Turkey - 29 & 30 May 2016 Central Taurus Mountains

The primary reason for staying in this area was to see Caspian Snowcock, but we had to wait until day two to see them.

Caspian Snowcock male

29 May

We allowed two days in case of bad weather and it was just as well. Heavy cloud and possible rain meant that going to the tops on our first day was not possible. It was unlikely that visibility would be good enough for birds to be seen and the road conditions would be slippery and difficult.  Beshir checked the weather at 4am, but it was a no go. That meant an extra few hours in bed before breakfast at our pension, Oz Safak, then checking out the nearby sites in the Aladağlar Milli Park.
First we tried the gorge, only to fnd a training group of some 60 students doing introductory rock- climbing. They were all learning how to safely hammer clips into the rock - so there went our chance of Wallcreeper. We walked a far way up the gorge seeing Red-fronted Serin, Rock Bunting, Rock Sparrow, Lesser Whitethroat, Black Redstart, Alpine Chough, Long-legged Buzzard and Golden Eagle.

 Red fronted Serin

 Golden Eagle

 Long-legged Buzzard

Chough

Other visits in the valley turned up areas especially good for Red-backed Shrike and wheatears, with sightings of White-winged Snowfinch and White-throated Robin.

 White-winged Snowfinch

 Isabilline Wheatear with chicks

 Red-backed Shrike adult male

Linnets were present from the high tops to the fertile farmed valleys.

30 May

While out with Beshir, looking for Snowcocks, we also saw Alpine Choughs, Radde's Accentor, Alpine Accentor, more White-winged Snowfinch, Black Redstart and a most unexpected Wallcreeper. We also discovred that the ground squirrels are known as Souslik in Turkey.

 Black Redstart male

Radde's Accentor

Souslik - present on grassy slopes in large numbers, they emit birdlike calls guarenteed to confuse

when so many calls are unfamiliar or slightly different.

After seeing the upland birds with Beshir we returned to Oz Safak pension for another great breakfast. We very much recommend Beshir for anyone wanting to see Caspian Snowcock. Visibility is weather dependent and it is advisable to allow some spare time in case of situations such as ours where there was fresh snow on the tops with unseasonal rain and cloud. The pension is very comfortable, as is the transport to the viewing area.

  

We took a final drive around the area before leaving. We failed to get views of Crimson-winged Finch other than as fly pasts. There were additional views of Finsche's Wheater and Shore Lark..

Male Finsche's Wheater.

Shore Lark.

Clear snow capped peaks on the day of our departure

 Our final bird in the area was a Stonechat.

Male Stonechat.

The Stonechat was not at all like those we usually see in the UK. The white neckband was almost complete - just a small black line to separate the sides. This first year male had quite subtle rufous colouration on the breast, however the rump looked speckled so not a complete fit for either race. Perhaps an example of graduated clines across its range.

Turkey - 27 & 28 May 2016 - Goksu Delta

27 May

Today we went to the Goksu Delta. The tracks around the ditches are to be treated with caution in wet conditions so we were mindful of the limitations of our 2WD, low clearance Fiat.

Right from the start there was heavy cloud over the mountains as we scanned the reeds and water from probably the worse designed bird-hide in existence – never mind the missing step about 10 feet up, not what you expect when something is clearly rather new.

Worst hide in the world?

Purple Gallinule was seen, Great Crested Grebe and Red-crested Pochard. A few mammals put in appearances with Golden Jackal and Egyptian Mongoose  seen on the delta. We had Black-winged Stilt, Spur-winged Plover, White-winged Black, Whiskered, Common and Little Tern – but no Marbled Duck. 

 Spur-winged Plover

The cloud turned to rain, then thunder was heard and eventually the storm drifted our way to fall as very heavy rain with hail before drifting away. We had to leave one track for fear of becoming stuck in the gloopy mud. Through the rain we disturbed a couple of Collared Pratincole, then saw several more going through, with Hobby, Purple Heron, Squacco Heron, Little Egret, Ruddy Shelduck and Kentish Plover also being seen. 

 Ruddy Shelduck

 Great White Egret

 Kentish Plover

There were a few Marsh Harriers overhead.

 Marsh Harrier

After the rain we headed off to look at a nearby castle. It was closed, so after a brief look from the outside we drove off to find a track to explore. We spotted  a very interesting gorge that held Cretzchmar’s  Bunting, Rufous Bush Robin and Ruppell’s Warbler with Honey Buzzard and Sparrowhawk overhead.

 Rufous Bush Robin

A little later we returned to the delta. Tracks were still rather wet but with much improved light now we succeeded in seeing Moustached Warbler and Bearded Tit- but still no Marbled Duck.

  Bearded Tit male

White Stork and three Glossy Ibis were feeding on the rice paddyfields

 White Stork

 Glossy Ibis

28 May

We had a little time in the morning before setting off for the mountains so returned to Goksu, hoping the better weather would allow more birds to show themselves. We got additional species of Grey Plover, Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover and European Roller.

 European Roller

Oystercatcher

We also got better views of the Collared Pratincoles.

 Collared Pratincole

We had some lunch before setting off to the pension in the mountains. The restaurant had a family of Jays and finally it was possible to photograph one of these birds. They are or interest because they have complete black caps, unlike those that we get in the UK.

Juvenile Jay

After another long drive we arrived at our destination. We were surprised to find the rivers in fast flow, heavy cloud cover and snow on the mountain tops. We can only hope that it is possible to see the mountain top species.

Turkey - 25 & 26 May 2016 North of Akseki and travelling East

25 May
We took the road to Akseki and followed directions to a place 15km to the north where Middle-spotted Woodpecker used to be seen. In keeping with our recent luck with Woodpeckers we didn't see or even hear any, but did see Serin, Coal Tit, Wood Lark, Crossbill, Redstart and Kruper's Nuthatch.

Kruper'sNuthatch (record shot)

Lesser Fiery Copper

Trying another site 8kms from the town, the wind had really got up and it was very cold. The Woodpeckers remained elusive but we heard Wren and also saw Rock Bunting.

Rock Bunting

We tried another flat area but had no luck with birds but a few other butterfly species.

 White Admiral sp. -identification to be confirmed

 Fritillary sp. - identification to be confirmed

After our walks we also added Long-legged Buzzard, Collared Flycatcher and Cretchzmar's Bunting while driving near the town of Akseki.

26 May
This was really a travelling day with a couple of hundred kilometres to cover on twisting coastal roads. We broke the trip up by first visiting  Alanya Castle.

 

Alanya castle walls

Mamure Castle was the next target, but it was closed for renovation. However, Recep the gardener gave us a tour of the outer walls, showed us the turtles in the moat, sea turtle beach and gave us tea.

 Mamure Castle

 The moat holds Red-eared Pond Slider, European Pond and Central Turkey Pond turtles and hybrids (some being non-native species).

 

The moat at Mamure where a Little Bittern was flushed.

An island opposite the castle, apart from nesting Yellow-legged Gulls, held three Great Egrets, plus Shag and Great Cormorant.

After completing the trip, we ate at the harbour at Tasucu, seeing Audouin's Gulls from the beachside restaurant while Laughing Dove were seen and heard too.

Turkey - 24 May 2016 Manavgat Plains and Tasagil.

We found the tyre repair had gone down over night so lost four hours putting the repaired spare back on and going back to the garage to buy a new tyre. We saw Corn Bunting and Masked Shrike on the way and returning to the garage placed us near the plains area so we gave that another try. The drive gave us Little Bittern, Calandra Lark and a heard Great Reed Warbler in addition to many of the species seen on the previous day. Not too bad as it was close to midday by the time we actually started.

 Little Bittern female

 Little Bittern male

On the Tasagil Road we again tried for Olive-tree Warbler, having no luck but did manage to see Ruppell's Warbler and Alpine Swift.

Ruppell's Warbler

On the road to Turbe we climbed steeply up into the hills and got views of Short-toed Eagle, Honey Buzzard, and Western Rock Nuthatch.

Western Rock Nuthatch

 Persian Squirrel

On returning to Golbasi Hotel, Scops Owl and Syrian Woodpecker were both heard.