BIRDING A BURNU

SPRING BIRD MIGRATION IN NORTHERN CYPRUS 2007

By Ian McKerchar (including all photos)

Male Collared Flycatcher

There's nothing quite like watching migrants flying out to sea in an attempt to make it to a destination not visible to the eye and for me, Northern Cyprus has been my chosen spring destination for afew years, perhaps due a little to the fact that my mother lives out there. My area of coverage is, and always has been, a small cape on the north-western 'corner' of Northern Cyprus, an area where birds are funnelled across the small cape and out across the Mediterranean Sea towards (hopefully) Turkey beyond. The area is quite large but I concentrate on a much smaller and more manageable area (although this of course means I must miss loads too!) and seem to do okay, atleast I feel like I've given it decent coverage when I leave. The area is known as Cape Kormakitis and also as Korucam Burnu.

The island of Cyprus with Korucam Burnu (Cape Kormakitis) circled and arrowed

My visit this year would run from the 1st to the 10th of April and as usual I virtually had the whole area to myself during that time, I would start my day at 5:30am, make my way to the cape and be there for just before 06:30 although I had intended to have the weekend as a lie in it never materialised and I visited the cape every morning and a couple of times in the afternoon aswell.

3rd of April, 06:15 to 09:30, 3/8th cloud cover, good visibility and a strong NNW wind.

It was good to be back and after waiting for the hire car to be delivered yesterday I was itching to get out to the cape this morning and with the moon still in the sky and sun only just rising I arrived at the cape and parked just before the long reeds as always. As the light got better I made my way towards the long-reeds not before a pair of Peregrines came in off the sea and flew east and away low over the hills near Sadrazamkoy. A Quail called from one of the meadows but the long reeds seemed quite with only a couple of Lesser Whitethoats, so I made my way down the road towards the last cover and the baron cape beyond when at 06:50 I noticed a familiar shape flying quickly west low over the waves on the north side of the cape, it was obvious what it was but still a surprise as I had never seen one here before but the immature Gannet carried on regardless and made it's way out into the open sea.

The familiar Mediterranean birds were everywhere as usual, Short-toed Larks, Tawny Pipits, Black and Blue-headed Wagtails, White Wagtails, Tree Pipits (with 2 very flighty Red-throated Pipits) and the usual ever present residents (atleast during summer) of Corn Buntings, Crested Larks, Hooded Crows, Great Spotted Cuckoo, Cyprus Wheatears, Cyprus Warblers and Spectacled Warblers.

Crested Lark, a common resident

Male (above left) and female Cyprus Warblers (above right), common enough but often difficult to see let alone photograph

At approximately 08:00 the sun shone and skies cleared, whereupon good numbers of finches (and decent sized flocks of Spanish Sparrows) appeared, flying often quite high but all heading NW and out to sea. Goldfinch were most numerous in the 90 minute period with 303 birds, Linnet 249, Serin 240 (largest flock of 40 which dropped into the last cover literally all around me!) and Greenfinch 158.

Part of the flock of 40 Serins that dropped into the last cover

And one of the nice males!

Raptors were evident with 4 Sparrowhawks migrating through and 2 male Pallid Harriers giving their usual fantastic views hunting the fields, including one which perched up at very close range (too close to disturb it with my camera gear!), 8 Crag Martins flew low west and 2 male Subalpine Warblers showed well in scrub just where I had parked the car .

Male Eastern Subalpine Warbler

4th of April, 06:20 to 09:45, 2/8th cloud cover, good visibility with light SE wind changing to clear skies and moderate S wind around 8ish

Yesterdays quite northerly wind had clearly held up the hirundine migration as from early morning masses of them were constantly streaming through the cape and out to sea to the NW. House Martins were the most numerous with an estimate of some 15,000 birds, with fewer but still thousands of Red-rumped and Barn Swallows along with Crag Martins, of which around 500 passed though with a largest single flock of 80 birds feeding over a rocky hillside before moving out to sea. There were all the usual suspects too but a Wryneck was a surprise as was a cracking male Collared Flycatcher but not as surprising as a Rufous Bush Chat that appeared very briefly at close range just before the last cover but was never seen again!

Wryneck

There were 4 more Red-throated Pipits (always nice), 6 Sparrowhawks, a single Orphean Warbler in the long reeds, 2 Dunnocks (which were surprising migrants), 8 Cretzschmar's Buntings, afew Common and Alpine Swifts, 9 Rock Doves on migration and a single Ringed Plover made it's way over north.

Male Spectacled Warbler in song, a common 'noise' around the scrub

5th of April, 06:20 to 11:00, 3/8th cloud cover with strong NE wind, changing to complete cloud cover, dull conditions, very strong NE winds and occasional light drizzle from 07:30.

As I drove down the coast road to the cape, the change in weather had increased my anticipation of what I might find as rain had clearly fallen and looked on the cards again, conditions ideal for a fall of migrants. As I arrived and jumped out of the car to head towards the long reeds a dark-phase Eleonora's Falcon whizzed past and headed NW out to sea but approaching the stunted Cyprus Pines that make up the long reeds they seemed very quiet. I turned up the track and immediately warblers were appearing from every available cover in great swathes infront of me and disappearing again just afew yards ahead, their numbers for such a small area was overwhelming at times as I didn't know where or what to look at first as warblers alighted briefly infront of me before diving back into cover. There were an estimated 60 Lesser Whitethroats, 20 Blackcaps, 25 Chiffchaffs, 20 Orphean Warblers, 8 Sardinian Warblers, 4 Subalpine Warblers, single Whitethroat and best of all 2 Ruppell's Warblers including a heartstoppingly gorgeous male that perched out in the open only 8 feet away, all of which wasn't bad for a decrepit looking line of stunted trees no more than 60ft long and only a single tree wide (and that's using the term tree lightly).

There were Redstarts too of the eastern race samamisicus, 4 in all (3 males and a single female) complete with their characteristic white wing panels, 2 male Collared Flycatchers, a single Pied Flycatcher of the grey-brown variant, 2 Song Thrushes and a Cuckoo, with 2 Thrush Nightingales and a single Common Nightingale belting out song from deep with the scattered bushes.

Redstarts of the race Samamisicus (above, 3 males and a female top left), displaying their characteristic pale edges to the secondaries and tertials. The variability of this edging and the wing-panel effect it caused was very extensive with one male even having distinctly broad white tertial edging on one wing but virtually none on the other!

Male Pied Flycatcher of the grey-brown variant

Between the long reeds and the cape Sparrowhawks passed through (5), as did a single female Marsh Harrier and Pallid Harriers consisted of 2 females and 2 1st summer birds (one of which passed to within 10ft of the car as I was leaving!), constantly disturbing the 129 Short-toed Larks (largest flock 44 which came in off the sea to the SW and carried on NW across land), 157 Blue and Black-headed Wagtails, 40 Tree Pipits, 9 Red-throated Pipits, 7 Isabelline, 8 Black-eared and 2 Northern Wheatears, 2 Hoopoes and 19 Cretzschmar's Buntings (including 8 in a single flock) that were in the area. Quail continued their calling from the fields, another 10 Rock Doves passed through (odd migrants?) and 5 Stone Curlew were on the road by the last cover.

Cretzschmar's Buntings

The day was so good infact that I returned again in the afternoon 14:30 to 17:00, with now clear skies, still strong NE wind, good visibility and very sunny conditions.

There were now 4 male Redstarts in the long reeds with another Wryneck showing superbly on the path eating ants, a Goldcrest was a surprise find and 2 male, and single female and 1st summer Pallid Harriers were in the area with a male Marsh Harrier and male Lesser Kestrel. Driving out to the extreme tip of the cape there were now 9 Stone Curlews together and 14 Crag Martins were watched fly overhead and way out to sea.

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