The group tour was over and I had said goodbye to the others at Adana airport in the last Blog Post. However, I still had a final twenty-four hours in Turkey. My plan was to continue onto the Birecik area to look for Iraq Babbler. This was a species that wasn't around in Turkey on my first trip in 1986 and I was keen to look for it, given there are no other realistic locations where it would be possible to safely see it in its range.
A scenery shot as we headed East
However, I was nervous about travelling to Birecik, which was my most favourite location that we visited on the first trip, as it was only twenty miles North of where there had been an ongoing major battle with ISIS around Kobani. By the time the trip happened, it was a few months after ISIS had been pushed out of Kobani, but I was still uneasy given there could be ISIS supporters who were involved in smuggling arms, supplies and supporters across the Turkish-Syrian border. When I checked with Soner's colleague, he assured me that Birecik town was safe to visit, albeit I wasn't going to carry on further East, as that province had a UK Government Essential Travel Only warning.
A distant Crusader castle
Normally, I would have hired a car and gone on my own after asking Soner for some directions for species of interest. However, It made more sense from a security viewpoint to ask Soner to pick up a hire car and guide me, as he would be able to check the local conditions on the day, in case, security in the area had suddenly become more dangerous. Fortunately, the area was still safe to visit and the Birecik extension was on. We were soon heading East on the three hour journey from Adana airport to Birecik. We arrived with a couple of hours of good light.
Overtaking Turkish style: At least it was a dual carriageway on this occasion. It looked-like the skills of Turkish lorry drivers hadn't significantly improved since my first visit in 1986
Soner said the Iraq Babblers would be more active later in the afternoon, so our first site was the riverbank just outside of the town, on the South East side of Birecik. Soon after we arrived, an Ibis flew over. I was hoping it would be a Bald Ibis as I raised the bins, and then the camera, given Birecik is the home of the decades long project to protect the Bald Ibis in Turkey. However, it was a Glossy Ibis. Still the light was good for photography. This proved to be a good site for Desert Finches, Yellow-throated Sparrows and Dead Sea Sparrows. A Rufous Bushchat was singing in the bushes.
Glossy Ibis: This monotypic species occurs locally from the USA to Northern South America, as well as, Africa, Eurasia to Australasia
Rufous Bushchat: This is the ssss subspecies which occurs from the Balkans to West & South Turkey, West Syria & the Lebanon
Desert Finch: This monotypic species occurs locally in the mountains of South East Turkey to North Pakistan & North China
Desert Finch: This is another example of why Birding at Birecik is so good. There are a mixture of dry country species which are on the edge of their range here and difficult to see in South East Turkey & the neighbouring countries aren't possible to visit. Plus, the River Euphrates is a natural corridor that bring species further North, as well as, providing well-irrigated fields in this otherwise dry country
Yellow-throated Sparrow: This is the transfuga subspecies which occurs from South East Turkey to Iraq, South Iran, South Pakistan & North West India
Dead Sea Sparrow: Male. This is the nominate moabiticus subspecies which occurs in Cyprus, from South Turkey to Israel & Jordan, East to Iraq & South West Iran, with some migrating to Egypt & the UAE
Dead Sea Sparrow: Female. They are heavy-billed, like the Males
It was now worth heading off to look for the Iraq Babbler. But as we were passing the park in the middle of the town, it would have been rude not to stop and look for a Bruce's Scops Owl. This is a lovely pale Scops Owl that sits high in the trees in the park, and often in the open, during the day. The problem is finding where they are sitting. On our first visit, we had been told by Birders who had visited in the previous year, to look for the teenage kids that hang around in the park and show them a picture in a field guide. This worked a treat and within five minutes we were watching the Bruce's Scops Owl. Mates who had been out a few years earlier, had looked at dusk and only had flight views of a small Owl sp. flying out of the park. This time we didn't need to do more than look where a visiting photographer was pointing his camera.
It was great to see this sign about Birecik's famous Owls
Bruce's Scops Owl: A species I've been lucky to see on both visits to Birecik, as well as, at the Desert Coursers lodge in Gujarat, which is its only reliable site in India
Bruce's Scops Owl: This is the obsoletus subspecies which occurs from South Turkey to North Syria, North Iraq, Uzbekistan & North Afghanistan
It was time to head onto the North West bank of the river to look for the Iraq Babbler.
Swallow: This is the nominate rustica subspecies which occurs from Europe & North Africa to West Asia and winters in Sub-Saharan Africa & South Asia
There were a couple of active Iraq Babblers moving around in the reeds that bordered the River Euphrates. This regionally important river has its headwaters in the mountains of East Turkey, before flowing through Birecik and into Syria, before finally travelling the length of Iraq. It joins the River Tigris near Basra forming the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which then flows into the Persian Gulf. This is a natural highway for Birds and explains how the Iraq Babblers arrived in Turkey. There are a few eBird records elsewhere in South-central Turkey as they have continued to slowly expand in the country.
The Iraq Babbler reedbeds
Iraq Babbler: It was great to watch this little known Western Palearctic species
Iraq Babbler: This monotypic species occurs in the reed beds of the Tigris & Euphrates Valleys in Syria, Iraq, South West Iran & more recently in South Turkey
We had enough light left for a quick visit to the Bald Ibis breeding colony. We crossed the River Euphrates again and within a few minutes, we were there. When I visited in 1986, If I remember correctly, we were told there were about thirty wild Bald Ibis left at Birecik and the captive breeding site had sixteen breeding ledges and twelve youngsters. Three years later, the last of the wild individuals had died. Now, all the Birecik Bald Ibis are descendants of the reintroduction scheme.
The entrance gate to the Bald Ibis breeding colony
The Bald Ibis captive breeding centre: The cage around the breeding boxes
When I visited in 2015, there were around one hundred and seventy Bald Ibis in the breeding cage, with one or two still flying in the wild, that hadn't been caught for the winter. The cage is opened in February to allow the Bald Ibis to forage in the wild and by the end of June the majority are recaptured. This is to stop the population migrating South, where many were expected to be shot in Lebanon, Syria and neighbouring countries. Protecting the Bald Ibises in some of these countries isn't a priority, given all their other problems. Three years later, this total had increased to two hundred and fifty. By the early 2020s, the population was healthy enough for a few to be released with satellite tags, so that their winter migrations can be mapped and to assess their chances of surviving in the wild on migration.
Bald Ibis: It's a shame they have to be penned over the winter to stop them migrating. Interestingly, the Moroccan Bald Ibis are non-migratory
Bald Ibis were downgraded from Critically Endangered to Endangered in 2018, based upon improved breeding success in the handful of their remaining Moroccan colonies and the breeding success of the semi-wild Birecik colony. There are also attempts to reintroduce captive bred individuals in Spain, but in the early 2020s, this released population is not self-sustaining.
It's good to see the town is proud of its Bald Ibises
The light was starting to go, so it was time to head off to check in at the hotel. We had crammed a lot of good Birds into a couple of hours. It was disappointing that the tour hadn't included Birecik in the route, given it is easily the best Birding location in the country in my opinion. But I guess, with the Syrian Civil War continuing just over the border at the time, the organisers decided to skip the location, in case visiting Birecik wasn't possible when the tour ran. The other reality is with the exception of Nigel, Simon and myself, most of the punters on the trip wouldn't be aware how good Birecik is and what they would be missing by not spending a day or two in the region.
