A slightly different two day trip with Steve and Claire who were staying in Larnaca. We spent our mornings at the usual coastal sites near Larnaca and then headed inland at midday for walks around Mosphiloti (between Nicosia and Larnaca) on Wednesday and to the Machairas forest on Thursday. We had a good selection of birds including a Collared Pratincole which had been high on Steve’s wish list. He actually spotted it himself while I was watching a Zitting Cisticola fly into some grasses!

Altogether a total of 93 different birds were seen or heard during the two days.

Highlights from each site visited:

24^th April

Oroklini Marsh – Cattle Egret 14, Red-crested Pochard 3m & 2f plus ducklings, Western Marsh Harrier 1f, Black Francolin, Chukar, Black-winged Stilt 30+, Spur-winged Lapwing 20+, Green Sandpiper 1, Common Sandpiper 1, Little Tern 3, Whiskered Tern 1, White-winged Tern 1, Reed Warbler 2 seen, Spectacled Warbler 1 male singing from a tamarisk bush

Larnaca Salt Lake – Greater Flamingo c100, Collared Pratincole 1, Ruff 200+, Black Francolin 1, Little Ringed Plover, Slender-billed Gull 3 (seen driving past on 25^th), Long-legged Buzzard (seen flying over the nearby motorway)

Larnaca Airport Pools South – Greater Flamingo c100, Stone Curlew 2, Spur-winged Lapwing pair + small chick

Larnaca Sewage Works Pools – Garganey 4, Northern Shoveler c6, Spur-winged Lapwing 9, Wood Sandpiper 4, White Wagtail 1

Spiro’s Pool area – Little Ringed Plover 1, Kentish Plover c30 + three small chicks, Little Stint 50+, Ruff 150+, Curlew Sandpiper 5+, Black-headed Wagtail 3m, Black-eared Wheatear 2f, Wood Warbler 1

Larnaca Airport Fields – Garganey 7 flew E offshore, Greater Short-toed Lark 5, Red-throated Pipit 8, Northern Wheatear 1m, Spanish Sparrow 1m

Mosphiloti Pipis Forest – European Bee-eater c10 migrating overhead, Hoopoe 1, Cyprus Wheatear 4+, Sardinian Warbler 1m, Cyprus Warbler 2+, Lesser Whitethroat 1, Golden Oriole 1m and 1f, Masked Shrike 3, Serin c10, Cretzschmar’s Bunting 1m

25^th April

Kiti Dam – Ruff 2, Wood Sandpiper 3, Turtle Dove 1, Great Spotted Cuckoo 1, Common Cuckoo 2, Blackcap c10, Lesser Whitethroat 4, Pied Flycatcher 1m

Alaminos – Roller 2

Kivisili Fields – Pallid Harrier 1 juv, Woodchat Shrike 1

Petounta Point – Common Greenshank 1, Wood Sandpiper 10+, Hoopoe 1, Red-throated Pipit 8, Thrush Nightingale 1, Red-backed Shrike 1m

Road north of Lefkara – Black-headed Bunting 3m

Machairas Forest area – Common Cuckoo 1 rufous morph, Hoopoe2, Red-rumped Swallow 2, Olivaceous Warbler 4 seen others heard, Cyprus Warbler 1, Spotted Flycatcher 1, Collared Flycatcher 1f, Coal Tit 4+, Masked Shrike 20+, Jay 20+, Cretzschamar’s Bunting 1+, Serin 10+

Kionia – Wren 2, Blackbird 3, Jay 2, Scop’s Owl 1h