Cyprus 8 to 14 April 2015 part 3

8 April

As we enter our third week it seems there is a real risk that we may leave Cyprus without seeing Wood Warbler! The Rollers and European Bee-eaters  are a little later than most other species but we have had very few influxes due to odd weather and we will have to try and get these three birds before we complete our stay here.

We returned to Kouklia today and got 30 new birds and four retraps. We had a few Tree Pipits going through and those that we caught seemed to be fresh in. There was no fat on any of them and some even had 0 muscle score.

Tree Pipit

There were also a few Whinchat but most went the other side of the stream bed and we only caught one.

Whinchat

We were fortunate enough to catch one of the very dark Sardinian Warblers that are sometimes seen at Kouklia.

 

The abberant female had a chocolate brown body with no pale feathering whatsoever. The other bird, shown for comparison, is a female caught at the same site on 11/04/2015.

We also retrapped two Eastern Olivaceous Warblers 35568 (8/4/2013) and 38137 (17/4/2014). This is odd since we have only ever ringed a few here.

 Retrap Olivaceous Warbler 35568, initially ringed on 8/4/2013

6M Goldfinch with deposits, on bill, from feeding

Totals: 30 (4)

Tree Pipit – 4
Whinchat – 1
Cetti’s Warbler – 2 (1)
Reed Warbler – 3
Eastern Oliveaceous Warbler -0 (2)
Sardinian Warbler – 1
Lesser Whitethroat – 2
Whitethroat – 1
Blackcap – 13 (1)
Chiff-chaff - 1
Goldfinch – 1
Ortolan Bunting – 1

After ringing we had a quick look at Acheleia but despite seeing five Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters on power lines  and some Yellow Wagtails in a newly cut field still failed to see Roller. 

Foraging Yellow Wagtails

At Mandria we got a good look at a couple of Stone Curlew and saw a Hawfinch then returned to our apartment early to get ready for an evening with friends.

9 April

We were due to revisit Adonis hills but due to heavy rain and thunder when the alarm went off at 5.20am, and the subsequent high winds, had to give it a miss. 

 Low cloud over Paphos

All morning we watched the clouds gathering on the hills while walking around Paphos headland where birds seen included Redstarts, Wryneck, Red-throated pipits and a Masked Shrike. 

 

Masked Shrike

 Wryneck

We looked around Mavrokolympos Dam seeing Cyprus Wheatear and Warbler, Wryneck , a couple of Ruppell’s Warblers and the best view of all being a couple of Bonelli’s Eagles just above our heads.

 Bonelli's Eagle

Cyprus Wheatear

We were glad not to have bothered with the ringing as the wind grew stronger and there was rain and hail. After lunch with some friends we were at Anarita Park when a message came through about a Caspian Plover at Mandria. We saw it just before the light began to fail, also seeing  flocks of Little Egret and Night Heron struggling in the wind along the coast.

 

10 April

The weather was wet first thing, but we decided to head, a little later than normal, to try a ringing session at Adonis Hills, staring around 8am.

 We waited for a shower to go through before setting nets.

Things were very quiet, few birds were caught and there was very little visible movement but we finally got to see Wood Warbler. We packed up at 11am as we could see further showers tracking in from the sea. We appeared to be on their trajectory.

 Wood Warbler

Totals: 4 (1)

Sardinian Warbler - 0 (1)

Blackcap - 1

Wood Warbler - 2

Goldfinch - 1

We went back to Mavrokolympos Dam where we saw two Woodchat Shrike, a female Ruppell's Warbler, three Cyprus Wheatears, a Whinchat and a Common Sandpiper.

Moving on to Agia Vavara it seemed that there was more about, probably brand new arrivals from the afternoon or birds moving up the valley having made landfall, that morning, at the coast. The list included Woodchat Shrike, Ortolan Bunting,Tree Pipit, Hoopoe, Whinchat, Sedge Warbler, Wood Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Greenshank, Little Egret, Common Sandpiper, Little Ringed Plover and Great Snipe.

We finished the day at a site popular with hirundines and made a pre roost capture.

Totals:16

Swallow - 15

Sardinian Warbler - 1

11 April

The first of our last two ringing sessions at Kouklia. We were not expecting too much as passerine passage has been fairly quiet of late. The first two birds out of the nets were a couple of Swallows, a result of the very low feeding passes made in cooler, if not cloudier weather.

 4M Swallow

Catching went very slowly today and it wasn't long before nearly all nets were catching the wind. As the sun warms the earth, the breeze blows towards the sea until the temperature equalises, during which time (frequently no more than 30 minutes if we're lucky) there is virtually no wind, until the land temperature exceeds that of the sea and the wind blows on shore. 

As we worked, a Savi's Warbler reeled in the close by vegetation. Two Glossy Ibis flew along the coast and we saw our first Turtle Doves, two groups of eight and four birds in off the sea.

By 11am we were taking down with a total of 22 birds captured.

Totals: 20 (2)

Swallow - 2

Whinchat – 2
Cetti’s Warbler – 0 (1)
Great Reed Warbler – 3
Eastern Oliveaceous Warbler - 1
Sardinian Warbler – 2 (1) 

Whitethroat – 1
Blackcap – 7

Ortolan Bunting – 1

A tour around Mandria after lunch turned up another Turtle Dove, two Nightingale, Woodchat Shrike, three Northern Wheatear, some Red-rumped Swallows and two Alpine Swifts. We photographed a Spur-winged Plover in one of the small coastal fields.

 Spur-winged Plover

The Caspian Plover was still in the field where it was first found. 

12 April

The last visit back to Kouklia, with no sign of the passerine passage picking up, so we had another quiet morning, closing around 10.30am. A third of the birds were retraps, all resident breeding birds apart from a Blackcap and Eastern Olivaceous Warbler that had both been processed by us earlier in the month.

 Nightingale

Blackcaps were well represented on the record sheet.

Chris extracts the final bird, a Blackcap of course.

Totals: 12 (6)

Nightingale - 1

Cetti’s Warbler – 0 (1)
Great Reed Warbler – 1 (1) 

Eastern Oliveaceous Warbler - 0 (1)
Sardinian Warbler – 1 (2) 

Blackcap – 7 (1)

Chiffchaff - 1

Great Tit - 1

On trying to start the car we found the battery totally flat and are very grateful to our friend Alan who arrived with jump leads to give up a bump start.  Later that day we rejoined Alan and Lynne at their home for a wonderful meal, but when it was time to leave, although the car had started when we left Emba, the battery needed another charge!

We took a risk and kept the engine running while we took one last run around Agia Varvara. There was a nice range of species.

Long-legged Buzzard

13 April

The battery was completely dead the following morning so we spent a good deal of time awaiting a representative from the car hire firm with another battery. We were amazed to find that the replacement (I won't say new one) was quite a bit larger than that in the vehicle, even though it was flat - so needed a decent run before turning off the engine. No problem! We were planning to drive to the birding sites at Limassol, so off we went planning to do Phassouri, Akrotiri, Ladies Mile and Zakiki. The lost hours meant that Bishop's Pool had to go by the by.

Having just arrived at Phassouri a text about a Hooded Wheatear had us turning round and heading straight back on the A6 to Paphos. It was no longer at the Odeon where disturbance from holiday makers got too much, but we had good views in the remains of the Frankish fort.  

 5M Hooded Wheatear at Paphos Headland

Otherwise the headland was found to be fairly quiet following a brief check after viewing the Wheatear. We went back to the Akrotiri peninsula and revisited Phassouri, Akrotiri GP, Ladies Mile and Zakkaki Marsh.

 Ladies Mile at dusk

It was all rather quiet apart from 3 Great Snipe on the pool at the start of Akrotiri GP, and a large number  of Short-toed Larks in two groups.

14 April

Our last day in Cyprus spent at Larnaca. We returned to Oroklini Marsh where there was a sizeable flock of Cattle Egret, some Little Egrets and two Little Crakes.

 A Marsh Harrier was persistent at bothering the waders but made no serious attempts to feed.  There seemed few passerines about although a Wood Warbler and Eastern Olivaceous Warbler were seen in the Tamarisks lining he marsh. We left the salt lake since it was still very full of water and the flamingos had mostly moved on and the pools across the road from the salt lake had no small waders. 

Kiti Dam

  Glossy Ibis

At Kiti dam we found plenty of Glossy Ibis and a smattering of other waders including two Temminck’s Stints. There were also Hoopoes, Whinchats, a Wryneck and Nightingale.

It was very disappointing to find a freshly dead Turtle Dove at the water's edge.

Moving on, the pools at Meneou now held a lot of Greater Flamingoes including the melanistic individual that made Cyprus national news while at Akrotiri, and had previously been seen in Isreal.

Melanistic Flamingo at Meneou Pools

There was no sign of the Red-necked Phalaropes. The sewage works at Larnaca was very full, much more water than when we first arrived and although little was there on our first try, one last look turned up a Collared Pratincole and 14 Gull-billed Terms flying through.  Before looking at Spiro’s Pool we went along the beach to check out the arable fields, and as it turned out, find four Dotterel.

It was no mean feat to find the four Dotterel. Two are in shot and near invisible.

This is a good number and we got a few record shots before we, and a facebook friend of CL’s that he’d never before met in person, were asked to stop looking at the airport!

This bought our spring visit, to Cyprus, to a close. We intend to continue our ringing visits as no other ringing takes place in the Paphos district. We have made annual visits since 2009 with an additional winter trip in 2014. From time to time we are joined by others and any ringer interested in accompanying us should contact us.

Many thanks to AC, ringing officer for Cyprus, for inviting us to his Polis sites and ensuring that we had any rings we might need.