Nick Bond's Blog: Cyprus April 2019 Part 1

CYPRUS

APRIL 3rd - 6th 2019

INTRODUCTION

Nick Bond and Gary Thoburn

When it comes to birding and when Cyprus gets mentioned, it is normally met with discussions on the illegal hunting and trapping to which unfortunatley it is now famous for, but for me potentially this island and with increased coverage, offers birders from far and wide a fantastic destination to observe spring migration in its finest with birds and colour aplenty, its a great place for bird photography too.
Flying from Bristol, myself and Gary Thoburn took the near 5 hour flight to Larnaca and was based in the tourist town of Protaras which is on the south-east peninsula, ideally located for migration hot-spot Cape Greco or Kavo Greko as its known locally, Paralimni Lakes and Ayia Napa sewage works and the salt pans of Larnaca less than a hours drive away. I was here on a working holiday in 2005 and 2006 and Cape Greco was one area I watched regulary. Below is a report of the sites and the birds we encountered there with many photos included taken using my Canon bridge camera. The winter was one of the wettest Cyprus has had for many years which meant the lakes and pools were full, as some are normally already dry at this stage of the year
The weather was largely warm with the odd overcast day, mosquitos were pretty abundant around the wetland areas.
We bumped into several small groups of birders at Greco and Paralimni which was good for sharing information, other sightings were available through various Twitter feeds #cyprusbirds and daily sightings reported on the Birdlife Cyprus email group

For some excellent photos from this trip please see Gary Thoburns website here https://garytsphotos.zenfolio.com/p169422004

LARNACA AREA

We spent a lot of time birding the area upon arrival and pretty much spent the whole afternoon there and also on the afternoon of my last day aswell as only a 10 minute drive from the airport, the whole area can be birded from the car and contains a mixture of scrub along with the salt lakes and pools, the beach is also worth checking out.
Good numbers of Greater Flamingo's were on the pools, Black-winged Stilts were around in good number, whilst Black Francolin and Crested Larks were around and pretty vocal in the surrounding fields. This area is also good for the Spur-winged Plover 2 Little Terns were roosting on a buoy on one of the lakes, a single Gull-billed Tern was fishing offshore. The edges of the pools attracted Yellow Wagtails of various races including some fine Black-headed Wagtails and at least 3 Citrine Wagtails were seen there on my last day. A male Pallid Harrier was seen patrolling the area and a single Masked Shrike was found with several Hoopoes adding a splash of colour. Spiro's Pool hosted several waders including a splendid Greater Sandplover, with a supporting cast of c80 Little Stint, Kentish Plovers, Ruffs and a few Dunlin

Greater Sandplover - Spiro's Pools Larnaca

Greater Flamingo's - Larnaca salt lake

Wader mix - Little Stints, Kentish Plovers and Dunlin

Black-headed 'feldegg' Wagtail

A Common Kingfisher was seen well from the road, and many passerines were seen around in the scrub including Eastern Orphean, Wood and Eastern Bonelli's Warblers and Lesser Whitethroats, while Northern and Black-eared Wheatears were frequently seen. A couple of Red-rumped Swallows were picked out amongst the hirundines present

Common Kingfisher

Black-eared Wheater

Yellow Wagtail 'dombrowskii' Romanian race - record shot

Spur-winged Plover - showed well around the pool edges

Male Citrine Wagtail - we found 2 males and 1 female here

The view across Spiros Pools, the salt lake in the background aswell as Larnaca airport

CAPE GRECO / SEA CAVES AREA

A whole morning was spent exploring the migration hotspot and watchpoint which is Cape Greco and the area again did not disappoint with a good numbers of birds observed on the deck and mis-vig overhead. This is a good area to connect with 2 Cyprus specialities, The Cyprus Wheatear and the Cyprus Warbler. Both were found fairly easilly and managed to get excellent views of both species