A chilled Rosy at the weekend

Suzanne and I headed up to see my family in Norfolk on Friday night and, with decidedly non-summery weather throughout, had a thoroughly lazy and laidback weekend – perfect! Saturday featured a trip to the pub to watch the Lions scrape home past the Wallabies (thank God they couldn’t kick…), a barbeque, and a little trip up to Wells for the rather stunning adult Rose-coloured Starling on the quay.

After checking my notes, it turns out that this is my seventh in the UK – but only the second adult bird. The first was a lifer for me, behind the Lowestoft Birds Eye factory on 18 June 1995. So, just over 18 years later, about time for another!

Turkey: a quick summary

Over half-term week, Suzanne and I were lucky enough to spend eight days in Turkey – primarily to enjoy Rhiannon and Simon’s beautiful wedding down in Bodrum, in the far south-west of the country, but we also added a few days travel in the east of the country onto the itinerary for variety and a bit of birding. As many birders have done before, we focused on the Birecik area, along with a few other bits and pieces within a couple of hours from here.

I’ll write up a trip report in due course with a few more details and a full trip list – but for now, here’s a quick summary of what we saw, and some pics. (In general, I spent very little time on photography, since the light was generally extremely harsh, and I also had relatively little time, so concentrated on seeing the target species rather than photographing a subset).

If anyone wants more info on the following, please drop me a line, or leave a comment here.

Key birds (personal highlights in bold!)

• Black Francolin: one heard early morning at Birecik north gravel pits, not seen
• See-see Partridge: one seen well from a tractor ride into steppe country near Yeni Akpinar, conserved by the Doga Dernegi charity (I think). Another briefly in flight from the car nearby,
• Pygmy Cormorant: many flying up and down the R Euphrates in and around Birecik
• Bald Ibis: at least one pair nesting in the wadi not far from the Ibis Centre in Birecik – hard to know whether these really are wild or not!
• Pallid (Striated) Scops Owl: one visiting an apparent nest site at the far end of the tea gardens in Birecik after dark – look for a tree with a broken top immediately beyond the blue fountain. However, this was completely surpassed by one that sang from a hole in the wall of our hotel in Halfeti, right above our room!!

• White-throated Kingfisher: at least a couple south of Adana, around the well-publicised site

• Blue-cheeked Bee-eater: at least 20 birds around the breeding colony at Estagfirullah were absolutely awesome! None at the site to the SW of the Ataturk Baraji.

• Bimaculated Lark: one or two near Yeni Akpinar, but better seen song-flighting east of Isikli, west of Gaziantep.
• Rufous Scrub Robin: common in suitable habitat

• White-throated Robin: numerous around Durnalik and Isikli – e.g. at least six seen both times we visited

• Finsch’s Wheatear: a couple at Yeni Akpinar – stunning birds!
• Graceful Warbler: easy at Birecik north gravel pits
• Menetries’s Warbler: pretty easy around Birecik and Halfeti
• Upcher’s Warbler: best seen above the ibis wadi, and also near Durnalik and around Birecik
• Eastern Rock Nuthatch: easy a couple of miles outside (old) Halfeti. Also near Durnalik
• White-spectacled Bulbul: various sites around Birecik and Halfeti. (Note that a small group of White-eared Bulbul had been present at Birecik Tea Gardens a week or two before we visited – believe this is only the second record for Turkey)
• Iraq Babbler: pretty easy early morning around Birecik north gravel pits
• Dead Sea Sparrow: easiest in the cemetery on the track towards the Birecik north gravel pits, where rather abundant; also seen around the pits themselves
• Yellow-throated Sparrow: just north of Birecik, around pistachio plantations
• Pale Rock Sparrow: seen on both visits to Durnalik, and also one at Yeni Akpinar
• Desert Finch: a small group were the only ones seen, in pistachios on the minor road leading east out of (new) Halfeti towards Sutveren
• Cinereous Bunting: just one, at Durnalik.

… and of course there was no shortage of other, more widely distributed species either!

Catching up, part II

Continuing in my desperate attempt to get up-to-date with photos from the last few months – here’s a few.

This Woodchat was an absolute stunner near Chew Valley Lake, on our way back from Devon. Bit of sunshine would’ve been nice, but still…

 

Then there was a day in the Brecks, starting off with a look at the celebratory Otters in Thetford…

…. and a pleasant wander around Lakenheath, while the Red-footed Falcon was still early on in its stay, and showing poorly. This Whooper Swan looks like it’s settled in the for the summer.

The following day, I popped out to Maldon where I was surprised to have a Black-winged Stilt completely to myself for a while – apparently everyone else thinks they’re not bothering with?!

Two weeks later, a Friday night beer was rudely interrupted by late breaking news from Margate – but of course I was there the next day soon after dawn for the Dusky(ish?) Thrush:

… and then, like everyone else, a wander around Reculver was in order. The female Montagu’s Harrier had the decency to give us a couple of moderately close passes, and a Cuckoo showed rather well.

All very nice indeed… but not quite in the same league as the week in Turkey that followed over half-term. No fewer than 18 new Western Palearctic birds for me: watch this space!