19 Feb 25 - Shagging Dutch-style

On the Dutch Spectacled Eider twitch with Pete Moore, we quickly established that the Spectacled Eider hadn't been located early on our second morning. So, we decided to depart on the 10:00 ferry from Texel and head to a channel near the village of Anna Paulowna to look for a flock of Smew. After watching the male Smew displaying to the females, we needed to push onto our main target for the day at the Nature Park on the edge of Lelystad. Amsterdam has had a bad reputation for many years due to its red-light area, but we had a more interesting shag planned: with a nationally rare Pygmy Shag, or to be more accurate, a Pygmy Cormorant.

Bison carving

The Lelystad Nature Park has been tastefully designed to make it a popular visitor attraction with lots of lakes, as well as, things to keep younger visitors entertained.

Jay: This is the glandarius subspecies which occurs in North & central Europe

First we popped into the visitors centre to pay for the parking and for a call of nature. The Lelystad visitor centre had some unexpected stuffed Mammals.

Moose and Red Deer: Moose were extirpated from Holland about a millennium ago, while Red Deer still occur in a few National Parks

European Bison: Another species that hasn't occurred in Holland for many centuries

Thanks to Paul Rhodes for the following feedback on European Bison, which have been introduced into Zuid Kennemerland National Park, near Haarlem, to assist in vegetation control. They have come from the Polish Bialowieza Forest.

The gents toilets: I never expected I would be photographing gents toilets for the Blog. Not only were these three cubicles well decorated, but they were playing bird song inside the toilets as well

Presumably, this is a White Stork nest platform: Thanks to Paul Rhodes for the confirmation that it is

A large bat box

There was no news on the Pygmy Cormorant when we arrived, so we started to look around the lakes. This Scarlet Elfcap was the highlight: one of the few species of Fungi that I know.

Scarlet Elfcap: The Sycamore seed pod gives an idea how small this distinctive species of Fungi is

We had just reached the far side of the lakes, when Pete said, that there was some news that the Pygmy Cormorant had just seen. Unfortunately, we were heading in the wrong direction and it was quicker to backtrack to the car park and take the other path to the other side of the lakes. Eventually, we reached the right area, only to find it was perched at the far end of the lake. We started to watch it through the scopes & to grab some distant photos.

Pygmy Cormorant: there are only a handful of Dutch records of this species which occurs on inland lakes & rivers from South East Europe to central Asia

Tufted Duck: Males. Given the distance of the Pygmy Cormorant, these individuals were more distracting

While I was photographing the Tufted Ducks, Pete said that the Pygmy Cormorant had just taken off, before we could try walking closer. It did a distant pass, before disappearing from view.

Pygmy Cormorant

Pygmy Cormorant: With the Pygmy Cormorant disappearing, it was time to head to the railway station

We ran into a couple of Whooper Swans, as we were walking back to the car park. They looked suspiciously tame. Eventually, one walked onto the grass, where it was possible to see a ring on its leg and there was clearly a lot of damage to one of its wings when it briefly flapped them. Perhaps it was a wild individual, that had damaged its wing and has been forced to stick around at Lelystad.

Whooper Swan

Whooper Swan: The same individual, which had a damaged wing

The next part of the plan was for me to drop Pete at the railway station in Lelystad, so he could get a train into Amsterdam and met up with his wife, Claire and younger son, Rowan, who had arrived that lunchtime for a half term mini-break. My plan was for some Birding, a visit to some World War two battlefields and to visit Luxembourg: my seventy-nineth country. More about that in the next Blog Posts.

3 Jul 15 - Turkey - Early Morning At Birecik

We couldn't get a pre-dawn breakfast at the hotel, so Soner & I found something basic at a street stall in Birecik. We had succeeded in seeing Iraq Babbler, Bruce's Scops Owl, Desert Finch and some nice Sparrow species on the previous afternoon. That still left quite a few species I hadn't seen them since the 1986 Turkish trip, that I would have liked to look for on my final morning. The main species were See-see Partridge, Eastern Rock Nuthatch, Menetries's Warbler, Kurdish Wheatear and Cinereous Bunting. The first three were possible to see in the Birecik area and Soner had a site for Cinereous Bunting on the route back. Unfortunately, the Kurdish Wheatear would have meant an early start to get to the best site and I wouldn't have had the time to do any more Birding at Birecik and still be back in Adana for the late afternoon check in at the airport. As none of them were Ticks, I decided to try for all, but the Kurdish Wheatear. Our first location was to look for the See-see Partridges by driving the sandy road on the North East side of Birecik towards Birecik Dam, before too many other cars were heading that way. It didn't take long before we bumped into the first of several See-see Partridges.

See-see Partridge: A Male feeding on the road until we stopped, when it legged it and then sat on distant rocks

See-see Partridge: Male

See-see Partridge: Male. This monotypic species occurs from arid South East Turkey & the Middle East to South West Russia & Pakistan

See-see Partridge: Male

See-see Partridge: Male

See-see Partridge: Male

See-see Partridge: Male

See-see Partridge: Pair

See-see Partridge: Pair

It's not surprising that we also saw a Turtle Dove and a few Collared Doves on this drive.

Turtle Dove: This is the nominate turtur subspecies which occurs on the Azores, the Canary Islands & from Europe to West Siberia & Kazakhstan

Turtle Dove: It was good to see this species which is now a notable species to bump into on migration in Dorset

Collared Dove: This is the nominate decaocto subspecies which occurs from Europe to the Middle East, India, Sri Lanka, West China & Korea. They have been introduced in North America, the Caribbean & Mexico

Olive groves between Birecik and Birecik Dam

We carried on North along the sandy road until we reached the Birecik Dam. I was disappointed to find there was little reed edging to the dam, which would limit the expansion of the Iraq Babbler population around Birecik.

A wet corner by the Birecik Dam

Birecik Dam holds water back on the River Euphrates for about fifteen miles

A close inspection of this photo shows this village is abandoned: A couple of the buildings are partly underwater and there are no windows in any of the buildings

Pygmy Cormorant: The monotypic species occurs in inland lakes & rivers of South East Europe to central Asia

Syrian Woodpecker: This monotypic species occurs from South East Europe to Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Transcaucasia & Iran

Swallow: This is the nominate rustica subspecies which occurs from Europe & North Africa to West Asia and winters in Sub-Saharan Africa & South Asia

Red-rumped Swallow: Not a great photo, but it shows their distinctive shape well

Red-rumped Swallow: This is the rufula subspecies which occurs from the Iberian Peninsula to North Africa, Iran, Afghanistan & North West India

Sombre Tit: This is the anatoliae subspecies which occurs from South Greece to Turkey, West Georgia, Armenia, North Iraq & North West Iran

Sombre Tit

Sombre Tit

Sombre Tit

Yellow-vented Bulbul: This monotypic species occurs from coastal South Turkey to the Near East, the Sinai Peninsula & Arabia

Yellow-vented Bulbul: This species was called Yellow-vented Bulbul when I first saw it in 1986 and I've kept with that name, despite Clements & IOC renaming it to White-spectacled Bulbul

Yellow-vented Bulbul: The pale yellow vent is visible, which is a feature which is shared with several other Bulbul species

Black-headed Bunting: Male. 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

Yellow-throated Sparrow: This is the transfuga subspecies which occurs from South East Turkey to Iraq, South Iran, South Pakistan & North West India

Turkish Wasp sp.

This attractive large boulder almost looks like an Agama Lizard's head

One closer inspection, the eye is actually a nest: Soner thought this was an Eastern Rock Nuthatch nest. We only saw Eastern Rock Nuthatches in the Birecik area, albeit both are in range according to eBird

A final habitat photo

After a couple of hours on the tracks North of Birecik and Birecik Dam, we headed back into town and found some breakfast near the Bald Ibis captive breeding centre. There was a Roughtail Rock Agama in the cafe's garden.

Roughtail Rock Agama: This is the widespread and common Agama in Turkey

Roughtail Rock Agama: Head and shoulders

After some breakfast in Birecik, we headed off West for an hour to our final Birding site in Turkey to look for Cinereous Buntings.

There were Olive groves in some parts of the journey to Gaziantep

Very uninspiring tower blocks on the edge of Gaziantep

A large mosque on the edge of Gaziantep

A Silk Road Camel Caravan alongside the main road through Gaziantep

A second Silk Road Camel Caravan alongside the main road through Gaziantep: It's a pity there was nowhere to pull off to take some better photos of these statues

We only had another fifteen miles to travel before we reached our final Birding site at Durnalik. I will cover that in the next and final Turkish Blog Post.