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.

8 April 14 - The Green Green Grass Of Israel

One of the birds we were all keen to look for in Israel was Long-billed Pipit, which was a Western P tick for me. Yoav suggested we tried Beit Yatir, which is an area of upland grassland next to a conifer forest & close to the border with the West Bank. So after a late night out looking for Nightbirds, we were up for dawn to head off to Beit Yatir (about 45 minutes drive). This took us back into the central hills & once we passed the town of Arad, it suddenly became very green & lush again. The first stop was around an ancient ruin, which we quickly explored, but didn't stay long as this wasn't Yoav's site.

It was very lush after the Dead Sea area once we passed Arad

Rock Dove: Of the palaestinae subspecies which occurs in Israel, Sinai & the Arabian Peninsula

Blue Rock Thrush: Female of the nominate solitarius subspecies which occurs throughout Europe, North Africa & the Middle East, with some wintering down in Central Africa

Black-eared Wheatear: This is the black-throated form of the melanoleuca subspecies, which is also called Eastern Black-eared Wheatear

It was only another mile or two before we reached what we think was Yoav's site. We were looking for a lush valley of fallow fields surrounded by stoney hillsides. In the end, we think we went up a different & smaller valley, but later came down Yoav's valley. Unfortunately, we failed to find any Long-billed Pipits, but there were plenty of other birds to make it a great morning's birding.

The smaller grassy valley

The start of the larger grassy valley (heading in to the right behind the hill) & the view looking towards the Dead Sea

In between the two valleys, was this stoney hill: This was where we saw most of the birds 

White Stork: This is the nominate ciconia subspecies of the Western Palearctic & Western Asia, which winters to tropical & South Africa

White Stork: We saw good numbers feeding in the greener parts of Israel, presumably stopping off to feeding before continuing to move North

Lesser Kestrel: Male. Nice views of a circling bird showing the blue-grey unmarked face, clean underwings & elongated central tail feathers

Chukar: This is the sinaica subspecies which occurs from the North Syrian desert South to the Sinai

Wryneck: Always a great species to see

Sardinian Warbler: Female. I assume this is the momus subspecies as this appeared to be a bird on territory. The nominate melanocephala subspecies is a scarce migrant in Israel

Collared Flycatcher: Male

Black-eared Wheatear: Male. Some of the males have pale throats, although the black-throated birds are more common in the melanoleuca birds

Black-eared Wheatear: Female

Pale Rock Sparrow: I was really glad to see these as the last ones I saw were in Turkey in 1986

Ortolan

Jackal: There were at least 2 Jackals here, both quite wary of us

Skipper sp.

By late morning, it was time to head back to the accommodation, check out & head off to Eilat: which was to be our base for the next 4 nights. But first we started a ritual to celebrate the ticks as the car was so dusty.

Celebrating the ticks: Hume's Tawny Owl, Nubian Nightjar & Black Bush Robin