2 Jul 15 - Turkey - Tuz Golu Estuary

We were treated to a later start and breakfast in the Demirkazik hotel. After which we departed for a coastal site called Tuz Golu, relatively close to the city of Adana. Not to be confused with a large lake called Tuz Golu to the North West of Demirkazik. We arrived at Tuz Golu after an uneventful couple of hours or so of driving. In my view, this wasn't a great site and was purely there as a padder site on the last morning of the tour for the others. However, it was about forty-five minutes away from Adana airport, where the others were flying out of and it may have been the best location available. We quickly stopped for this Squacco Heron just before reached the estuary.

Squacco Heron: This monotypic species occurs in the Southern part of the Western Palearctic, Africa & Madagascar

There were a few Waders on the estuary with the highlight being a lone Greater Sandplover, along with about thirty Kentish Plovers.

The coastal Tuz Golu was an a large coastal estuary

Some of the group

Black-winged Stilt: This monotypic species occurs in the Mediterranean & Sub-Saharan Africa to South East Asia & Taiwan

Black-winged Stilt: They are a very elegant species

Greater Sandplover with a closer Kentish Plover: This is the columbinus subspecies which breeds from Turkey to South Afghanistan and winters in the South East Mediterranean & Red Sea

Greater Sandplover: Taken with my Canon 7D Mark II

Greater Sandplover: Another example of the crap colour balance with the Canon SX60, compared to the previous photos taken with my Canon 7D Mark II. Although the SX60 had a more powerful zoom, the quality was poor at a high zoom and the higher zoom was generally too grainy to be worth using

After having a good look at the estuary, we headed off to a small restaurant on the edge of the estuary for an early lunch.

The local accommodation in these habitats always looks very basic and rundown

After an early lunch it was off to Adana airport to drop the others as the tour had ended. There were a few common species to photograph as the others were grabbing their bags.

Laughing Dove: This is the nominate senegalensis subspecies which occurs from some of the Greek islands, to Turkey, Israel, West Arabia, Socotra & Sub-Saharan Africa

When I was looking into the potential Ticks for this trip, I was interested to see that Iraq Babbler had expanded into the Birecik area in the previous decade. 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. 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. 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.

House Sparrow: This is the balearoibericus subspecies which occurs from Mediterranean Spain, the Balearic Islands & France, to the Balkans & Turkey

To be on the safe side, I had asked Soner if he would stay on for an extra day of private guiding with a hired car to go looking for the Iraq Babblers. He was happy to do that and so I arranged to fly back one day later than the others. I had invited Nigel, Simon and Bob to join me. Unfortunately, they had already booked their flights and it was very expensive to change them. I was happy to go on my own with Soner, who knew the best areas for the Iraq Babblers and more importantly, he would be able to check the local conditions on the day, in case, security in the area had suddenly become more dangerous. Fortunately, there were no risks in visiting and I will cover the Birecik extension in the next Blog Posts.

1 Jul 15 - Turkey - More Birds At Demirkazik

We started the day with a successful dawn visit to the top of one of the mountains near Demirkazik. After seeing all the hoped for goodies, including a singing Radde's Accentor, we returned to the hotel.

Looking at the mountains from the hotel: I think we spent the morning at the top of the slope on the photo's left hand side

After a late breakfast or early lunch, we tried some nearby woodland.

Turkish Orchid sp.: I've not tried to figure this species out

Unfortunately, it quickly became very wet in the woodland area and we abandoned that option, in favour of a long dry valley at the base of the mountains near to the start of the Emli Valley. We spent some time here scanning the area.

The first stop in the long dry valley

A closer view of the large rocky cliff within the valley

Yet another large Sheep flock: I wonder how much damage they do to the environment

Little Owl: This is the indigena subspecies which occurs from the Balkans to Turkey, South Russia, Transcaucasia & South West Siberia

Chough: A red-billed Adult at the top with two yellow-billed youngsters. This is the docilis subspecies which occurs from Crete & South East Europe to North Arabia, North Iraq, Iran & Afghanistan

White Wagtail: This is the nominate alba subspecies which occurs from South East Greenland, Iceland to Faeroes, Europe, Turkey & the South Urals

White Wagtail

Rock Bunting: This is the nominate cia subspecies which occurs in Morocco to Tunisia, the Iberian Peninsula & Southern Europe East to Turkey & Lebanon

Rock Bunting

Red-fronted Serin: Male

Red-fronted Serin: Female

Red-fronted Serin: Male

Red-fronted Serin: Male

Red-fronted Serin: Male

Taurus Souslik: There was a colony of these adorable Taurus Sousliks to entertain us

Taurus Souslik: If you sat quietly they would happily pose for you

Taurus Souslik: They have a vegetarian diet

Taurus Souslik: Every now and then, they stand up to look for danger

Taurus Souslik: Head and shoulders

Taurus Souslik: Nigel showing how approachable the Taurus Souslik were

The previous close up photos were taken with my Canon SX60. Many Birders raved about this camera and initially I liked it. However, after a few years of using it, I grew to dislike the photos it produced, as they were always over-saturated and there wasn't a setting in the camera to set it to realistic colours. I guess if I knew more about Lightroom, I might be able to correct the colour imbalance within the camera. In comparison, the Canon 7D and R7 cameras I've owned, have been good at providing a realistic colour balance, so it's frustrating that Canon just sell this poor quality camera. In the end, I just stopped using the SX60 and was pleased to be able to sell in on at a reasonable second hand price.

Taurus Souslik: A final photo with my Canon 7D Mark II with realistic colours

Lesser Spotted Fritillary

Next, we carried on into a better vegetated part of the Emli Valley, where there was a campground at the base of the mountains. Another Finsch's Wheatear was the highlight here.

An entrance hut close to the campground

Finsch's Wheatear: Male

Red-backed Shrike: Male. This monotypic species occurs from Europe & Turkey to West Siberia, West Kazakhstan & North West Iran

Red-backed Shrike: Male

Red-backed Shrike: Female

Wheatear

Taurus Souslik: A quick photo of another Taurus Souslik near the campground

Chamois: A couple of distant Chamois on the top of one of the valley's crags. Chamois are native to the mountains in the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Apennines, the Dinarides, the Tatra to the Carpathian Mountains, the Balkan Mountains, the Rila–Rhodope massif, Pindus, mountains in Turkey, & the Caucasus. Additionally, it is yet another environmentally-damaging introduced Mammal on New Zealand's South Island

We returned to our hotel in Demirkazik for a second night.

1 Jul 15 - Turkey - Returning To Demirkazik

One of my two main reasons for returning to Turkey was to revisit Demirkazik to look for Radde's Accentor. This was my main dip on my first trip back in 1986 with Mark Ponsford, Nigel Goodgame and Dave Unsworth. Our original plan was to spent a day in Turkish Cyprus for the two known (at the time) breeding endemics, Cyprus Warbler and Cyprus Pied Wheatear. When we got to the ferry terminal, we found that the ferry wasn't day-tripping Cyprus and we would need to overnight on the island. I went as planned, but Nigel and Dave dropped out. The trade-off was they visited Demirkazik when I was on Cyprus. At the time, I thought I could catch up with the Demirkazik species later in the North East, but it was only when we got there I rechecked the gen and found we didn't have any sites for Radde's Accentor.

There is a large open area and distant mountains at the top of the Demirkazik track

My plan B was to hire a car for twenty-four hours and belted down to Demirkazik towards the end of the trip. I managed to see a couple of Finsch's Wheatears that had also eluded us in the North East, but I couldn't find any Radde's Accentors. It was a lovely site and I was keen to return some day. However, I never thought I would get back to Demirkazik until Nigel Jones starting talking of this trip to look for the newly-found Brown Fish Owls.

The basic camp of a local shepherd

The alarm woke me well and I joined the others on a very cold morning, well before dawn. We were soon in a trailer on the back of a tractor, which spent a good hour or more slowly bumping us up the mountain. We were all pleased when we finally stopped towards the top of the track at first light and the bumping stopped. It was time to start looking for the Demirkazik goodies.

Radde's Accentor: This monotypic species occurs in the mountains of Turkey, Armenia, North Georgia & Iran

Radde's Accentor: This Male was watched singing for a few minutes in the post-dawn light. However, it quickly disappeared and we never saw it again

There was a good selection of other species around the top of the track to keep us occupied.

Red-fronted Serin: Male (left) and Female

Red-fronted Serin: Male. I finally managed to get close to this Male as it sat above me

Red-fronted Serin: Male. This monotypic species occurs from the Mountains of Turkey to West China

Black Redstart: This is the ochruros subspecies which occurs from Central Turkey to the Caucasus & North West Iran

Black Redstart

Wheatear: Juvenile. This is the nominate oenanthe subspecies which occurs from the British Isles to the Mediterranean & East to Siberia, Alaska & North West Canada

Shorelark: This is the bicornis subspecies which occurs from the Taurus Mountains of Central Turkey to Lebanon & Palestine

Shorelark

Shorelark

Shorelark

Snowfinch: Female. This is the leucura subspecies which occurs in South & East Turkey

Snowfinch: Female

Snowfinch: Male looking down on me from a large rock

Finally, somebody picked up a couple of Caspian Snowcocks which were silhouetted against the skyline at the top of one of the cliffs. They weren't close, but it was good to see this regional endemic again.

Caspian Snowcock: This is the tauricus subspecies which occurs in the mountains of South & East Turkey & West Armenia

The Caspian Snowcocks were on the top left hand side of these crags: I did walk closer to get the poor photos above

Finally, it was time to shake all our bones again in the tractor trailer. We started to descend, but ran into a Finsch's Wheatear, which provided an excuse to stop for this local speciality.

It was time to head back to the village

It wasn't a comfortable ride

We had a lot of height to drop before we would be back in the village

Finsch's Wheatear: Male. This is the nominate finschii subspecies which occurs from South-central to South East Turkey to Israel, North Arabia & South Iran. They winter in Cyprus & Egypt

Finsch's Wheatear: Male

Finally, we were back in the hotel for late morning. There were a couple of Tree Sparrows nesting under the hotel guttering.

Back at the hotel

Tree Sparrow: This is the nominate montanus subspecies which occurs from Europe & North Africa to North Mongolia, Manchuria & the Sea of Okhotsk