Cyprus 2018 Day One

A 7 day birding trip to Eastern Cyprus

Day One 2^nd April : After a hassle free flight from Exeter to Larnaca we picked up our hire car and arrived at our hotel at Proteras at 2am. Though we got up again at 6am so that we could have a full days birding we decided to take it easy and explore the area, suss out the local birding spots and make some plans for the week ahead.

Chukar , Cape Greco

Our first stop was the Cape itself, you could see why it is such an exciting place for migration , it sticks right out towards Israel and Lebanon and I couldn’t help but feel excited about what we might see here during the week. The first bird we saw was a lifer for Pete! A handsome Chukar Partridge running along the rock face and I soon heard the second lifer for him, a male Cyprus Wheatear singing away was soon located and it was nice to see this stunning Wheatear again after so many years. Migration seemed a little slow but there was still plenty of exciting birds to be seen including Audouins Gull off of the Cape, a Wryneck in the scrub , 2 Eastern Orphean Warbler on the track towards the Sea Caves and then good views of the island’s second endemic; a smart male Cyprus Warbler.

Wryneck at Cape Greco

Cyprus Pied Wheatear, Cape Greco

Masked Shrike, Kermia Beach

Our next destination was Kermia Beach and although it was quiet we were made up with a stunning Masked Shrike showing well in the tamarisk, yet another lifer for Pete! From here we headed up to Agia Napa Sewage Works, the circular track which overlooks the pools is in a pretty bad state but we made it around in the hire car and whilst it wasn’t the most inspiring place to visit there were still loads of birds to see including a nice male Ferruginous Duck on the pool plus 2 Cretzschmars Bunting and a Blue Rock Thrush on the slopes above the sewage works. Another 20 minutes down the road and we were soon enjoying masses of birds at Orlikini Marsh , a local nature reserve with two good hides , there was plenty of water at this site and many different waders and ducks were to be seen including a late Pintail, a great count of 10 Ferruginous Duck , a showy Black Francolin and a single Marsh Sandpiper. Our last visit of the day was to Aknah Dam , by now we were both shattered ( and a little on edge after I managed to navigate Pete to a military checkpoint only to be escorted out of the area by armoured car!) and didn’t really do the site justice, but we realised it would be worth spending plenty of time here as there was plenty of water. A Bittern showed well from the car ( we didn’t realise at the time that this is somewhat of a Cyprus rarity! A local birder was very excited by it and hadn’t heard of another record for the year.

Great Bittern - a Cyprus Rarity

After a few beers back at the hotel I was ready for a good nights sleep and I was full of excitement for the next day ahead!

Cape Greco: 6 Chukar, 1 Black-headed Wagtail, 5 Tree Pipit, 4 Cyprus Wheatear,2 Eastern Black-eared Wheatear, 2 Isabelline Wheatear, 5 Northern Wheatear, 1 Tawny Pipit, 2 Short-toed Lark, 3 Nightingale, 8 Chiffchaff, 5 Lesser Whitethroat, 1 Audouins Gull, 1 Stone Curlew, 3 Corn Bunting, 1 Wryneck, 1 Willow Warbler, I Common Whitethroat, 2 Eastern Orphean Warbler, 2 Red-rumped Swallow, 2 Hoopoe, 3 Blackcap, 1 Song Thrush, 1 Blue Rock Thrush, 1 Alpine Swift, 1 Cyprus Warbler. Kermia Beach: 1 Masked Shrike. Agia Napa Sewage Works: 1 Ferruginous Duck, 2 Spur Winged Plover,1 Little Stint, 7 Green Sandpiper, 1 Blue Rock Thrush, 1 Eastern Olivacous Warbler, 1 Cettis Warbler, 2 Cretzschmars Bunting. Orlikini Marsh: 10 Ferruginous Duck, 1 Pintail, 2 Garganey, 22 Ruff , 1 Marsh Sandpiper, 1 Black Franklin, 2 Marsh Harrier, 2 Hooded Crow