31 Jan 25 - ORCA Saga Eastern Med Cruise Day 12 - Historical Birding In Cyprus

Our fourth landing on the Saga Eastern Mediterranean Cruise was Paphos in Cyprus. It was a very different location to the previous day in Limassol, despite being only an hours' drive along the coast. Limassol was an uninspiring industrial port, with its most interesting point being it was within walking distance of the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri. Paphos was a smaller town with a population of around thirty-five thousand, which is under a quarter of the population of Limassol. Secondly, Paphos doesn't have a large harbour complex. Consequently, we were ferried ashore by some of the ship's tenders, which double up as lifeboats. Going ashore by tender is extra hassle for the ship's crew and therefore, my initial reaction was the destination must be interesting enough to warrant the extra effort. I was not wrong.

Paphos Castle: The quayside Paphos Castle greeted our arrival. It was originally a Byzantine fortress built to protect the port, until it was destroyed by an earthquake in 1222. It was later restored by the Ottomans in 1592

This ancient harbour is used by small boats

A nice quayside statue

There is a two square kilometre Paphos Archaeological Park behind the harbour. This is part of a World Historical Site which protects the important ancient Greek and Roman city. The Greek city dates back to about 400 BC. It is still being excavated, but so far, four large and elaborate Roman villas: the House of Dionysos, the Villa of Aion, the House of Theseus and the House of Orpheus, all with superb preserved mosaic floors have been discovered. The site is fenced off with a good walkway around the coastal edge of the site. We decided to walk this area first.

The path along the edge of the Paphos Archaeological Park: This proved to be a worthwhile place for Birding

Stonehenge-on-sea

The shoreline looks like it will attract Waders during their migration season

Crested Lark: There were several Crested Larks along the path

Crested Lark

Crested Lark

I was pleased when Terry spotted this Red-throated Pipit feeding just inside the fence.

Red-throated Pipit: This monotypic species breeds in the tundra of the North Palearctic & Alaska. They winter from Africa to Indonesia

Red-throated Pipit: A good view of the whitish tramlines on the mantle

Red-throated Pipit: A species I would love to find at St Aldhelms, albeit it won't look as smart in the Autumn

Red-throated Pipit: This individual is clearly moulting right to left on its throat

Red-throated Pipit

Red-throated Pipit

Clouded Yellow: There were a few Butterflies along the pathway, but only species that occur in the UK

Small White

Zitting Cisticola: This is the neuroticus subspecies which occurs in Cyprus, the Levant, Iraq & West Iran

House Sparrow: This is the biblicus subspecies which occurs in Cyprus, North Israel & North West Jordan to West Syria, South East Turkey to North West Iran

House Sparrow

Laughing Dove: This is the senegalensis subspecies which is spreading West from Turkey to neighbouring islands and Greece

Laughing Dove: The subspecies also occurs in West Arabia, Socotra & Sub-Saharan Africa

The Paphos Lighthouse lies within the Archelogical Park

The MV Demetrios II which ran aground in 1988: It's looks too fragile to remove it now, even if there was the will

Woolly Mammoth: I didn't expect to see this at Paphos. Apparently, there is a Hairy Rhinoceros in the adjacent shopping centre

I will cover the rest of the visit to Paphos in the next Blog Post.

9 Nov 22 - Indonesia - Banda Sea Cruise Day 14 - A Very Early Start On Pantar Island

We had missed one of our main target species on the previous day on Alor: Alor Boobook. Fortunately, Alor Boobook also occurs on our next location: the neighbouring island of Pantar. To maximise our chances of success, Wilbur decided we would leave the Lady Denok at 03:00 to give us a good crack at seeing this recently split Boobook. We had the joy of wading ashore through the shallow water over the mudflats in the dark.

It was a dark night when we left the Lady Denok at 03:00

It was a mile or so walk to get to the site Wilbur had for the Alor Boobook. Initially, we didn't hear any Alor Boobooks calling, but finally we heard one. After a bit of time, we finally got some good views of it.

Alor Boobook: Alor Boobook has been recently split from the Southern Boobook complex

Alor Boobook: Another photo taken using just the light from Wilbur's torch, which shows how good cameras have become to photography in low light situations

As we returned to the road, we heard & then saw a Wallace's Elegant Pitta in the mangrove edge.

Wallace's Elegant Pitta: Elegant Pitta has now been split into three species: Banda Sea Pitta, Temminck's Elegant Pitta (which IOC call Elegant Pitta) & Wallace's Elegant Pitta (which IOC call Ornate Pitta). Wallace's Elegant Pitta is a monotypic species. This individual sang from the mangroves in the early morning light

We had another hour to check some of the neighbouring forest & scrub edge before Wilbur decided we should head back to the Lady Denok. Heading back wasn't a bad decision as we needed to head out to sea as we had a long crossing to our next destination: Kalaotoa Island.

Indonesian Brown Honeyeater: This is the monotypic species that occurs from Bali to Flores & Timor

Zitting Cisticola: This is the fuscicapilla subspecies which occurs in East Java & the Lesser Sundas. It is a very widespread species which occurs in Europe, Africa South East Asia to Australia

Zebra Finch: This is the guttata subspecies of Zebra Finch according to Clements which occurs in the Lesser Sundas from Lombok to Timor, with another subspecies in Australia. IOC have split them as Sunda Zebra Finch & Australian Zebra Finch. This will be another armchair tick when I switch to IOC taxonomy

Indonesian Butterfly sp.

We had hoped to leave from this jetty & avoid another wade off the mudflat, but there was no water in the creek

Indonesian Crab sp.

Indonesian Mudskipper sp.

Indonesian Mudskipper sp.

Returning past the mangrove edge

As we headed back to the Lady Denok, we saw a few Herons & Waders feeding on the mudflats.

Little Egret: This is the nigripes subspecies which occurs from Indonesia & the Philippines to New Guinea, North & Eastern Australia

Little Green Heron: This is the steini subspecies which occurs in the Lesser Sundas. This is a widespread species which is also known as Striated Heron & occurs from Africa to Asia, New Guinea & Australia, as well as, Central & South America

Whimbrel

Common Sandpiper

Back into open water

The Lady Denok

We had over one day at sea until we reached Kalaotoa Island. The avian highlight of the crossing was my first Swinhoe's Storm-petrel, along with a single Tahiti Petrel, a couple of Streaked Shearwaters, a few Wedge-tailed Shearwaters & at least fifty Red-necked Phalaropes. But a close Sperm Whale was the star highlight for the crossing.

Sperm Whale: A shot showing the blow hole and the low dorsal fin

Sperm Whale: Sperm Whales have a unique off-centred blow hole on the left side of the head, which is diagnostic if seen well

A local boat

We ended a long day with a reasonable sunset

14 Feb 14 - Hello Martin

After a night in the nearby town of Tiznit, we were back at Oued Massa. It had been a late night arrival at the hotel as we had a puncture just as we started spotlighting around Oued Massa. After changing the wheel, we found the spare was also flat. Fortunately, a couple of locals arrived soon afterwards & offered to help us find a tyre repair man for both tyres. The punctured tyre was a write off & it had punctured due to no tread left on the tyre. The spare was flat due to a knackered valve. We ended up getting a replacement value & a second hand tyre. As we were leaving Oued Massa at lunch time, we had another puncture (in a diffferent tyre), resulting in another new tyre being needed as the tread on the tyre was down to the inner metal in part of the tyre. The second hand tyre was also changed (although it didn't need to be) due to the adamant insistence of one of the carload. Checking the remaining 2 tyres also showed a noticeable bulge on yet another of the remaining 2 tyres, but we didn't have the spare cash or inclination to replace that one as well. This was all explained to the car hire company agent who couldn't care less about the state of the car he had provided, even when the photo (below) of one of the tyres was shown to him. He also didn't care about the state of the bulging tyre & I'm pretty certain he would have sent the car out on its next hire with this tyre. Given my French was poor, he decided he suddenly couldn't speak a word of English to avoid having to provide a part refund for the 2 new tyres & the faulty value. Given the state of the tyres & the high mileage on the car (about 130,000 kms), I would not recommend anybody considers using the shoddy car hire company laargoubcar in the future. Clearly, they do not check their cars as the wear on the photographed tyre shows the tracking was out, with further confirmation coming from the bulging tyre & the faulty spare. I certainly do not agree with Richard's statements in his report, that this company provided a good car (as it was clearly in a poor state of repair with a high mileage). I also disagree that it was good value for money, as Richard ignored the additional £110 we incurred in tyre costs, in addition to the car hire of £300. Laargoubcar showed a total indifference to safety of the car & the condition of their cars in my opinion. I would advise other birders to find a proper car hire company & to thoroughly check out the car before accepting it.

The second punctured tyre: Showing the wear from bad tracking

Anyway, back to the birds at Oued Massa. Instead of birding along the main track to the North of the estuary as we had tried the previous afternoon, we tried a few spots a couple of miles inland on the Southern side of the river. The main target species for me was Brown-throated Sand Martin which is an Oued Massa speciality & one I had managed to miss on the first trip. Therefore, it was another potential Western Palearctic tick for me. After an hour of birding, I finally picked up one feeding with the other Hirundines & Swifts over the river.

The river valley: The river is surrounded by lots of small, interesting fields

The river in the early morning: With a Marbled Duck

Brown-throated Sand Martin: This is also known as Plain Martin

Brown-throated Sand Martin: This is the Western Morocco mauritanica subspecies

There was a good selection of other species over the river & in the surrounding fields.

Dabchick: Adult in full breeding plumage. This is the nominate ruficollis subspecies which is the same one I see back in Dorset

Marbled Teal: This has a wide range from the Canaries to South West China

Laughing Dove: Also known as Palm Dove. This is the phoenicophila subspecies which is found in Southern Morocco to Tunisia

Great Spotted Cuckoo

Great Spotted Cuckoo: Frustratingly this excellent Cuckoo disappeared out of sight without landing

Pallid Swift: This is the brehmorum subspecies which occurs from Madeira, the Canaries, coastal North Africa & Southern Europe to Turkey 

Little Swift: This is the galilejensis subspecies which occurs from Morocco to Pakistan

Little Swift

Crested Lark: This is the riggenbachi subspecies which is one of about 22 subspecies in the Western Palearctic

Yellow Wagtail: One of the blue headed group of Yellow Wagtail, but I wasn't able to get identify the subspecies

Common Bulbul

Zitting Cisticola: This is the cisticola subspecies which occurs from coastal West France, the Iberian Peninsula, the Balearic Islands & North West Africa

Stonechat: A really approachable male

Stonechat: Male with a partial ring number of 995

House Bunting: Sitting on the roof of one of the village houses overlooking the floodplain

Spanish Terrapin

In case you don't know the guys I was travelling with.

Richard Webb

John Wright

After about 3 hours in the floodplain, we headed back to the South side of the valley to a group of stoney fields on the approach road to Oued Massa to look for Barbary Ground Squirrels. After a bit of searching, John found them skulking in a small walled field.

The fields were very stoney

This field had about 8 Stone-curlews in it

Barbary Partridge: This is the spatzi subspecies which is one of three Moroccan subspecies

Stone-curlew

Collared Dove

Little Owl: This is the saharae subspecies

Sardinian Warbler: Male of the melanocephala subspecies

Maghreb Magpie: This is the mauretanica subspecies of Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria & Tunisia which has a blue wattle behind its eye

Barbary Ground Squirrel

We left the Oued Massa area about lunchtime for the walled city of Taroudant. Here we splashed out for a more expensive hotel, the Palais Salam, with an impressive entrance gate in the city walls as it was our last night. Although clearly the nicest looking & the most expensive hotel we stayed at in Morocco, the hotel's restaurant was shocking. After 90 minutes from ordering our food, we still hadn't received more than the drinks & John's soup (Richard & I hadn't even ordered a starter). The food finally came after a complaint to the hotel's reception about the bad service & a lot of shouting in the kitchen.

The Palais Salam hotel

The hotel entrance is set in the imposing city walls 

The Palais Salam hotel looked good: But the restaurant service was abysmal

The Palais Salam hotel was set in well established gardens

Terrapin sp: This non native Terrapin was in one of the ornamental ponds

Having checked into the hotel in the early afternoon, we were soon heading off to the last birding site of Tafingoult: a small village on a rocky hillside about an hours drive to the West of Taroudant. This is a site for the shy Cuvier's Gazelle, which are sometimes seen on the hillside above the village. We failed to see any after several hours of searching.

Moonrise above Tafingoult: We hung around till after dark for a bit of spotlighting, but only succeeded in seeing some Foxes on the way back to the main road