Cyprus Birding Tours

Offering guided bird watching tours around Cyprus

Tag Archives: Little Tern


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Migrants moving on, 16th May 2015

Much quieter around Akrotiri today than it was when I visited on Tuesday, with a big clear out of waders especially. Still some good sightings though: two male Honey Buzzard over Phassouri Plantations being mobbed by Hooded Crows; two Eleonora’s Falcon putting up a flock of around one hundred marsh terns – mainly White-winged – over Akrotiri Salt Lake; good views of three White-winged, 14 Little and two Gull-billed Tern at the Zakaki outflow; and a European Roller behind Lady’s Mile.

On the Larnaca Sewage Works Pools there were twelve White-winged Tern and a Eurasian Spoonbill was on Spiros Pool where the numbers of waders has also decreased compared to the last few days.

White-winged Tern and Little Tern Akrotiri Salt Lake 16th May 2015 (c) Cyprus Birding Tours

White-winged Tern and Little Tern Akrotiri Salt Lake 16th May 2015 (c) Cyprus Birding Tours

Eurasian Spoonbill Spiros Pool 16th May 2015 (c) Cyprus Birding Tours

Eurasian Spoonbill Spiros Pool 16th May 2015 (c) Cyprus Birding Tours


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Larnaca area this morning 15th May 2015

Found the melanistic Greater Flamingo today in with the others on Larnaca Salt Lake – not as interesting a find to be honest as the Lesser Flamingo found on Tuesday at Kouklia Reservoir outside Famagusta. The first record of this species in Cyprus and it seems it may have been overlooked on other occasions in with the group of Greater Flamingo there, and has been there at least a week. Would be nice if it decided to move further south to give others the chance to see it. After all the melanistic bird showed that the species is quite mobile when here in Cyprus moving between wetlands.

Other interesting species included Gull-billed, Little and White-winged Tern, Temminck’s Stint and Broad-billed Sandpiper.

Full sightings include:

Aradippou – European Roller 2

Livadhia – Spotted Flycatcher 1

Livadhia Drainage Channel (Jumbo) – Spur-winged Lapwing 6

Larnaca Salt Lake – Greater Flamingo 300+ (including melanistic individual), Great Reed Warbler 1h, Black-winged Stilt 24, White-winged Tern 3, Little Tern 1, Spur-winged Lapwing 5, Glossy Ibis 6, Ruff 24, Purple Heron 2, Common Ringed Plover 7, Curlew Sandpiper 9, Gull-billed Tern 2

Larnaca Sewage Works – Spur-winged Lapwing 5, Black-winged Stilt 16+, Ruff 46, White-winged Tern 7, Whiskered Tern 6, Little Tern 1, Wood Sandpiper 8, Northern Shoveler 1m

Spiros Pool – Ruff 66, Common Ringed Plover 15, Little Stint c240, Curlew Sandpiper 28, Greater Flamingo 1, Temminck’s Stint 2, Broad-billed Sandpiper 1, Dunlin 1, European Bee-eater 30 in off sea,

Meneou Beach – Spotted Flycatcher 1, Little Tern 1

Spotted Flycatcher Livadia 15th May 2015 (c) Cyprus Birding Tours

Spotted Flycatcher Livadia 15th May 2015 (c) Cyprus Birding Tours

Ruff Spiros Pool 15th May 2015 (c) Cyprus Birding Tours

Ruff Spiros Pool 15th May 2015 (c) Cyprus Birding Tours


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Larnaca this morning, 8th May 2015

No sign of the Broad-billed Sandpiper, that had been present last night, on Spiros Pool this morning but still plenty of interest as there were nearly twenty Curlew Sandpiper, a Red-necked Phalarope, four Black-tailed Godwit, two Little Tern, a Little Gull, more than a hundred Little Stint and a Ruff in near breeding plumage among the twenty or so of that species.
A couple of Whinchat and a late Northern Wheatear were also seen, ten Glossy Ibis passed over and then along the airport coast I watched 41 Collared Pratincole flying over the sea and then move inland. A Whiskered Tern was on the Sewage Pools.