beds and an area known as the gravel pits (nothing like what those words bring to mind). The reed beds brought a classic scene in the shape of cattle egret with, well…. cattle. A Zitting cisticola and our best view of a black francolin was soon followed by a slightly surprising view of two young rollers and a honey buzzard, the latter being a regular feature of the week

Our last full day began with dawn at Zakaki and a fascinating dawn it proved to be. In the UK, we don’t think of grey herons as being migratory but they clearly are over here and we were met with large numbers emerging from the reed bed and heading south. While we were there, several more came into the reeds where they would presumably feed up before moving on. Amazing sight.

Grey Herons lifting from Zakaki Pools in the dawn light

The day ended with another of several attempts at finding red footed falcon. Whilst driving slowly through an area known as Anarita Park (it is nothing like a park! An area of poor grazing and powerlines in the foothills north of the main Paphos/Limassol road), we got talking to a local ex pat birder and having initially followed him to a new site for us (and found garganey) we headed back to Mandria and again, slightly creepily, wound up following the same guy. We eventually spotted his car and soon realised that he was staring at a group of red footed falcon, seven in all, initially on the ground but soon hawking low down, taking insects out of the air as they went.

Enjoyable week even if the winds were against us for the most part, still some great birds.