The previous Blog Post covered the start of our visit to the excellent Kayseri Sultan Sazligi Wetlands, where we had seen a Ferruginous Duck, a few White-headed Ducks and a showy Moustached Warbler. We still had the walk back from the lake hide to enjoy the site.
European Pond Terrapin: We saw a few European Pond Terrapins around the lake hide
There was a good selection of Birds on view around the wet fields close to the car park and entrance to the reserve.
There were wet fields close to the car park
Squacco Heron: This monotypic species occurs in the Southern part of the Western Palearctic, Africa & Madagascar
Purple Heron: This is the nominate purpurea subspecies which occurs in the Southern part of the Western Palearctic, Africa & Madagascar
White Stork: It was nice to see another pukka White Stork, without any worries over its origin that we now have in the UK after the release of so many White Storks in Sussex
Gull-billed Tern: Not a great photo, but it was the only Gull-billed Tern we saw on the trip. This is the nominate nilotica subspecies which occurs in the Western Palearctic and winters to tropical Africa & the Persian Gulf to India
Whiskered Tern: This is the nominate hybrida subspecies which occurs from central & Southern Europe & North West Africa to South East Siberia, Eastern China & South to Pakistan & North India. They winter in Africa, and from South & South East Asia to the Thai-Malay Peninsula, Sulawesi & the Philippines
Soner took us into a small grove of Willow Trees next to the car park, as he knew there was a pair of Penduline Tits that had a nest in the trees. There was also the first Syrian Woodpecker of the trip in the trees.
Penduline Tit: This is the nominate pendulinus subspecies which occurs from Europe to the Ural Mountains, the Caucasus Mountains & West Turkey
Penduline Tit Nest: They build an impressive nest
Syrian Woodpecker: This monotypic species occurs from South East Europe to Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Transcaucasia & Iran
There was a restaurant next to the car park, so that we could have lunch on the reserve.
Checking the reserve as we returned to the car park
Little Owl: This Little Owl was sitting out in full view by the car park. It is the indigena subspecies which occurs from the Balkans to Turkey, South Russia, Transcaucasia & South West Siberia
The tour was led by top Turkish Birder Soner
After lunch, we headed off to another part of the reserve. This was a more open area compared to the morning's location and we had good views of a couple of Collared Pratincoles here.
Our viewpoint over the open part of the reserve
Collared Pratincole: This is the nominate pratincola subspecies which occurs from Southern Europe to Pakistan and winters in Sub-Saharan Africa as far South as 5° North
This mountain set our thoughts for the next day: We had an early pre-dawn start planned for our visit to the montane Demirkazik
We had one more stop, in a nearby dry valley before we reached the village of Demirkazik. I will cover that dry valley Birding in my next Blog Post.
