A flock of thirty two migrating Purple Heron in Chrysochou Bay were joined by three Garganey as they circled up at 18.30pm

Purple Heron Latchi September 7th Copyright Cyprus Birding Tours

Spent five hours at Cape Greco watching for raptors this morning but the windy conditions meant that apart from the four resident Common Kestrels, the only bird of prey I saw was a European Hobby that was being almost blown southwards over the sea. A Little Egret struggled along the coast and once the wind dropped slightly a few Sand Martin, Red-rumped Swallow and Barn Swallow passed over.

On the way home I passed by the Agia Napa Football fields where there were four Lesser Grey Shrike, six Red-backed Shrike, a couple of Whinchat, twelve Yellow Wagtail, a Spotted Flycatcher and a Cattle Egret.

Tipped off by another local birder I headed to Petounta once I had finished the waterbird count and found a female and juvenile Citrine Wagtail. He had also seen a juvenile Rose-coloured Starling there earlier but it was nowhere to be seen when I got there.

Also present were – Wood Sandpiper 4, Common Sandpiper 3, Black-winged Stilt 1, Cetti’s Warbler 2 seen, Spur-winged Lapwing 3, Red-rumped Swallow 3, Cattle Egret, Isabelline Wheatear 1, Moorhen adult with two young

Out at sunrise to do the water bird count around Larnaca this morning. Managed to avoid the worst of the heat and although the Lake itself is dry still had some interesting birds. At Meneou Pool there were twenty four roosting Stone Curlew. Around 100 Yellow-legged Gull were in the area – on the dried up Airport Pools South, on Spiro’s Pool, in the fields along the coast and on the Sewage Pools. Observing and counting from the hide at the Sewage Works was not much fun as it is full of cobwebs and mosquitos. Anyhow as well as the resident Mallard, Coot and Little Grebe I found a few Teal, five Ferruginous Duck and two Red-crested Pochard. There were over fifty Black-winged Stilt and 21 Spur-winged Lapwing as well as a Pied Avocet, two Common Ringed Plover, four Ruff, a Sanderling, three Dunlin, six Common Redshank, a Greenshank, nearly thirty Little Stint, eleven Kentish Plover, eleven Common Sandpiper, eighteen Wood Sandpiper and five Green Sandpiper. Two White-winged Tern were flying over the pools and a Yellow Wagtail could be heard flying around.

In the fields near the hide there were at least six Pallid Swift flying over and three more were along the airport coast. As I was watching those a larger bird came into view – a Collared Pratincole heading west along the coast.

The Salt Lake is now completely dry and the only ‘water-birds’ I found were a Little Egret and two Spur-winged Lapwing. In the Tekke Mosque area there was a Lesser Grey Shrike, a juvenile Red-backed Shrike and three juvenile Masked Shrike as well as a lone Roller on a wild fennel plant.

Roller Larnaca 14th August 2013

European Roller seen near Tekke Mosque, August 14th 2013

Spent the afternoon at Latchi. Five flocks of between 54 to 102 Glossy Ibis seen off shore heading west from 13.30pm to 18.45pm. Also saw an Eleonora’s Falcon come in off the sea with a Barn Swallow in its talons – there was a steady stream of luckier Barn Swallows in off the sea and heading inland all afternoon. Also of note was a lone Black-crowned Night Heron circling over the area.