THE BOSPHOROS 13TH 17TH SEPTEMBER 2007

Transcription

1 THE BOSPHOROS 13TH 17TH SEPTEMBER 2007 TOUR REPORT STEPPE EAGLE CELTIC BIRD TOURS

2 TOUR LEADER Steve Cale TOUR PARTICIPANTS Barry Madden Chris Revell Christopher Southgate Anne Southgate 13TH The group met at Luton airport early this morning for what was to turn out to be an eventful day to say the least!! The day got off to a bad start with poor Chris S being taken ill and not being able to travel any further with us. When we finally arrived in Istanbul the baggage hold door was jammed on the aircraft and could not be freed dictating that all the luggage for the group had to go back to the UK. For the next two days we were without luggage but more importantly tripods! We eventually got to our hotel at around and decided that after a well earned beer, we would walk a little way up into the city in search of a restaurant. We realised that we had run out of time for the proposed trip to the Camlica Hills but took our binoculars in hope we would get some birds before dark. We soon found an area near a mosque with large Plane trees and here we did our first bit of birding. Straight away we found Spotted Flycatcher, which was quickly followed by a cracking male Red-breasted Flycatcher - this lifted all our spirits after a difficult day. A few minutes later we picked up an Orphean Warbler and eight Laughing Doves. A little further on we picked up Lesser Whitethroat and a Common Chiffchaff, while as dusk fell above the city, hordes of Alpine Swifts circled and dived overhead, giving a real flavour of being in the east as they were silhouetted against the evening sky above the nearby Mosques. Night fell and we found somewhere to eat which by now we all needed and then after our meal we wandered back to the hotel and turned in; all thoroughly exhausted. 14TH This morning a car picked us up at our hotel after breakfast and after a little initial confusion we were soon on our way through the morning rush hour traffic to the famous Camlica Hills. The drive was a little slow but we arrived at the Buyuk or Big Camlica at and began birding. Here we were now in Asia Minor having crossed out of European Turkey over the famous Bogaz bridge spanning the Bosphorous. We quickly picked up another Red-breasted Flycatcher; the first of at least ten today. We also saw several Spotted Flycatchers, one of which took a Scarce Swallowtail Butterfly. At around our first raptors appeared in the form of four European Honey Buzzard soaring among the radio masts. These birds were quite low and during the day we saw a further thirteen. The main raptor passage of the day happened between around and but was very spread out and sporadic. The raptors were a little high and without tripods upon which to put our scopes, we were batting uphill, however we did see eight+ Lesser Spotted and five Short-toed Eagles. Levant Sparrowhawk came through well from late morning with over four hundred in total, the biggest flock of which was around three hundred birds at 16.00; these being the last raptors of the day. During quieter spells we birded the woodland around the top of the hill and here we did well. Along with the flycatchers, we saw two Common Redstart, ten+ Willow Warbler, four+ Whinchat, eight+ Tree Pipit, a Syrian Woodpecker and a Wryneck, a Red-backed Shrike, three Common Whitethroat, another Orphean Warbler, eight+ Laughing Dove and at least eight Long Tailed Tit of the dark eastern race A.c.tephronatus. As well as being darker than our birds they show a black spot in the centre of the throat and are quite distinct. We were able to study all this along with other more common species and all the time we had Alpine Swifts in view overhead. During the day we noticed groups of Grey Heron heading directly south down the Bosphoros at some height, with the odd Purple Heron amongst them. Apparently this is the route taken by them and then out to sea as opposed to the raptors that migrate west to east. Late in the afternoon, we again took the car and drove across to the European side of the city where we finished of the day by being dropped off by our driver at the northern end of the grounds to Topkapi Palace. We studied the Bosphoros from here for a little while picking up our first Yelkouan Shearwaters of the trip. We saw three or four different birds and then we wandered back slowly towards our hotel through the palace grounds. This is an area of very mature very tall trees in the top of which we could pick up the odd warbler and a Spotted Flycatcher but it was here we found breeding Alexandrine Parakeets, which although not native are as wild here in Turkey as Ring-necked Parakeets are in the UK. These gave very good views and we saw and photographed at least ten birds. So birding done for the day we headed back to the hotel for some rest, a shower and then out to a restaurant for our evening meal. We found a new restaurant this evening where the food is outstanding.

3 15TH Today we set of early to the main ferry port at Kabatas to catch the boat out to the Prince Islands. At the port we had a leisurely coffee while we waited and were able to study Yellow-legged Gulls well. We had three or four more Yelkouan Shearwaters a little distantly and both Great Cormorant and European Shag close by. The boat left at and the trip took around forty five minutes. On the way out we went by Fast Cat, unfortunately this meant we could only bird from the inside of the boat as e were not allowed on deck while at sea. We arrived at Buyukada the largest of the islands, where we disembarked, and having spotted what looked to be a likely birding area to the west of the island from the boat, we headed of through the town in that direction. There are virtually no cars on the island and so everything is transported by horse and cart. We resisted the horse and cart ride until late in the day when we were tired and had walked and birded enough, so we took the easy way back to the boat. These islands are very picturesque and appear to be a magnet for holiday makers, but as with many islands they are also good for birds. We walked to the edge of the small town and then began birding in earnest, eventually coming to a wonderful little wooded valley with small fields and some good birding; a beautiful spot. Here Common Chiffchaff predominated and we saw ten+ with only one definite Willow Warbler. Additionally, Sardinian and Orphean Warblers, Lesser Whitethroat, Blackcap and Common Whitethroat all featured in the warbler list and a Whinchat, a Common Redstart, fifteen+ Spotted and eight+ Red-breasted Flycatchers were seen. Overhead, there was activity with visible migration of European Beeeaters taking place along with Eurasian Hobby, swifts and hirundines. We saw three flocks of European Bee-eater with groups of eight, twenty nine and twelve respectively, along with a splendid spiralling column of a hundred and one White Storks. These gave us great views until eventually they gained enough height and headed off east and out to sea. We also watched a nice group of Pallid Swifts and a mixed flock of hirundines hawking insects while in the nearby pines we had two European Serin. By late afternoon we had found a bar and while sat drinking a beer, we watched another Eurasian Hobby and more Alpine Swifts. We took a horse and cart back to the quayside, having had some good banter with a group of the locals who drive these horse buggies. We brought our tickets for the boat but then dropped a clanger with the boat times and while we sat drinking tea, missed our boat, costing ourselves almost an hour. Eventually another boat arrived and we were soon on board. As we pulled out from the quay we picked up two Mediterranean Gulls; an adult and a first winter and we studied and photographed what was probably an Armenian Gull... The boat back was much slower and as we entered the Bosphorous the sun was setting, giving superb photo opportunities of the spectacular city of Istanbul. On one of the main harbour walls on the Asian side there is a Great Cormorant and European Shag roost each evening, this held at least eight hundred birds at last light. We returned to our hotel for a brush up. A stroke of luck happened with two of us now receiving our bags at last. One bag was still missing, but between us we managed to get all of us some clean clothes, probably much to the relief of the hotel staff!! We headed off to the excellent restaurant we had found the night before near the Blue Mosque. The food and atmosphere here was excellent and we finished off the evening watching the first England v South Africa World Cup rugby match. All in all a good day. 16TH This morning, Barry's missing bag finally arrived - better late than never! We caught a taxi to the ferry terminal at Eminonu at around We were soon on the water bus heading across the Bosphorous. By sheer coincidence, we bumped into Dieter a German birder whom we had met on the 14th and like us this morning, he was heading for the Camlica Hills. As we crossed the straights we picked up a nice flock of twelve Yelkouan Shearwater that came in quite close to the boat giving the group their best views yet of this species. We reached the other side and quickly got a taxi up to the Buyuk Camlica, arriving at about and set up our scopes at the best vantage point we could find. What a stroke of luck, as literally ten minutes after we arrived the raptor passage began and continued with only a couple of brief breaks until around Today s passage turned out to be the heaviest of the autumn so far according to some of the local Turkish birders. Passage was impressive with the list reading as follows, sixty two Black Stork, five hundred and ten Lesser Spotted Eagle, one Greater Spotted Eagle, two Steppe Eagle, thirteen Steppe Buzzard, one Griffon Vulture, eight Booted Eagle, thirteen Short-toed Eagle, four Eurasian Hobby, one Common Kestrel, four hundred and forty six Levant Sparrowhawk, eight European Sparrowhawk, two Black Kite and twenty nine European Bee-eater phew! This is what we came here for and it was a tremendous experience. At mid day we went to a restaurant for lunch of mixed kebabs, local bread and salad which was very nice. Of course, when we returned the famous birders call "you should have been here 10 minutes ago" was said to us. To our dismay an Eastern Imperial Eagle had passed overhead extremely low and given those there super views. We watched the raptors for most of the afternoon, but just after we returned to the woodlands prompted by Barry finding an Icterine Warbler when he wandered off for a few minutes. We re-located this bird and got some super views with a little patience and we also had a very good albeit brief look at a female Lesser Spotted Woodpecker found in one of the oaks by a local birder. We watched this along with Tree Pipits and a Red-breasted Flycatcher, but there were nowhere near as many passerines in the trees today as on our previous visit, with a great many birds appearing to have moved on. We finished birding and walked to the main road where after two or three attempts we managed to hail a taxi. The trip to the ferry port was brief but eventful with our taxi driver having an argument with another taxi driver over the fact that he had picked us up and the other driver had missed out! Entertaining indeed!! We caught the ferry back and as we crossed the Bosphoros again we had singles of both Common and Sandwich Tern among scores of Yellow-legged Gulls. In the evening we met up with Dieter at our favourite restaurant to round off the trip with another splendid meal.

4 17TH This morning we transferred back to Istanbul airport and checked in, ready for our return flight to the UK. En route from the bus we saw a Eurasian Jay and once at the airport Common Kestrel and Alpine Swift. We soon boarded and were on our way home. We landed on time and said our farewells after what had been an eventful, but ultimately successful fist tour to this part of Turkey. SYSTEMATIC LIST 1.Yelkouan Shearwater - seen daily in the Bosphoros, but no large numbers. 2. Great Cormorant 3. Eurasian Shag 4. White Stork on 15th &1 on 16th 5. Black Stork - 63 on 16th 6. Purple Heron - 3 on 14th 7. Grey Heron on 14th & 20+ on 16th 8. Griffon Vulture - one 9. European Sparrowhawk - eight 10. Levant Sparrowhawk Black Kite two 12. European Honey Buzzard - 17 on the 14th 13. Steppe Buzzard - 13 on 16th 14. Lesser Spotted Eagle - 8+on 14th and 510+ on 16th 15. Greater Spotted Eagle - one on 16th 16. Steppe Eagle 2 on 16th 17. Short-toed Eagle 8 on 14th & 13 on 16th 18. Booted Eagle - 8 on 16th 19. Eurasian Hobby Common Kestrel Yellow-legged Gull - common along the Bosphoros 22. Armenian Gull two both first summer moulting into second winter birds on 15th 23. Mediterranean Gull - 2 seen around the Prince Islands ad & 1st winter 24. Sandwich Tern - 3 Prince Islands 15th and 1 Bosphoros 16th 25. Common Tern - one 26. Laughing Dove - c Collard Dove - uncommon, surprisingly only a few seen 28. Red-backed Shrike - 1 probably 2 Camlica 14th 29. Wryneck - 1 Camlica on 14th 30. Lesser Spotted Woodpecker - 1 female Camlica 16th 31. Syrian Woodpecker - 1 Camlica 14th plus a second bird heard only at same time 32. Alexandrine Parakeet th 33. European Bee-eater - 49 on 15th & 29 on 16th 34. Barn Swallow 35. House Martin 36. Sand Martin Pallid Swift - c Alpine Swift - common 39. Tree Pipit 40. White Wagtail Common Redstart Whinchat Spotted Flycatcher Pied Flycatcher Red-breasted Flycatcher Blackbird Icterine Warbler - 1 Camlica on 16th 48. Lesser Whitethroat Common Whitethroat Sardinian Warbler - Camlica on 14th, 15+ Prince Islands 15th 51. Orphean Warbler Blackcap Common Chiffchaff Willow Warbler Long Tailed Tit - 8+ of race A.c. tephronotus 14th Camlica 56. Great Tit 57. Blue Tit 58. Common Starling 59. Magpie 60. Eurasian Jay 61. Eurasian Jackdaw 62. Hooded Crow 63. Chaffinch 64. European Serin - 2 Prince Islands

5 65. Greenfinch - 1 juvenile Prince Islands Insects Scarce Swallowtail Butterfly -2 Camlica Red Admiral Butterfly Grayling sp Butterfly Lesser Emperor Dragonfly - 1 Prince Islands Darter sp Dragonfly Great Green Bush Cricket - 2 Camlica taken by Icterine Warbler