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