Day five : Caspian Plover ! A dream come true

Cape Greco was still quiet for numbers of birds but every day something new arrives here and there are always birds to found in this magical spot. Pete found a stunning male Bluethroat of the White Spotted Race ( which breed in Northern Europe) which was probably bird of the morning. I was impressed that we had picked it up on call and his time spent studying them in Egypt certainly seems to have paid off. He just needs to find one in Cornwall now! ( Which I like to remind him of when we see them abroad, as I found one on the Camel Estuary a few years ago). A Woodchat Shrike was also a nice gaudy addition to our list for the week and whilst more Hoopoe'
s seemed to be arriving there was little else happening so we headed away towards Aknah Dam. En route we stopped at Agia Napa football fields ( which are surprisingly good for pipits and wagtails) and saw amongst other things a smart male Grey headed Wagtail ( a new subspecies for Pete) , it was good to see it alongside a male and female Black-headed Wagtail for comparison and also to hear both subspecies calling.

Woodchat Shrike

These large Lizards are very common in Cyprus, we only saw one snake which was a Whip Snake, very large but harmless

Hoopoe

Soon we were at Aknah and it was exciting to see the water level had dropped a tiny bit and plenty of birds were feeding along the margins of the lake. Squacco Heron’s buzzed around ,Purple Herons crashed out of the Reedbeds and a group of 14 Grey Heron spiralled out of the sky. We continued our walk noting a typically noisy Great Reed Warbler croaking away and yet another Ferruginous Duck feeding out on the lake. We stopped to scan a nice looking bay when all of a sudden a bird hovering over the water caught our eye and we couldn’t believe we were looking at a stunning Pied Kingfisher! It soon landed in a lake side tree and we enjoyed watching this marvelous bird for twenty minutes or so and couldn’t believe our luck at seeing another good bird on this holiday. As we headed away from Aknah I said the day couldn’t get any better but how wrong was I!

Ferruginous Duck

Migrating Grey Herons

Pied Kingfisher

 We really wanted to go back to Paralmni , to check our Crake pools as Pete was desperate to see Little Crake and also to check the Plover flock which had held 2 Greater Sandplover over the last couple of days. It was still very hot when we arrived so after a little siesta it was time to get back birding again now that the light was behind us and much less hazy. What happened next was a moment in birding I will never forget. Pretty much the first bird I looked at had a bright reddish /orange breast that was bordered by a black line across the belly, it was very attenuated and ran at speed towards me! Pete was also on it and even though we both knew it was a Caspian Plover due to the distance the next few minutes were a mixture of elation and incredible stress! Sorting it out, getting closer and managing a few photographs seemed to take an eternity but we were soon ecstatic about finding this Western Palearctic Mega! This bird was so stunning, picture perfect and our photo’s don’t do it justice, to think we found it as well is what dreams are made of in birding! What made it even more special was the incredible variety of Plovers it was feeding with. Common Ringed, Little Ringed, Greater Sand Plover, Caspian Plover, Spur winged Plover and Kentish Plover all in the same flock! As if things couldn’t get any better Pete finally had his Little Crake and we had great views of Pallid Harrier and Common Cuckoo as the sun set.

Caspian Plover

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                                                           Video of the Caspian Plover

                                                              Video of Little Crake
                
Cape Greco: 1 Black-winged Stilt, 7 Baltic Gull, 1 Woodchat Shrike, 9 Hoopoe, 1 Bluethroat, 1 Isabelline Wheatear. Agya Napa Sewage Works: 2 Spectacled Warbler, 1 Hoopoe, 1 Eastern Black eared Wheatear, 2 Black-headed Wagtail, 1 Grey-headed Wagtail. Aknah Dam: 4 Purple Heron, 3 Squacco Heron, 14 Grey Heron, 4 Little Egret, 1 Great Reed Warbler, 1 Cuckoo, 1 Pied Kingfisher, 2 Common Redhsank, 1 Marsh Harrier, 1 Ferruginous Duck. Paralimni: 1 Caspian Plover, 2 Greater Sand Plover, 4 Marsh Sandpiper, 2 Greenshank, 1 Cuckoo, 1 Common Buzzard, 1 Pallid Harrier, 1 Little Crake, 7 Red-throated Pipit.