Cyprus Birding Trip Report - (3rd April - 7th April 2018) - Species List and Locations

Day 1 – Tuesday 3rd April 2018

Cyprus Warbler – 3rd April 2018 - A6 scrubland, between Paphos and Ancient Kourion. Showing well in scrubby bushes at the side of the road. A good number of birds seen during the trip, including at Kourion Stadium and Cape Greco, the majority full breeding plumage males. First bird of the trip found at the side of the road showed best.

Cyprus Wheatear – 3rd April 2018 - Kourion Stadium, Ancient Kourion. Perched singing on the walls and in the small trees. Abundant throughout the trip and seen at most sites. Males displaying and calling.

Ortolan Bunting – 3rd April 2018 - Temple of Apollo, Ancient Kourion. 3 male birds feeding in the short grass at the temple of Apollo. Only birds of the trip.

Black Francolin – 3rd April 2018 - Akrotiri marsh/gravel pits. Calling from a raised hill near to the road, although quite distant. Heard at several sites and seen on two occasions calling from a prominent perch. Distant both times unfortunately.

Chukar Partridge – 3rd April 2018 - Mavrokolympus Dam. Calling and moving around on the rocky hillside. Seen at several sites throughout the trip, on occasion showing well. Calling frequently in rocky locations.

Cyprus Scops Owl – 3rd April 2018 - Mavrokolympus Dam. Several birds heard calling in the valley and good views on two occasions - one seen perched on a cliff face at very close range, another showing well in torchlight on a telegraph pole. Only birds of the trip. 

Cyprus Warbler

Day 2 – Wednesday 4th April 2018 

Lesser Kestrel – 4th April 2018 - Anarita Park. Male showing well on telegraph wires at the side of the road. The only confirmed bird of the trip. 

Tawny Pipit – 4th April 2018 - Anarita Park. Single bird perched on a rock by the side of the road. The only bird of the trip.

Spur-winged Lapwing – 4th April 2018 - Paphos Sewage Works. A good number of birds seen in the fields surrounding the sewage works. Also a pair seen showing well at Oroklini Lake.

Spur-winged Lapwing

Day 3 – Thursday 5th April 2018 

Eastern Bonelli's Warbler – 5th April 2018 - Ayia Napa Sewage Works. A single bird seen foraging in the low down trees surrounding the pools. Only bird of the trip.

Ayia Napa Sewage Works

Day 5 – Saturday 7th April 2018 

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler – 7th April 2018 - Mountain road down from Troodos to Agios Nikolaos. Several birds on territory singing in the valley in the large bushes and trees. Showing well on occasion.

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler

Notable Cyprus subspecies: 

Dorothy’s Treecreeper – 7th April 2018 – Troodos Mountains. Single bird showing well and calling in the pines near the post office car park.

Cyprus Jay (glazneri) – 7th April 2018 - Troodos Mountains. Two birds showing well in the trees near to the post office. 

Cyprus Coal Tit (cypriotes) – 7th April 2018 - Troodos Mountains. A pair of birds calling and showing well along the wooden boardwalk near the post office.

Cyprus Jay - glazneri

Notable species:

Greater Flamingo – Several birds seen distantly at Akrotiri Salt Lake

Griffon Vulture – One flying near the cliffs at Kourion Stadium

Laughing Dove – Seen near the houses around Mandria 

Great Spotted Cuckoo – Two seen at Kourion Stadium

Pallid Swift – Several seen flying overhead with Common Swifts

Alpine Swift – One seen flying over near Asprokremmos Dam

Hoopoe – One seen at Paphos Headland and Akrotiri Marsh

Bee-eater – A flock of birds seen flying in off the sea at Cape Greco

Roller – One bird seen along the Dhiarizos Valley

Crested Lark – Seen at Zakaki Marsh

Black-eared Wheatear – Seen at Akrotiri gravel pits

Sardinian Warbler – Widespread across the island

Spectacled Warbler – A pair seen at Cape Greco

Eastern Subalpine Warbler – One bird seen at Kourion Stadium

Masked Shrike – Adult birds seen at Cape Greco 

Spanish Sparrow – Seen at Paphos Headland

Cretzchmar’s Bunting – Individuals seen at Cape Greco and Troodos

Eastern Subalpine Warbler

Additional species:

Mallard

Pintail

Shoveler

Teal

Garganey

Red-crested Pochard

Ferruginous Duck

Little Grebe

Shag

Cormorant

Night Heron

Cattle Egret

Little Egret

Grey Heron

Purple Heron

Glossy Ibis

Marsh Harrier

Common Buzzard (Steppe)

Kestrel

Coot

Black-winged Stilt

Green Sandpiper

Ruff

Yellow-legged Gull

Lesser Black-backed Gull (Baltic)

Feral Pigeon

Wood Pigeon

Collared Dove

Little Owl

Common Swift

Barn Swallow

Red-rumped Swallow

House Martin

Tree Pipit

White Wagtail

Yellow Wagtail (feldegg)

Nightingale

Redstart

Northern Wheatear

Whinchat

Blackbird

Blackcap

Lesser Whitethroat

Cetti’s Warbler

Chiffchaff

Great Tit

Red-backed Shrike

Magpie

Jackdaw

Hooded Crow

House Sparrow

Chaffinch

Goldfinch

Greenfinch

Corn Bunting

Heard only:

Cuckoo

Serin

86 Trip Total

11 Trip lifers 

Orchid List:

Bug Orchid (Anacamptis coriophora) - Agios Georgios chapel
Eastern Ploughshare Tongue Orchids (Serapias bergonii) - Akrotiri Marsh

Bug Orchid

Butterfly List:

Paphos Blue - Anarita Park

Paphos Blue Butterfly

Reptile List:

Starred Agama

Starred Agama

Cyprus Birding Trip Report - Day 3 (Thursday 5th April 2018)

With our alarms jolting us awake at an ungodly hour early in the morning, bleary eyed and groggy we gathered our gear and made the journey over to the eastern side of the island, arriving at our first destination of the Cape Greco headland just after first light.

The stunning blue waters of Cape Greco headland

Jutting out in to the Mediterranean Sea and holding the title of the most easterly point of Greek Cyprus (also the closest point to the migration mecca of Israel), Cape Greco is a migrant hotspot, well known for its impressive falls of migrant birds and rarities during the spring months. The coastal scrub that adorns the hillside holds many short staying passage migrants, and it was here that we were hoping to connect with the Ruppell’s Warblers that had so far eluded us during the trip – especially as counts of up to 18 males had been logged here just a couple of weeks prior.

The picturesque Agioi Anargyroi Chapel

Parking up beside Agioi Anargyroi chapel, we set to work exploring the nearby scrub, a pair of Cyprus Warblers giving away their location with their constant harsh chakking calls as several Chiffchaffs flitted through the gorse below. 

Cyprus Warbler

The scratchy song of a male Sardinian Warbler filled the air and it wasn’t long before we had our first Masked Shrike of the trip, an impressive adult perched on one of the small pines, making several sallying flights out for small insect and reptile prey.

Masked Shrike - Having only seen a juvenile previously (at Spurn in Yorkshire) it was nice to finally connect with an adult bird

Walking up the slope to the viewpoint at the top of the hill resulted in an all too brief perched Cretzchmar’s Bunting before it flushed out of sight, while almost every other bush seemed to hold a skulking Nightingale or Lesser Whitethroat lurking unobtrusively within.

Sadly however, after a few hours spent searching we drew a blank on the Ruppell’s front once more, and after a quick stop at the chapel we headed across to the fields next to the sea, a single female Cyprus Pied Wheatear at close range all we could unearth for our efforts.

Acquiring some intel from local birders at the Cape Greco Visitor Centre that the nearby pines had held some interesting migrants that morning, we decided to give it a shot, hoping to relocate the Semi-collared Flycatcher and female Ruppell’s that someone else had seen there that morning.

Sadly, despite us and another birder looking, the pines were hopelessly deserted by the time we’d got there, and after an intense search only a handful of Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and a female Cyprus Warbler were all we unearthed (as well as a new hatred for pines). The adjoining scrubland revealed a pair of nesting Spectacled Warblers that we left in peace, while a familiar bubbling call directly overhead revealed a flock of Bee-eaters making landfall fresh in off the sea (sadly no Blue-cheeked amongst them).

With Cape Greco itself being unusually quiet, we cut our losses and headed over to the next site of the day, Ayia Napa Sewage Works. Again, with a depressing pattern emerging, what is normally billed as a great site for migrants was exceptionally quiet during our visit, with just the usual Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers feeding amongst the pollen. Thankfully, our journey to the eastern side of Cyprus hadn’t been in vain, as a single Eastern Bonelli’s Warbler flitting in the willows at the side of the track salvaged what had been an entirely unsuccessful morning up until this point, the green-tinted tertials and silky white underparts differing from the assorted Chiffchaffs. 

At this point the road became decidedly more and more potholed, and it was with careful navigation that Alex manoeuvred the hire car to the end of the track unscathed. Rather less fortunate was the fact we had come to an abrupt dead end, the only route leading back to the exit road passing through the private and gated water treatment works. With a staff member having spotted us and denied all entry, we were forced to make a return drive the way we came, navigating the deep pot holes and steep water channels once more, stopping to scope several Ferruginous Ducks and Black-necked Grebes bobbing on the sewage works pools.

The gravel track surrounding the sewage works

With the afternoon pressing on we headed to our final site of the day – Oroklini Lake, a fantastic reserve just north of Larnaca. Before we’d even arrived several Spur-winged Plovers showed off at the side of the road (Oroklini Lake is a hotspot for this species), while several egrets powered overhead. Checking out the hide overlooking one of the pools revealed several more Spur-winged Plovers roosting in the reeds, while a small handful of Black-winged Stilts gingerly picked their way through the mud.

Scanning the water soon resulted in several new ducks for the trip with Red-crested Pochard, Garganey, Pintail, Teal and Shoveler all in attendance, while a distant Black Francolin belted out its rasping call behind us. Scanning the fields, Alex somehow managed to pick it out, stood on a low stone wall in the distance and enabling the briefest of record shots! 

Black Fancolin - a distant and blurry record shot!!

With the Francolin staying put and looking like it was next to the main road, we headed off in that direction in an attempt to secure better views, but upon reaching the field in question it appeared to have gone, just a lone Chukar roaming through the stubble as consolation. 

Chukar

Xrisosotiros Akanthous church near Oroklini

A pair of extremely showy Spur-winged Plovers right next to the road also gave our cameras a workout providing our best views of the trip, but with no further birds of note from the second hide we decided to make the long journey back to Paphos, just one new bird to show for our excursion. 

Spur-winged Plover

Never the less the Eastern Bonelli’s transpired to be the only individual we saw all trip, and despite the lack of our target birds during our visit, Cape Greco headland has huge potential to reveal some truly great birds given persistent coverage during peak migration times.

Cyprus Birding Trip Report - Day 2 (Wednesday 4th April 2018)

With a beautifully sunny day dawning once more, we headed out and up the road to our first site of the day, the well-known Anarita Park which was conveniently situated just ten minutes away from our hotel. With a slightly misleading name (Anarita is not a ‘park’ at all, instead more of a collection of fields and hillsides surrounded by the odd goat farm and settlement) Anarita Park is a well-watched birding site near Paphos, famous for its overwintering Finsch's Wheatears and impressive counts of Lesser Kestrels and other raptors. While we were a touch too late for the Wheatears, I was especially keen to finally catch up with the Lesser Kestrels, having never seen any on previous visits to the Mediterranean. 

The rolling hills and magnificent views of Anarita Park

Turning off at the first of the small tracks winding across the hillside, we immediately struck it lucky when a cracking male Lesser Kestrel came in to view, perched on one of the telegraph poles at the side of the road and giving great views as it peered straight towards us. Distinctive with its bright dusky blue cap and unmarked back, sadly our Kestrel took flight before we could get our cameras on it, swooping over the car before hovering high above us over the hillside. With a second individual further along the track not 100% nailed on as a Lesser, this turned out to be the only confirmed bird of the trip, and I could finally put a long-standing nemesis to rest.

Presumed Lesser Kestrel - possible the same bird we had on the wires but we couldn't be 100% sure

The apparently unmarked back is a good indicator it was the Lesser Kestrel

Following the track round to a marshy dip resulted in a sudden wealth of bird activity, with a good number of Corn Buntings chinking in the long grass as both Yellow and White Wagtails foraged below.

Cracking male Red-backed Shrike - the first for the season

An early male Red-backed Shrike perched in one of the shrubs remarkably transpired to be the first seen on Cyprus this spring, while the now familiar buzzing of Cyprus Pied Wheatears filled the air, one particularly confiding individual giving outstanding views as it perched on a dead stem right next to the car windows. 

Our best views of Cyprus Pied Wheatear

Despite being too late for Finsch’s (they overwinter at Anarita), we decided to head up to the plateaus they reside in anyway, which proved to be a good decision when our first and only Tawny Pipit of the trip hopped in to view. 

Tawny Pipit

The plateau the Finsch's Wheatears reside at during the winter months

Larger than other pipits with a paler back and chest, this was remarkably our first of this species in all our trips abroad, so it felt good to finally connect with yet another ‘bogey’ bird.

Sardinian Warbler

A drive further along the hillside yielded very little more of note from this point on, with just a smattering of Sardinian Warblers chattering in the gorse bushes by the goat farm and a solitary Little Owl peering out from in-between the stones of a wall at the side of the track.

Little Owl

Rather impressively, the small roadside herbs held an extensive colony of Paphos Blue butterflies, freshly emerged and with several engaged in large ‘mating balls’ as they all jostled for the attention of a female. 

Mating ball of Paphos Blues

Endemic to Cyprus and concentrated in the more south westerly portion of the island, it was great to see these dainty butterflies in good numbers, and we spent a good while trying to get some form of record shot as they flitted around us. 

Despite the habitat looking suitable, heading down the hillside and approaching Anarita Mast resulted in no additional birds with the area eerily quiet, so we proceeded straight to our next location of Asprokremmos Dam (Aspro Dam for short). Listed as having a good range of migrant birds with a particularly good number of flycatchers recorded in the trees around the car park, it was extremely disappointing once more to find no sign of any migrant birds at all when we arrived, with the pines almost deserted. A handful of Goldfinches squabbled over seed heads in a far corner of the car park in the shade of a tree, while singles each of Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Lesser Whitethroat were not enough to keep us entertained. 

This female Wheatear by the dam walls stumped us for an ID originally, but it was eventually named as a Black-eared

The dam itself held just a single Yellow-legged Gull, so after a quick picnic under the pines we decided to check out Aspro Pools – noted in Gosney as being a good spot to look out for Crakes. Sadly things had changed since the book was published, and after a flood several years ago the habitat had been completely destroyed, the pools dried up entirely and the small track guarded by a severe looking large dog!

Despite this disappointment, looking up to the skies revealed a strong passage of swifts and hirundines, and after a few minutes our first and only Alpine Swift of the trip was picked out, powering strongly west. 

Alpine Swift

With the whole afternoon ahead of us we made our way slightly south down to the cultivated fields of Mandria, a site which has held juicy rarities such as Namaqua Dove, Bimaculated Lark and Caspian Plover over recent seasons. 

Sadly once more, on this occasion the fields were relatively quiet, just a single Chukar near the beach and a small handful of feldegg Yellow Wagtails feeding in one of the crop fields the only birds of note. 

Yellow Wagtail - ssp feldegg (Black-headed Wagtail)

The vast crop fields of Mandria

A Laughing Dove perched on the wires in the village on our way out was similarly a nice find, but with Mandria not delivering we headed on to our final stop of the day – Paphos Sewage Works – in an attempt to track down another specialist species of Cyprus – Spur-winged Plover. 

Laughing Dove

Thankfully upon arrival, we instantly connected with our target, as up to 15 Spur-winged Plovers were feeding in the freshly ploughed fields adjacent to the sewage works. 

Spur-winged Plover

Resident in Africa with a number of breeding populations dotted around the eastern Mediterranean, these sophisticated looking plovers are relatively common on Cyprus around their favoured haunts, with both Paphos and Larnaca Sewage Works (further east) key sites where they can be found in good numbers. 

Paphos Sewage Works

As well as the flocks in the fields, a handful of birds gave good views on the sewage works itself, and we were able to get a few shots from between the chain link fence before they flew out of sight.

The small trees lining the side of the road held just the usual Lesser Whitethroats, Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps (now seemingly the norm wherever we went) while a pair of Steppe Common Buzzards mewed overhead.

With great views of the plovers secured, we headed back to the hotel in time for tea, once more stopping off at the Kings Avenue Mall for a feast of TGI Fridays chicken and pasta, before getting an early night ready for our trip over to the eastern side of the island the next morning in an attempt to connect with our much sought after Ruppell’s Warblers.