22 July 15 - Coastal House Prices Set To Fall As...

In a break from the normal Posts, this is the first of an occasional Guest Posts. Today's Post has been written by Rich Foole, Lead Editorial Writer for the popular right leaning Daily Wail newspaper.

Coastal house prices are set to free fall as swarms of Killer Jellyfish invade the coastline. These Jellyfish have been arriving all along the Southern coastlines over the last few months. None of the Jellyfish have been found in possession of a UK passport and all are believed to be illegal immigrants. They appear in the night time and are making it difficult for our readers, especially the dog walkers & beach-lovers, to enjoy the beaches. Many of our readers are too scared to walk their dogs on the beaches, fearful that these Jellyfish will suddenly jump up and maul their dogs. 

Barrel Jellyfish: This looks very fat, perhaps it has already fed on a small dog. South Haven, Studland (9 July)

Budget cuts have meant the Border Force have been caught out as these Killer Jellyfish continue to arrive. A spokesman for the Border Force admitted off the record, we blame it on the problems in the Mediterranean, especially in Libya. The European Mediterranean countries should be doing more to stop them appearing in the Med. Once they get out of the Med, they are quickly arriving in areas like Calais. Here the French are encouraging them to leave French waters & make the short crossing to the British beaches.

Barrel Jellyfish: Not looking at it's best. South Haven, Studland (9 July)

The UKIQP leader, Mr Farfetched, was quick to call for the EU to pay for all the Jellyfish to be returned to Europe. He said this would not happen if the government had listened to him & built a wall all along our territorial water borders. It worked for Hadrian 1900 years ago & it could work for the UK again today.

Barrel Jellyfish: Note, the killer tentacles stretching out towards our intrepid cameraman. South Haven, Studland (9 July)

With no let up to their arrival in sight, the Daily Wail believes it won't be long before coastal house prices are in free fall. This wouldn't have happened if Mrs Thatcher was still running the government, instead of the left wing puppet, David Camerbert.

 
We do not believe the explanations about these Jellyfish by TV wildlife presenter, Steve Backshall, published recently on Twitter. Yet again it proves you should not believe what you read on social media (apart from the Daily Wail tweets, of course). The article was desperately published by The Guardian, but clearly it can't be treated seriously.

3 Jul 15 - Turkey - Final Turkish Borderline Birding

The final Turkish Birding was at Durnalik about fifteen miles East of Gaziantep. This was a pretty site with a path which passed between some low cliffs, before we reached some Olive groves.

The first part of the path weaved between these high cliffs

There is a presumed Eastern Rock Nuthatch nest on these cliffs

A close up of the presumed Eastern Rock Nuthatch nest

Eastern Rock Nuthatch: This is the dresseri subspecies which occurs from South East Turkey to West Iran & Iraq

Eastern Rock Nuthatch

Eastern Rock Nuthatch: Eastern Rock Nuthatches are much longer-billed and have a bold black eye stripe that broadens behind the eye compared to their Rock Nuthatch cousins

Rock Nuthatch: A Rock Nuthatch from earlier in the trip at Akseki (28 Jun 15)

Sombre Tit: This is the anatoliae subspecies which occurs from South Greece to Turkey, West Georgia, Armenia, North Iraq & North West Iran

A distant Woodchat Shrike: This is the niloticus subspecies which occurs from East Turkey & the Levant to Iran. They winter as far South as central Africa

There were Olive groves after we had passed through the low cliffs

A wider view of the habitat

As the habitat opened up, Soner found a showy Cinereous Bunting.

Cinereous Bunting: This is the yellow-bellied semenowi subspecies which occurs in South East Turkey (as far West as Gaziantep) to the Zagros Mountains in South West Iran

Cinereous Bunting: The other subspecies has a greyish-belly. It occurs in West & South Turkey, as far East as the Eastern Taurus Mountains, so we should have been in range for it earlier in the trip

Cinereous Bunting: They are not a bright-coloured Bunting, however, they have a restricted world range

Cinereous Bunting: I saw them at two nearby sites on the first trip in 1986 and this was only the third time I've seen the species

Cinereous Bunting

We had seen our main target species within about thirty minutes of our arrival. Having checked there was unlikely to be any of species that would be new to the trip, I decided that it would be better to head back to the car and start the two hour journey back to Adana airport. This would provide some contingency time in case of road problems. We had no problems and used this extra time for a lunch stop, when we were close to the airport. Soner dropped me at the airport and I had a good flight home. It had been a good trip and an excellent one day extension. It's a pity that Nigel, Simon & Bob had been unable to join me for this extra day.

3 Jul 15 - Turkey - Early Morning At Birecik

We couldn't get a pre-dawn breakfast at the hotel, so Soner & I found something basic at a street stall in Birecik. We had succeeded in seeing Iraq Babbler, Bruce's Scops Owl, Desert Finch and some nice Sparrow species on the previous afternoon. That still left quite a few species I hadn't seen them since the 1986 Turkish trip, that I would have liked to look for on my final morning. The main species were See-see Partridge, Eastern Rock Nuthatch, Menetries's Warbler, Kurdish Wheatear and Cinereous Bunting. The first three were possible to see in the Birecik area and Soner had a site for Cinereous Bunting on the route back. Unfortunately, the Kurdish Wheatear would have meant an early start to get to the best site and I wouldn't have had the time to do any more Birding at Birecik and still be back in Adana for the late afternoon check in at the airport. As none of them were Ticks, I decided to try for all, but the Kurdish Wheatear. Our first location was to look for the See-see Partridges by driving the sandy road on the North East side of Birecik towards Birecik Dam, before too many other cars were heading that way. It didn't take long before we bumped into the first of several See-see Partridges.

See-see Partridge: A Male feeding on the road until we stopped, when it legged it and then sat on distant rocks

See-see Partridge: Male

See-see Partridge: Male. This monotypic species occurs from arid South East Turkey & the Middle East to South West Russia & Pakistan

See-see Partridge: Male

See-see Partridge: Male

See-see Partridge: Male

See-see Partridge: Male

See-see Partridge: Pair

See-see Partridge: Pair

It's not surprising that we also saw a Turtle Dove and a few Collared Doves on this drive.

Turtle Dove: This is the nominate turtur subspecies which occurs on the Azores, the Canary Islands & from Europe to West Siberia & Kazakhstan

Turtle Dove: It was good to see this species which is now a notable species to bump into on migration in Dorset

Collared Dove: This is the nominate decaocto subspecies which occurs from Europe to the Middle East, India, Sri Lanka, West China & Korea. They have been introduced in North America, the Caribbean & Mexico

Olive groves between Birecik and Birecik Dam

We carried on North along the sandy road until we reached the Birecik Dam. I was disappointed to find there was little reed edging to the dam, which would limit the expansion of the Iraq Babbler population around Birecik.

A wet corner by the Birecik Dam

Birecik Dam holds water back on the River Euphrates for about fifteen miles

A close inspection of this photo shows this village is abandoned: A couple of the buildings are partly underwater and there are no windows in any of the buildings

Pygmy Cormorant: The monotypic species occurs in inland lakes & rivers of South East Europe to central Asia

Syrian Woodpecker: This monotypic species occurs from South East Europe to Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Transcaucasia & Iran

Swallow: This is the nominate rustica subspecies which occurs from Europe & North Africa to West Asia and winters in Sub-Saharan Africa & South Asia

Red-rumped Swallow: Not a great photo, but it shows their distinctive shape well

Red-rumped Swallow: This is the rufula subspecies which occurs from the Iberian Peninsula to North Africa, Iran, Afghanistan & North West India

Sombre Tit: This is the anatoliae subspecies which occurs from South Greece to Turkey, West Georgia, Armenia, North Iraq & North West Iran

Sombre Tit

Sombre Tit

Sombre Tit

Yellow-vented Bulbul: This monotypic species occurs from coastal South Turkey to the Near East, the Sinai Peninsula & Arabia

Yellow-vented Bulbul: This species was called Yellow-vented Bulbul when I first saw it in 1986 and I've kept with that name, despite Clements & IOC renaming it to White-spectacled Bulbul

Yellow-vented Bulbul: The pale yellow vent is visible, which is a feature which is shared with several other Bulbul species

Black-headed Bunting: Male. This monotypic species occurs from Italy & the Balkans, Greece & Turkey to South East Ukraine, South West Russia & the Caucasus, to North Israel, North Jordan, North West Syria, North Iraq & Iran to India

Yellow-throated Sparrow: This is the transfuga subspecies which occurs from South East Turkey to Iraq, South Iran, South Pakistan & North West India

Turkish Wasp sp.

This attractive large boulder almost looks like an Agama Lizard's head

One closer inspection, the eye is actually a nest: Soner thought this was an Eastern Rock Nuthatch nest. We only saw Eastern Rock Nuthatches in the Birecik area, albeit both are in range according to eBird

A final habitat photo

After a couple of hours on the tracks North of Birecik and Birecik Dam, we headed back into town and found some breakfast near the Bald Ibis captive breeding centre. There was a Roughtail Rock Agama in the cafe's garden.

Roughtail Rock Agama: This is the widespread and common Agama in Turkey

Roughtail Rock Agama: Head and shoulders

After some breakfast in Birecik, we headed off West for an hour to our final Birding site in Turkey to look for Cinereous Buntings.

There were Olive groves in some parts of the journey to Gaziantep

Very uninspiring tower blocks on the edge of Gaziantep

A large mosque on the edge of Gaziantep

A Silk Road Camel Caravan alongside the main road through Gaziantep

A second Silk Road Camel Caravan alongside the main road through Gaziantep: It's a pity there was nowhere to pull off to take some better photos of these statues

We only had another fifteen miles to travel before we reached our final Birding site at Durnalik. I will cover that in the next and final Turkish Blog Post.