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.

28 Jun 15 - Turkey - Late Afternoon At Akseki

The previous Blog Post covered our first afternoon stop in the Akseki area, to check some dry grassy fields before the town of Akseki. After a couple of hours there, we drove through the town and stopped to check an area of small stone-walled fields on the far side for the rest of the afternoon.

There was an area of small stone-walled fields on the far side of the town

There was a good selection of dry country Birds around these fields.

Alpine Chough: A silhouette view as I got the exposure wrong. This is the nominate graculus subspecies which occurs in the mountains of Europe, North Africa, the Caucasus & the South Caspian. The other subspecies ranges from Lebanon & Iran to South Tibet & the Himalayas

Rock Nuthatch: This is the syriaca subspecies which occurs from West & central Turkey to Syria, Lebanon & Israel

Ruppell's Warbler: Male. This monotypic species breeds from South Greece to Crete, Turkey & Syria

Ruppell's Warbler: Female

Ruppell's Warbler: Female

Eastern Black-eared Wheatear: This is now classified as a monotypic species which occurs from South central & South East Europe through the Middle East to Iran & South West Kazakhstan

Blue Rock Thrush: This is the longirostris subspecies which occurs from West & South Turkey through Israel, the Middle East to the North West Himalayas

Blue Rock Thrush

Black-headed Bunting: 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

Cretzschmar's Bunting: I successfully twitched the UK's sixth record on Bardsey of this monotypic species ten days earlier

Balkan Marbled White: They occur from Croatia, Serbia, Albania, Bulgaria & Greece to Asia Minor, to Transcaucasia & North West Iran

Balkan Marbled White

Antlion sp.

It was only a few minutes' drive to our average hotel in Akseki. The plan was to look for Kruper's Nuthatch in the woods around the town on the following morning, which I will cover in the next Blog Post.

4 May 14 - A Bank Holiday Weekend On The Coast

For over a century, it has been a great British tradition to head to the coast for bank holidays. This year the early May bank holiday was no exception. The difference was I got away to a different coastline, from the one I live on. I had the chance to get away from the UK with old mates from Southampton, Mark Edgeller, Gavin Maclean & Ken Arber, & a Bristol mate, Andy Mears, for a short break to look for Rock Partridge to Cavtat, Croatia (pronounced as Savtat). The trip was based around the excellent report by Ian Merrill of a trip he made in early May 13. We arrived at Gatwick in time for a quick snack to avoid getting a less impressive meal on the plane. This turned into a chance for a more leisurely meal when he heard the Monarch flight was running 2 hours late & we had no hope of getting any food on arrival at Cavtat.

Apart from the Monarch flight being late leaving, everything went smoothly & we arrived about midnight local time at Cavtat: which is the airport for Dubrovnik. We had let our car hire company know we would be arriving late & the guy was still there to sort all the paperwork. Fortunately, it was only a 15 minute drive for us to get from the airport to the accommodation in Cavtat, where another email exchange had meant they were also aware of our late arrival. They kindly bought some basic bread, jam & milk at the local shop, so we would have something for breakfast. The accommodation was the reasonably priced Bacan Serviced Apartments (apartmentsbacan@net.hr) run by Antun & Natasha Bacan. They speak good English, are very helpful & have some good & well equipped self-catering accommodation. My flat had 2 beds, a living room, small kitchen & bathroom for about £38/day. We booked the rooms on line, but Antun said that if any birders wanted to stay, he would be able to offer a discount by booking directly with them. It's about a 10 minute walk down the hill into the town where there was plenty of restaurants serving food. It was too late for anything other than a quick cuppa tea, before a few hours sleep. The alarm went far too early at 05:00 in time for a quick breakfast. It was only a 15 minute drive to the viewpoint on the small road to Velji Do in the hills above Cavtat.

Early morning view of the small town of Cavtat: It is only about 10 or 15 minutes drive from the airport

A close up of Cavtat harbour

The airport was nearly

Looking up the coast towards Dubrovnik

A distant shot of the old walled city of Dubrovnik 

As already mentioned in the Rock Partridge post, within a few minutes of arriving we had seen the Rock Partridge that was calling to greet us. If only all birds were this easy to see. After getting some great views & some grainy photos, we carried on walking along the road to the small village of Velji Do. After an hour or so, I decided to turn back as I was keen to get some better photos of the Rock Partridge. Eventually, the male moved to start calling below the viewpoint, where he sat for about 30 minutes until I eventually left before him. By this time the others had reappeared, so we went back for a final look for the Rock Partridge, but he had finally disappeared.

Rock Partridge: Male. Great views in the end with more photos on the Rock Partridge post

From the prominent viewpoint, whilst waiting for the Rock Partridge to reappear, it was possible to watch a cruise ship head North to explore the coastline, as well as several German charter planes arriving & departing.

The Costa Fascinosa arrives into the channel leading to the coast: I for one wouldn't want to take a Costa cruise after what happened to her sister ship, the Costa Concordia

2 German charter planes arrived in quick succession: If the Germans can fly in at sensible times of day, why can't UK charter companies

Although I was focusing on seeing & photographing the Rock Partridge in the morning, I did get the chance to photograph a few other species.

Subalpine Warbler: Male nest building. Subalpine Warbler has been proposed to be split into 3 species. This is the albistriata subspecies or Eastern Subalpine Warbler

 Rock Nuthatch: The Balkan subspecies is neumayer

Linnet: Female

By late morning, we were all keen to head back to Cavtat for an early lunch. There was a small cafe close to the Bacan apartments which had the advantage of seeing a Red-rumped Swallow whilst eating. Despite being early May, it was probably warmer in the UK than it was in Croatia & soon after a rain shower stopped birding for several hours. Still we needed to catch up on the sleep lost so not bad timing.

The team: Andy Mears, Gav Maclean, Mark Edgeller & Ken Arber (from left to right)