Greater Flamingo Larnaca Salt Lake 16th January 2016 (c) Cyprus Birding Tours
Spent quite a long time today counting Greater Flamingos. 12,000 plus in the Larnaca area. Hundreds of Northern Shoveler, Eurasian Teal and Common Shelduck; twenty five Black-necked Grebe, three Gadwall, a Ferruginous Duck, eight Eurasian Wigeon and seven Greater White-fronted Geese at Larnaca Sewage Works. A small flock of less than thirty Eurasian Golden Plover at Spiros Pool with two Sandwich Tern offshore. Among the many Common Black-headed Gull it was good to find a Little Gull on Meneou Pool.
A lot of disturbance around the Salt Lake including some idiots walking in the water to get nearer to the Greater Flamingos there. Away from them in a quieter area there was a Temminck’s Stint, a few Little Ringed and Common Ringed Plover, seven Common Snipe and larger numbers of Kentish Plover, Dunlin, Little Stint and Common Redshank.
The White-headed Duck were still at Oroklini when I popped in there before heading home.
Did the waterbird count at Larnaca and late in the afternoon visited Oroklini. The Red-breasted Goose is still at the Sewage Works together with five Greater White-fronted Geese. A Pied Avocet was the best wader and the Red Knot is still present. A young Peregrine Falcon flew in and snatched up a Coot only to be forced to drop it by an adult Peregrine that came swooping in. Both Peregrines flew off calling and briefly grappling. The Coot was left there although it was gone when I revisited in the afternoon.
The Ruddy Shelduck is still at Oroklini and there were three Temminck’s Stint and six Common Snipe feeding as well as a Bluethroat and Water Pipit.
Full list of sightings:
Larnaca Sewage Works
Greater Flamingo 56 (only one adult)
Pied Avocet 1
Common Shelduck 1
Black-winged Stilt 8
Little Stint c50
Common Redshank 6
Dunlin 9+
Ruff 3
Common Ringed Plover 1
Baltic Gull 1 juv
Armenian Gull 11
Marsh Sandpiper 1
Greater White-fronted Goose 5
Red-breasted Goose 1
Black-necked Grebe 1
Northern Pintail 6
Red Knot 1
Peregrine Falcon 2
Larnaca Desalination Plant Fields
Eurasian Skylark 100+
Calandra Lark 5
Eurasian Golden Plover 4
Common Starling 11
Larnaca Salt Lake
Greater Flamingo 6
Eurasian Teal 13
Little Ringed Plover 5
Common Ringed Plover 25
Spur-winged Lapwing 2
Common Redshank 30
Dunlin c100
Kentish Plover c140
Little Stint 30+
Western Marsh Harrier 1
Water Pipit 2
Oroklini Marsh
Spur-winged Lapwing 35
Ruddy Shelduck 1
Cattle Egret 60
Common Snipe 6
Little Stint 2
Temminck’s Stint 3
Common Ringed Plover 5
Little Ringed Plover 2
Water Pipit 1
Water Rail h
Eurasian Penduline Tit h
Northern Pintail 2
Common Starling 40
Bluethroat 1
Corn Bunting 8
Oroklini Beach
Sandwich Tern 2
Common Black-headed Gull c150
On Saturday I had been surprised to see Ruff on Spiros Pool which appeared to be completely dry; visiting the area briefly yesterday I saw a Western Marsh Harrier put up many waders from that location. I returned for a search today and found water in the area near the Sewage Plant and Desalination Buildings. A good collection of waders and mosquitos awaited me. These included a Black-tailed Godwit (probably the same as seen at the Sewage Works last week), two Grey Plover moulting from their breeding plumage, a Temminck’s Stint, a Sanderling, several Wood Sandpiper, two Dunlin, a Curlew Sandpiper, two Little Ringed Plover and around ten Common Ringed Plover, four Common Snipe and tens of Ruff and Little Stint. Several Black-winged Stilt were there and a juvenile Collared Pratincole flew away as I arrived. Four Greater Short-toed Lark flew over the area calling and there were at least three Yellow Wagtail. The Western Marsh Harrier was still quartering the area.
After the excitement of finding a juvenile Rose-coloured Starling on the coast near the airport boundary fence, I then watched a young Peregrine Falcon chase a feral pigeon while being mobbed by two Commom Kestrel.
As I arrived at the Sewage Works pools a Long-legged Buzzard was soaring over the area. On the water were an adult and two juvenile ‘Baltic’ Gulls, an eclipse plumage Northern Pintail, at least four Garganey, six Northern Shoveler and a Eurasian Teal. A few waders around the edge of the pools – Common Sandpiper, Common Redshank, Ruff, Common Ringed Plover, Spur-winged Lapwing and Black-winged Stilt.
The weather was completely different today from recent visits to Akrotiri. The sea was calm with only the slightest breeze. Gloria, Stephen and I started at Kensington Cliffs where we watched several Eleonora’s Falcon flying out at sea and roosting on the Cliffs. Two Griffon Vulture briefly rose above the cliffs before flying round the promontory to Tunnel Beach. Several male Sardinian Warbler were singing; we heard some Chukar and watched two European Shag and Yellow-legged Gull down on the sea. We moved on to Phassouri where we found a couple of European Serin in the eucalyptus plantation and tried to locate a singing Eastern Olivaceous Warbler – a feat that was to be repeated several times during the day until we finally saw one – albeit briefly at our last location.
Squacco Heron, Cattle and Little Egret, Purple Heron and Glossy Ibis were all at the Reed Beds where we also found Common Snipe, a single Ruff and several Wood Sandpiper. We stopped to watch a Woodchat Shrike, both a female and a male Red-backed Shrike. Both Eurasian Reed Warbler, Eastern Olivaceous Warbler and Cetti’s Warbler were calling/singing in the reeds. The water on the area near the old rabbit farm has nearly all gone but we found a couple of Wood Sandpiper, a single Dunlin, three Little Stint, three Kentish Plover, a Common Redshank and a Spur-winged Lapwing. I had received info that a Rose-coloured Starling had been seen in Akrotiri Village early in the morning so we decided to head there and see if we could relocate it. We had no luck with that but were very pleased to see two male Golden Oriole in the trees there.
Heading back to the Akrotiri Gravel Pits we found more shrikes – four Woodchat and a male Red-backed, a male and a female Common Redstart, a couple of Winchat, a rather pale Northern Wheatear and a Common Cuckoo. We ate our lunch near the Reed Beds but the only birds on view were a large number of Common Swift. Driving to Lady’s Mile along the south edge of the Salt Lake we saw several Greater Flamingos in the distance – a pink blob in the heat haze. Our persistence in checking out all the doves we saw also paid off when we finally found a Eurasian Turtle Dove. The sun was against us at Lady’s Mile but there was an interesting selection of waders including Black-winged Stilt, Ruff, Common Greenshank, Curlew Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper and Little Stint. We also found a Black-tailed Godwit and then a breeding plumaged Bar-tailed Godwit (unusual for Cyprus).
At Zakaki Marsh we found a Common Sandpiper and, especially interesting, two Temminck’s Stint. A couple of Glossy Ibis, two female Yellow Wagtail, several Wood Sandpiper, two Spur-winged Lapwing, some Mallard and two Northern Shoveler could be seen from the hide. Finally a single Ferruginous Duck came into view allowing better views that the three in flight that we had seen at Phassouri earlier.
To finish the day we headed inland to Prastio Kellakiou where we saw some completely different birds. Five Red-rumped Swallow were the first to greet us as we got out of the car. We could hear two singing Black-headed Bunting – one each side of the track and we spent some time watching them. Two Cretzschmar’s Bunting flew down to drink from a small puddle as did a male Serin, a male Spanish Sparrow and several Goldfinch. We could hear Eurasian Turtle Dove purring. There were at least two pairs of Masked Shrike and finally we located a couple of singing male Cyprus Warbler. Stephen had a fly-by Eurasian Hoopoe but we couldn’t find it again, although we finally had a brief look at an Eastern Olivaceous Warbler as we left the area.
Stephen and Gloria had asked to see a wide variety of birds and we certainly had that on an enjoyable day out.
Total number of species seen: 75
European Shag, Squacco Heron, Cattle Egret, Little Egret, Purple Heron, Glossy Ibis, Greater Flamingo, Mallard, Northern Shoveler, Ferruginous Duck, Eurasian Griffon Vulture, ‘ring-tailed’ Harrier, Common Buzzard, Common Kestrel, Eleonora’s Falcon, Chukar, Black Francolin, Common Moorhen, Eurasian Coot, Black-winged Stilt, Kentish Plover, Spur-winged Lapwing, Little Stint, Temminck’s Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Dunlin, Ruff, Common Snipe, Black-tailed Godwit, Bar-tailed Godwit, Common Redshank, Common Greenshank, Wood Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper, Common Black-headed Gull, Yellow-legged Gull, Common Woodpigeon, Eurasian Collared Dove, Eurasian Turtle Dove, Common Cuckoo, Common Swift, Eurasian Hoopoe, Crested Lark, Sand Martin, Red-rumped Swallow, Common House Martin, Yellow Wagtail, Common Redstart, Whinchat, Northern Wheatear, Cetti’s Warbler, Zitting Cisticola, Eurasian Reed Warbler, Eastern Olivaceous Warbler, Sardinian Warbler, Cyprus Warbler, Eurasian Blackcap, Great Tit, Eurasian Golden Oriole, Red-backed Shrike, Woodchat Shrike, Masked Shrike, Eurasian Magpie, Western Jackdaw, Hooded Crow, House Sparrow, Spanish Sparrow, Common Chaffinch, European Serin, European Greenfinch, European Goldfinch, Common Linnet, Cretzschmar’s Bunting, Black-headed Bunting
Prastio Kellakiou 28th April 2015 (c) Cyprus Birding Tours
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