Southern and Central Vietnam, August 2015

Southern and central Vietnam, August 2015

In August, me and my girlfriend flew to south-east Asia for three weeks to travel around Vietnam. I thought I may as well do a birding report seeing as I did see a few interesting species while we were going round the country. It wasn’t really a birding holiday, although I had my bins with me every day, but there were a few times when we went out specifically to find birds.

I thought it would be best to go through each area we visited, and what I saw there, rather than do a detailed account of everything, as that would take forever! The biggest impression I got from Vietnam was that you really have to work to find the birds. I had read about this before going, but I was still a little surprised to find just how difficult it would be. Unlike other countries I have visited, there are barely any birds in urban areas, which unfortunately stretch far and wide into the countryside, so much so that there are vast tracts of land as you travel along the busy highways, where there is no gap in human habitation, leaving no wonder that there are few birds around. Given that songbirds are routinely trapped for the cage bird trade doesn’t help matters. Even in areas of suitable looking habitat, it could be difficult, but a little perseverance is sometimes rewarded. My complete lack of experience in tropical birding was also a massive hindrance, as I was unfamiliar with both calls and appearance of any of the birds, so anything I did see resulted in me frantically flicking through the pages of my field guide or trying hopelessly to get a record shot with my camera!

We were there in the rainy season, but this only meant short intense showers of rain, mostly in the evenings. Otherwise it was very hot and sunny, usually between 35-40°C, and very humid!

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

This was the first stop on our trip and whilst looking round tourist attractions in the city, and amongst the hubbub and chaos of the city itself, I was actually surprised that there were at least some birds. Tree Sparrows replace the niche of the House sparrow here, and are commonly seen absolutely anywhere there is human habitation, and in the parks of HCMC, they were very common. Spotted doves were also seen here, and again are very numerous across the whole region.

   Aside from these, we did see White-vented Mynas near the river, and there were a few Common Myna seen around the Reunification Palace grounds. The latter area seems worthwhile of the attention of visiting birders, as it is actually quite green and uncrowded here. Thousands of House Swifts filled the skies in the evenings.

Mekong Delta

We took a tourist trip into the Mekong delta from Saigon, but it was so rushed and they tried to squeeze in so much into the 2 day trip, that we didn’t really have much time to search for birds. I had imagined swathes of wetland habitat, but it is very well populated, with habitations crammed into every bit of riverbank and thousands of boats. This results in a polluted looking river and not a lot of wildlife. Some of the areas we visited were very pretty, for example some of the islets, but it would have been nice to be able to explore a bit. There were plenty of birds calling, but that didn’t help me, but I did manage to identify Pied Fantail and Olive-backed Sunbird. Not one water bird was seen, despite being on the water for the whole time, apart from a caged little egret…

Pied Fantail

Da Lat

Da Lat was meant to be a sleepy city tucked in the mountains, but like most other places in Vietnam, it was still mega busy! We lost each other when we rented motorbikes in the crazy traffic! A nice place though and well known as a good area for birding. However, I didn’t really know where to go for the birds, so again didn’t really add much! A guide probably would have been a good idea.

We did a few touristy bits on the first day, including the botanical gardens, which I thought sounded like it might have some birds. There were a lot of Common Mynas, and several Burmese Shrike, the latter of which were very attractive and quite confiding. 

Juv Burmese Shrike

 I followed some advice from various internet sources and decided a visit to Datanla Falls could be worthwhile, as it could apparently be birdy. We got there mid-morning but it was choc-full of tourists, so difficult to find birds, and there was constant awful music playing from tannoys! The only bird I saw here was a Blyth’s Leaf Warbler, a nice bird, but it left me wanting more!!

In the afternoon we headed to get a cablecar up to the Buddhist monastery at Truc Lam, just south of the city. We had to wait til the cablecar opened so had a sit down for an hour and have lunch, overlooking a beautiful pine forest. There were a few Sand Martins and house swifts overhead, but apart from that not a great deal, although a Large Niltava did make an appearance briefly. The cablecar ride was brilliant, and many birds were heard calling as we passed slowly above the tree canopy. The monastery was very tranquil and picturesque and there were a few birds here, including a Streaked Spiderhunter, some Common Iora and quite a lot of Spotted Doves. The area deserved a bit more exploration but we were limited on time. We had a walk down to Tuyen Lam lake but didn’t see anything else apart from a single Grey Wagtail flying overhead. Apparently the forest on the other side of the lake has good birding, but I only found this out afterwards!

 

Hoi An

This was the best, and hottest place we visited in the country. We enjoyed it so much that we returned 2 times once we’d done some travelling round.

I had read that birding was pretty rubbish here, but I persevered and ended up seeing a fair bit. We stayed in Cua Dai which is a few km outside the town itself, next to the coast. The beach here is beautiful and stretched for several miles. In between the beach and the main road is a load of habitations and resorts, interspersed with scrubby areas and trees. It was in these areas where I concentrated on, visiting in the early mornings and now and again when we were on the beach.

Sooty-headed and Streak-eared Bulbuls were common here. The former were the local subspecies P. aurigaster thais, with yellow undertail coverts. The latter were very indistinct, looking almost like a mix between a sylvia warbler and a thrush. Also in these plantations were small numbers of Scaly-breasted Munia, the odd Long-tailed shrike of the nominate grey-crowned race, and a few White-throated Kingfishers. Just behind the part of the beach we favoured, was a bit of waste ground with some tall broad-leaved trees in it, and these always held a small flock of Blue-tailed bee-eaters, and occasionally Plain Prinia were also seen. A common kingfisher was seen flying over the sea while we were in it one morning, and large flocks of Little Egret were frequently seen over the sea too.

In the old town of Hoi an, birding was mainly restricted to Tree Sparrows, however along the river front there are several large colonies of what I believed to be Germain’s Swiftlets, which flew constantly over the water and amongst the roofs of the larger buildings. One afternoon, while having a beer next to the river, a Black-shouldered Kite was also seen.

Whilst staying in Hoi An, we took a motorcycle ride to the ruins of My Son, about 55km from the town, which situated in some pretty beautiful jungle, but as with a lot of places in Vietnam, it is advised not to go off the beaten track, due to the presence of unexploded ordnance from the war. This was maybe the ‘birdiest’ place we had visited so far, yet once again I only identified a small number of the birds as most were only heard and the majority that did show only gave extremely fleeting views. 2 more Bulbul species were noted here, the commonest being Stripe-throated Bulbul, but Black-crested Bulbul were also present in smaller numbers. The highlight was seeing a Lineated Barbet, which alerted me to its presence with its strange call, and showed in a tree almost right above me. This is probably the best bird I saw during the whole trip. Also seen were Racket-tailed Treepie and a few more Common Iora.

White-throated Kingfisher

Another trip from Hoi an was the Cham Islands, a pain to get to and somewhere we didn’t stay very long, but had a great time staying at a homestay with a local family. Due to a lack of exploring and limited time, we saw virtually no birds, but whilst out on a couple of boat trips, I did see a dark-morph Pacific Reef Egret, which was awesome, and a Bridled Tern. A sunrise boat trip round to the rocky cliffs the other side of the island offered a Common Sandpiper, and the ‘swallow’ caves where thousands of swifts nest, and where their nests are harvested by the locals for selling for food on the mainland.  

Bach Ma

This was the only national park we ended up visiting during our trip, and so I was excited about the prospect of finally getting some proper birding in. It was difficult to organise transport to the park, so we ended up doing a one-day tour, with the aim of getting left at the park to stay at the facilities. It didn’t go exactly as planned, as the tour itself was extremely rushed again, although took us through some amazing jungle. We were hoping to do some birding up at top half of the park, and stay at the guesthouse up here, but we were made to feel pretty unwelcome by the staff who were just trying to rip us off, so we ended up getting a motorcycle ride back down with them for a hefty price, rather than pay an even heftier price to stay up there with no prospect of any dinner. Whilst up at the top we did manage to see Fork-tailed Swifts and Brown-backed Needletails zooming around the observatory at the summit of the park. Silver-eared Mesia were also seen, an amazing colour-palette of a bird! Golden-throated Barbet were heard everywhere, but unfortunately never seen!

The visit to the park was saved however, by the guy that seemed to run the canteen and guesthouse at the bottom of the park, near the visitor centre. He was extremely welcoming, gave us a basic but cheap room, and even went out especially to buy us some food to provide us with some dinner. He took some interest in my field guide, and told us about some of the birds in the park. I wish I’d got his name, he was a legend!

In the morning we got up at dawn and walked up the hill to try and reach the first of the nature trails. This was a lot further than we thought though and within a couple of hours, we were sweating buckets and were out of water, so turned back. The pathways were full of birdlife however, and I managed to identify quite a few. Pin-striped Tit-babblers and Common Tailorbirds were everywhere, and we also got amazing views of a Crimson Sunbird, a proper gem. It was nice to see a few Red-whiskered Bulbuls free-flying, as all the ones we’d seen previously had been in cages.  Other highlights were Blue-winged Leafbird, Little Spiderhunter and a Long-tailed Shrike. The biggest surprise was an Arctic warbler, very few phylloscopus warblers spend summer here, so I presume this must have been a returning wintering bird?

After a sleep and some food, we headed for a waterfall, which is a local swimming spot, hoping for a few more birds on the way. There were Blue-throated Bee-eaters in good numbers down here, as well as a few Black-collared Starling, and a few other bits and bobs. A dip in the swimming pool with the locals was very welcome.

Hue

We spent a couple of nights in Hue, which is where we got our trip to Bach Ma from. It was a nice place, with a bit more relaxed atmosphere. I had read the birding was reasonable, especially near the Imperial Palace, so I took by bins with me when we had a Motorbike tour of the tourist sites. At the imperial palace I saw a Red-collared dove, a few Oriental Magpie Robins, as well as more Common Ioras, Olive-backed sunbirds and Scaly-breasted Munia. Another long-tailed shrike was noted at the back of one of the monasteries.

Hoi an (again)

With a couple more days to go, and not enough time to venture further north, we ended up returning to Hoi An for a third time as the guesthouse and beach were so great. I also had some other ideas about where to go birding. Both mornings we were there before flying back to Saigon were spent cycling down to some Paddyfields a mile or so from our guesthouse. These two mornings proved to be the most productive birding of the entire trip!

I saw a fair few birds along the river to the back of our accommodation, including some Plain Prinia and Common Tailorbirds, as well as plenty of Sooty-headed Bulbuls and Common Mynas. A tern sp was noted flying upriver on several occasions but I never got it down to species.

The paddyfields were reached by turning off the main road to Hoi an, just after crossing the river on the Cua Dai bridge. Instantly I was on to birds, White-throated Kingfishers were everywhere and I also noted a singled Pied Kingfisher, a proper giant! I finally go on to some heron species too, with a Cinnamon bittern being flushed from the reeds just next to the path, and many others were seen, along with a good numbers of Yellow Bittern. A Black bittern was also noted. Further up the path, with ponds either side of me, lots more kingfishers and bitterns were noted, and in the middle of the path, a group of around 10 Common Sandpipers. In the fields on the far side of the ponds was a flock of Little and Intermediate Egrets, and there were several waders, a little distant without a scope, but I managed to pick out a few Greenshank and a Red-wattled Lapwing. A few Paddyfield Pipits were flushed along the path and Blue-tailed Bee-eaters were seen regularly perching on fences and wires around the buildings. On our last evening there, we were cycling from the town, back to our accommodation, and going over the bridge near the paddies, we noticed the tide was out and had exposed the banks of the river. Egrets were feeding there in good numbers, but also some waders, with several Sanderling seen, as well as a single Marsh Sandpiper.

Summary

I really enjoyed Vietnam from a number of different perspectives, a lot of the people were very friendly, and the food was excellent. The scenery could be outstanding, and it was great to see a bit of culture and history. On the other hand, it was very hard to get away from the tourism, and a lot of people involved in that sector seemed to be grumpy and unaccommodating, which put me off a great deal. The birding is very difficult, and if I were to visit again, I think I’d consider getting a guide, as travel around the country is extremely difficult, and you really have to know where the birding hotspots are. Having said that, I am glad I went and we did see some amazing birds, and met some really hospitable people.  We still have the north to return to!

59 species identified confidently (plus many more left unidentified!)

1. Feral Pigeon
2. Tree Sparrow
3. Spotted Dove
4. White Vented Myna
5. Common Myna
6. Pied Fantail
7. Olive-backed Sunbird
8. House Swift
9. Burmese Shrike
10. Blyth's Leaf Warbler
11. Sand Martin
12. Large Niltava
13. Streaked spiderhunter
14. Common Iora
15. Rufescent Prinia
16. Little Egret
17. Grey Wagtail
18. Sooty-headed Bulbul
19. Asian Palm Swift
20. White-throated Kingfisher
21. Black-shouldered Kite
22. Germain's Swiftlet
23. Scaly-breasted Munia
24. Common Kingfisher
25. Long-tailed Shrike
26. Streak-eared Bulbul
27. Lineated Barbet
28. Black-crested Bulbul
29. Stripe-throated Bulbul
30. Pacific Reef Egret
31. Bridled Tern
32. Common Sandpiper
33. Fork-tailed Swift
34. Brown-rumped Needletail
35. Silver-eared Mesia
36. Pin-striped Tit-babbler
37. Common Tailorbird
38. Blue-winged Leafbird
39. Red-whiskered Bulbul
40. Little Spiderhunter
41. Crimson Sunbird
42. Racket-tailed Treepie
43. Arctic Warbler
44. Blue-throated Bee-eater
45. Black-collared Starling
46. Red-collared Dove
47. Oriental Magpie-robin
48. Plain Prinia
49. Cinnamon Bittern
50. Pied Kingfisher
51. Paddyfield Pipit
52. Intermediate Egret
53. Red-wattled Lapwing
54. Blue-tailed Bee-eater
55. Black Bittern
56. Yellow Bittern
57. Greenshank
58. Marsh Sandpiper
59. Sanderling

           

Owls and stuff

Not really been out doing proper birding this weekend, but i've still managed to notch up a few new birds here and there. On friday I was working near home in the morning, so dropped in to HP on my lunch break to year tick the redhead Smew that has been knocking about near blott's pit all week, and got the first returning Oystercatcher in the process, pretty much on cue as they usually return this time of year.

A couple of dog walks around the northern end of the patch resulted in the years first Lesser Redpoll, with a decent flock of around 40 this morning, as well as a Treecreeper, a bird I only managed to see once last year on the patch, so a welcome addition.

Saturday morning, I met up with Rob Hoare to have a look at his Little Owl boxes that have been up for a few years around Barton-in-fabis. I will be checking these this year for any nesting birds and hopefully ringing the chicks. The first box we checked had a roosting bird in it, so this is encouraging. We also had excellent views of a Barn Owl hunting in broad daylight behind Holme Pit.

Glauc in the bag!

Me and my girlfriend have recently taken over the care of her dog, Abbie, who had lived at her parents house, but with the arrival of a new puppy, Abbie needed some peace and quiet so came to live with us. This means that on Saturday mornings I am on dog walking duty. The good thing about this is that she has always been walked down at Holme Pierrepont, so I am able to keep on birding my patch, whilst walking the dog too!

I don't fancy taking her on to the nature reserve as she'll only disturb the birds, and get bored when I stand around scanning the lake, so I'll conitnue walking her where she is used to, which is around the back of the watersports centre and the finger ponds. This is part of my patch I dont come to as regualrly, so it will be nice to get some birding done there and maybe see something different? Sadly the birdng isn't usually especially good round there, but it always seems like it has potential, with loads of scrub and waterbodies, as well as the river.

This morning I took her out and clocked up 39 species in just under 2 hours, including a patch year tick in the form of a Kingfisher and a few Feral Pigeon (get in!). 3 Little Egrets atop a tree near the viaducts opposite Netherfield lagoons were good too. There's some flooded rape fields there which are screaming out to be looked at, but aside from a flock of around 30 mute swans, the best it could offer otherwise were a load of canadas and greylags. 

Next up was a visit to Cotham Landfill, after dropping the pooch off home. I admit now that I am a beginner when it comes to gulling, although i've always had an interest. However this winter I've been reading up about them and perusing various sites, to get more used to identifying them. I ashamedly havent actually seen any of the 3 'scarce' white headed gulls (casp, iceland, glauc), so i'm attempting to remedy that.

Anyway, I arrived at Cotham at around 11:15 and there were quite a few gulls about, but the tip was closed for the day, so numbers were comparitvely low. I set about scanning, starting with a group on the far left hand side and within a few gulls time I clocked a 2nd winter Caspian. With my inexperience, I am still pretty wary when it comes to this species, but the posture of the bird, the head shape and long bill had me pretty convinced, especially as it was next to a load of herring gull and greater black backs for comparison, and it seemed to have a grey mantle, but with quite a few dark juvenile feathers still mixed in, hence my decision on a 2nd winter bird. After this a lot of the gulls disappeard so I focused in on the middle of the spoil heap where a few gulls were knocking about, and luckily, the first bird i focused on happened to be a 1st-winter Glaucous Gull. It remained there for a minute or so, before all of a sudden, all remaining gulls flew up and abandoned the site. I stayed for another 20 mins or so, but decided that must have been that, as I was looking at a gull-less dump. Upon reaching my car near the old railway bridge, I looked back and there seemed to be a load more large gulls flying towards the tip, but unfortunately I had to be back home... typical! Not a bad result though.

A birdy weekend

I decided that, due to other weekends coming up being pretty busy, that last weekend would probably be my best chance to get out to Rufford Park to see the Hawfinches, always easiest at this time of year, especially as every man and his dog are out year-ticking them so plenty of reports come in, confirming their presence. I headed up to join the year-tickers, getting to the car-oark at about 08:15, a little later than i'd hoped, but luckily I wasnt too late. I walked down to the abbey end of the lime-tree avenue, to get a view of the trees from the lawn, rather than stand around the carpark side, and literally within a few minutes, 3 dark shapes appeared atop one of the trees. A nice easy view of the Hawfinches, and much better views of them than I managed last winter. I had a little wander round the woodland and lake, picking up a few easy year-ticks in the form Goosander, Marsh Tit, Nuthatch, Jay and Treecreeper. What was more unexpected was the distinctive wheeze of a Brambling, heard from somewhere overhead whilst I was staking out for LSW (which didnt show).

Tame Nuthatch - Rufford

Robin, Rufford

I left the park about 10 and headed slightly north, to check out the gulls at the pig fields near Ollerton, as a few Casps has been seen of late. A scan in one field off Whitewater Lane revealed about 2000 gulls, mostly BHG, but with good numbers of common gulls, but not many large gulls at all. I drove back to the layby and parked there, and walked up to an empty field which held a good few thousand gulls in it. There were slightly more large gulls here, but nothing that remotely looked casp, but again it was mostly small gulls and again decent numbers of common gulls. A scan round the pig sheds failed to produce anything either, Definitely a site worth keeping an eye on though, I just wish it were closer to home.

On the way home, I stopped at Arnot Hill Park in Arnold to try for the reported Firecrest, but despite finding a large mixed flock, I failed to find it.

I was busy chainsawing trees all morning Sunday, down on the patch, so didnt get to have a proper look round, but did drop in just before dark later on for a wander round. There were a lot of gulls knocking around Blotts Pit, including an interesting looking large gull with a clean white head and what looked like a dark eye, making me think Casp, however, after grilling it for some time, I decided it just didn't tick the right boxes and made me lean more towards an adult YLG. Other than that, there were decent wildfowl numbers, but nothing new for the year.

Goosanders, Rufford

Another year list?

I'm sat here wondering whether its worth trying once again to start my blog again. I try to kick it off every new year. It must be the excitement of starting afresh and beginning new year lists, where every bird is a tick again, but I wonder whether it'll just be another case of 2 or 3 posts, then me getting bored again and giving up? Who knows but I'm going to give it a go.


Last year I concentrated on my patchwork challenge list, spending most of my time birding the patch at Holme Pierrepont. It was the second time i had done PWC, and after a pretty dismal year in 2014, which only saw me getting 106 species/115 points. I'm sure plenty of decent stuff was seen down there, I just had a crap year and didnt see nearly as much as I'd hoped. However in 2015, I hammered the site a lot more and it paid dividends, and i ended up seeing 115 species, with a much better 129 points. (Anyone not familiar with PWC must be scratching their heads!) This better total was down to more coverage on my part, as well as it being the first year in which the new habitat on blotts pit, consisting of islands and scrapes, was put to the test. It came up trumps, as it attracted a lot more birds to the site, and as a result it is a lot more interesting site to work. Waders especially were well represented, and I managed to get 12 patch ticks that year. Highlights were American Wigeon, Sanderling, Wood sand and Spoonbill. It slowed down a bit in the winter but a Great Northern Diver in December kept things interesting.

So I have decided to do it again, and thus far have racked up 61 species. After a stinking hangover had me pretty much housebound on new years day, I got out on my bike and spent a couple of hours at the patch in the late afternoon of the 2nd. I intended to cover most of the site, but the light failed quickly, but I still managed to get round the whole of blotts pit and get in a few scans of the A52 pit. I was happy to get a few decent birds, including some Red-crested Pochard on the A52, as well as an adult Yellow-legged gull which was gathering with a few herring gulls and greater black-backs to roost as the light was fading. A little egret on Blotts pit was good to see too. Nothing spectacular, but a species list of 47 was a pretty satisfying start.

Last weekend I went up on my bike again on the saturday and covered the Watersports centre and finger ponds first, where I knew I could reliably get Little Grebe (with a decent count of 10 birds) and Grey Wagtail, but not the hoped-for pink footed or egyptian geese which were possible! I then spent an hour or so covering Blotts pit with fellow patcher Alan. There were plenty of wildfowl about but not many gulls, but I was happy with picking up the first Cetti's Warbler of the year, as well as a few Snipe and a flock of 22 Golden Plover were a long awaited site-tick. I had an hour to spare the next day, so popped down the A52 on my bike, stopping to scan the pit from the pull-in near Gamston island, but with little joy. However I did manage an Egyptian Goose on blotts, still not that common on the reserve, but little else was noteworthy!


I'm keeping a Notts list as well, but as with last year, I'm not going to go mad with it, it'll mainly be a list of birds I happen to see throughout the year, rather than something that sees me dashing round the county to tick off every single thing. I'll go for stuff nearby, especially if they're county ticks, and the odd trip to rufford or the dukeries to get a few specialities up there, but i'll not cross the county to tick off something I've seen before. I did have a cheeky Stonechat twitch the other day though, at Barton-in-fabis, but thats only 15 mins from work! Weirdly its a bird i've not caught up with much in Notts, I think i've only seen them on 3 previous occasions!

Two weeks in south-west Turkey

Last year, in April, I went with my girlfriend to south-west Turkey. It was mainly a Holiday for the two of us, but I was also fulfilling a wish to come and do some birding in this country I'd heard so much about.

Whinchat, Patara

I started doing a blog-post shortly after returning, but never got round to finishing it, but after looking through some photos the other night, I thought it'd be good to revisit it. It was a but long-winded though so I thought I'd rewrite it and make it a little more concise.

We went from the 11th-25th April 2014, flying into Antalya, and stopping at various locations around the Lycian Coast across the two weeks, before flying back from Dalyan. We used only public transport, which limited the amount of places I could visit for birding, but we still managed to find some decent places. I researched the trip by reading other trip reports, as well as referring to Dave Gosneys 'Where to watch birds in SW Turkey'.

I'll go through the trip by where we stayed rather than a day-by-day account, which was my original intention.

Antalya

Antalya

We stayed in the old town, 'Kaleici', which was a great place with loads of guesthouses, bars and restaurants. It also had a sea wall overlooking the bay, with amazing views of the Tauros mountains in the distance, and a nice harbour.

Laughing Dove, Antalya

We did a bit of 'urban birding' around the city, mostly around the park atop the cliffs and along the sea walls. On the first day we saw loads of Laughing Dove and White-spectacled Bulbul amongst the more familiar Collared Doves and House Sparrows. Down on the cliffs were a few Hooded Crows and during the afternoon a flock of a dozen or so Little Egret were circling the bay, with a couple of Cattle Egret in tow. The park had the expected birds in, mostly sparrows and Song Thrushes, although a Serin was heard and parakeets were a constant presence! In the evening hirundines and swifts hawked along the top of the cliffs along with bats as the night drew in.

White-spectacled Bulbul, Antalya

Olympos

Heading south down the coast, our next place was the peaceful backpackers haven of Olympos. It was very quiet as it was low season, so only a few of the dozens of guesthouses and hostels were open. We ended up in an awesome little place with orange grves out the back, and we stayed in a little wooden hut on stilts.
   The resort is nestled in a rocky valley, with a river which runs through ancient Lycian Ruins, before reaching a rocky beach. The ruins and woody hills surrounding it looked like excellent habitat, but on first impressions I was a little disappointed, as there wasn't much seen on or initial walk down to the beach. However once at the beach things improved a bit, with a flock of Alpine Swift flying overhead, but nothing was moving on the sea. I wandered around the bottom of the cliffs to see if I could See anything, and managed a few Bulbuls and a Blackcap. Heading back I heard an unfamiliar call, and quickly latched on to a Middle-spotted Woodpecker, albeit briefly before it flew off. Before I left I flushed a Hoopoe which soon disappeared again into the vegetation.

Middle-spot!

The next day I started early with another walk to the ruins and the surrounding scrub and farmland. Jays and Blue Rock Thrush could be heard around the valley, but little else stirred. A common Kingfisher flew down river as I wandered down. In the scrub, things fared a little better, with  a large flock of Spanish Sparrows, singing Cetti's Warblers, a Whinchat and a Woodchat Shrike.

LRP, Olympos

Later on we headed down the beach to the small resort of Cirali, to try and find some different habitat. Besides a pair of Little Ringed Plover were on the beach, we didn't see much and didn't really get anywhere After sitting and having a picnic, we watched some Crested Larks at the top of the beach before heading back to Olympos. On the way back a Woodchat Shrike was bothering some more crested larks as well as a couple of wheatear, one of which was an Isabelline Wheatear.

Isabelline Wheatear, Cirali

In the evening we took a bus tour to the Chimaera - some natural flames coming from holes in a nearby mountain. The walk from the car park only took about half an hour but on the way we were in the company of Tawny and Scops owls. The flames were interesting too!

Kas

The town of Kas, on the southern tip of the Lycian Peninsula, was our next stop. At first I wasn't keen as it seemed a bit far-removed from any countryside, but it served as a good base for the next couple of days. The town itself wasn't very birdy, with mainly Collared Doves and Sparrows for company, though weirdly, Jays were sometimes seen flying round the rooftops.
   Just on the western edge of town is a small wooded peninsula, which I ventured to during the two mornings we awoke here. Highlights down the mile or so of road i walked up and down were Red-rumped Swallow, the Turkish 'black-capped' subspecies of Jay, Ruppells Warbler, amongst commoner warlbers such as Garden and sedge, as well as numerous Woodchat Shrikes

Nemoptera sinuata, Kayakoy

On our first day in Kas we took a boat trip out to some ruins and islands around the sunken city of Kekova. The trip itself was great and did allow for some new birds to be seen. We made a stop in a picturesque little bay and had a wander through some farmland, over to an ancient harbour. Ortolan buntings were seen and heard, as well as more Woodchat Shrike and plenty of Whinchat too. I had a little climb up a nearby hill, upon where i spotted an amazing lacewing style insect, Nemoptera sinuata, as well as one of my target species for the trip, Finsch's Wheatear. It was a very distant view but i did manage to see a few more on the walk back to the boat.

We went for a dip in the sea and visited Simena, a tiny village built into the cliffs. On the way spotting some green turtles and some very wild looking Rock Doves. In Simena we just climbed to the hill overlooking the town to look for wildlife. Here we saw big flocks of hirundines and in a little marsh down in the valley behind the village were a few Little Egrets and a Greenshank. There were a lot of dragonflies about too, including what I think is Red-veined Dropwing, Trithemis arteriosa.

Red-veined Dropwing, Simena

Gombe

Another trip from our base at Kas was up to the mountain village of Gombe. I wanted to get to some upland habitat an d had read that this was a good base to start some walks from. We got on a bus for 2 hours and drove through some incredible scenery to get to the little village. Then we attempted to find the route to Yesil Gol (a mountain lake), but we failed miserably, no thanks to some crap directions in a guidebook. However I was happy as there were plenty of birds.

In the gardens of the village, Nightingale was a common bird, and Linnets were frequent too, as well as small flocks of sparrows with blackcaps in tow. Outside the village, highlights included Serin and Golden Orioles, the latter of which were seen flying around in the tops of poplar trees. This was an unexpected species here and was definitely the bird of the holiday. At higher elevations we saw a small flock of Red-fronted Serin, and in a building development, a Western Rock Nuthatch was seen flying in and out of an half built apartment. Before we left Krupers Nuthatch also gave excellent views in some ash trees along the river. Another Hoopoe was also seen, flying over some gardens.

Patara

Spotted Flycatcher, Patara

This place was one I definitely wanted to visit after reading about it in the Gosney Guide. This was the best place we came in terms of birding, throughout the whole trip. We stayed in a tiny village (Gelemis), which was at the top of a road leading down to a huge beach, which passes through a large archaeological site, surrounded by scrub and farmland. The road between the village and the archaeological site looked down on a large wetland, that is highlighted in the Gosney book, but it was pretty unproductive when we were there, with only Cetti's Warbler, Coot and Little Grebe seen. Turtle doves were heard from the parks/farms at the village end of the wetland though. The scrub either side of the paths were more productive, with loads of Spotted Flycatchers, Blackcaps and Whitethroats. A Black Redstart was also seen from here.

Crested Lark, Patara

In the archaeological site itself (which you have to pay to enter, in order to get to the beach!) there were also loads of birds. Yellow wagtails were seen everywhere, including a large pre-roost flock on one of the evenings we were there. Black-eared wheatear and Finch's wheatear were also relatively easy here, and Whinchats were everywhere. A common Sandpiper was seen in the ruins too and our only bee-eaters of the trip passed overhead.

White Stork, Patara

Further along, the farmland got a bit more verdant and Corn Buntings sang from all directions. Crested Larks were also abundant. White Storks were seen loafing around in the grassland. There were lots of birds to look at and the area certainly deserved more time than I gave it, but woodchat shrikes, yellow wagtails, warblers and hirundines all featured, as well as a Long-legged Buzzard.

Yellow Wags, Patara

The beach itself was magnificent, stretching down the coast for miles. Bird-wise it was quiet, even the dense scrub in the sand dunes to the rear of the beach. This looked like perfect habitat, but only really produced the odd spotfly, and a Northern Wheatear. I climbed the cliffs on the southern end of the beach and was rewarded with excellent views of a Peregrine, as well as hundreds of Alpine Swift, a Blue Rock Thrush and a Redstart.

The car park area at the back of the beach seemed quite attractive to birds and again I wish I'd explored it a little more, as in the short time I spent walking through it I saw a pair of Collared Flycatchers, a Redstart, a Wood Warbler and a pair of nesting Great Tits.

Collared Flycatcher, Patara

Redstart, Patara

Fethiye/Kayakoy/Olu Deniz


Fethiye was undoubtedly the worst place we stayed. It wasn't actually too bad, but just wasn't our kind of thing... a bit touristy and not much that we liked doing. We wandered to Calis Beach a mile or two up the coast from the town centre, as there was meant to be a little nature reserve called a Kus Cenneti (bird paradise). What we found was a litter strewn little marsh, nestled in between a horrible beach and lots of seaside developments... I wonder how long it will survive as a 'bird paradise'. There was a little tower hide from which we saw a green sandpiper and a few Ruff, and we did manage a couple of Flamingos in a shallow bay.

Short-toed Eagle, Kayakoy

We did go for a very nice walk from the ruins of Kayakoy to the amazing, but touristy beach at Olu Deniz. We barely saw anyone on the walk which climbed through the ghost-town of Kayakoy, up into the hills and through pine forest, before descending towards the turquoise sea down below. We were hoping for Rollers in the ruins and were lucky enough to get decent views, but very little else was seen around here. The woods were also very quiet, but from a clearing in the woods we did spot a Short-toed Eagle passing overhead, which was unforgettable. Otherwise it was very quiet, but the scenery and peace made it all worthwhile.

Dalyan

Our last stop was Dalyan, a pleasant town set along the banks of a reed-fringed river which led down to an excellent beach. The town is great but I imagine would be heaving in the tourist season. The wetlands were also quieter than I'd expected, but we still saw some good birds .Boat-based tourism was the order of the day here and we did take a boat trip which was well worth it for the close up encounters with green turtles, and the brief visit to lake Kayakoy where they took you 'birdwatching'. This consisted of parking the boat inside a stand of reeds and listening to a load of Great Reed Warblers. An interesting method, but I actually really enjoyed it, those warblers really can sing! We also saw loads of Squacco Herons flying about and a Purple Heron too, so I was in my element.

Squacco Heron, Lake Koycegiz

Around dalyan we did a bit of walking too,. We went over the river and walked towards the ruins of Kaunous, which is another large archaeological site, with some lagoons and stuff inside. However we weren't keen to pay to get in yet another place like this so we wandered up the road and looked down into the valley. It was a nice view and we did see 12 Little Egret and a Great white Egret too. Highlight of this walk was an all too brief male Masked Shrike. Either that or a wonderful tortoise that we bothered for some time.

Tortoise, Dalyan

We flew back from Dalaman Airport, and I went out with a bang, as in the trees outside the Terminal, there were several Rollers and in the distance I saw a couple of Spur-winged Lapwing. The Turkish security and police however, did not take kindly to me sneaking about with bins and a long-lens camera. They demanded to look through my pictures, and we happy to let me go once they saw that all of them were of wildlife!

Roller, Dalaman

So there we go... a brief run through of the 2 weeks. My main summary of the birding there is that there are some quality birds, but you have to look for them. There seems to be lots of areas which look like they should be crawling with birds but are in some cases totally devoid of any birdlife, ie the reedbeds at Dalyan or the sand dunes at Patara. It may have been that I was there a little early in the year, but I was expecting more quantity! I can't complain though as I saw some excellent birds which I probably wouldn't see outside Turkey, as well as some nice migrants and subspecies too.




Another point is that Wildfowl and Raptors were very scarce, I had expected more, but on the other hand Woodchat Shrikes and Hirundines were all over the place!

Divers and swans

Last weekend a nice Great Northern Diver paid a visit to Kilvington Lakes, only around 20 mins from my house so I thought I'd pop down last Saturday to go see it, and failed. I had until lunchtime to have a look there and walk around my patch too, so I felt rushed, so left kilvington after only scanning the lakes briefly. I realised my mistake when only an hour later it was reported as present, and everyone started to rush to go see it. Unfortunately for me it was too late and I didn't have time to go back. Luckily it stayed and I went on Sunday to have a look and got excellent views as it dived, doing clockwise laps round the lake. GND is a bird I've wanted to see for ages, shame it wasn't at HP, but a tick nonetheless!

My morning at the patch was pretty good, with 5 new birds for the year - Jay, Water Rail, Reed Bunt, Meadow Pipit and finally a Smew, a redhead which was on the usual 'works pond'.
  Otherwise on site it was a bit busier than recent times, with 30-odd Pochard and a few more Wigeon about too, and some Shoveler. There doesn't seem to be many flocks of birds about though, finches seem to be thin on the ground as do tit-flocks. I also failed to flush any snipe, although with there being a lot of standing water about, they are a bit spoilt for choice.

This weekend I planned to go out to some sites around the county, as I've now decided to keep a county year-list, as it seems to be going reasonably well. There's been some good birds around so I planned a trip beginning at Rufford, to try for Hawfinch (still never seen one), Lesserpecker and some other bits, before nipping into Eakring to bag a Garganey, and finishing at Besthorpe to grab me some yellow-billed swans and maybe some waders.

It started quite badly, there were plenty of people looking for Hawfinch and none seemed to be showing while I was there. I tried for a while for Lesserpecker in its favoured spot, before wandering round the woods to try my luck in there. It didn't happen, but I did see a few Marsh Tits coming to some seed and managed one semi-decent pic. I also ticked off Nuthatch for the year.

Marsh Tit, Rufford

I was just going back to try one last time for the Hawfinch, when I checked birdguides and realised a Garganey had been seen yesterday at Rufford, so in an attempt to save a trip to Eakring I had a good sniff around the lake. Unfortunately all there was were mallards and tufties, and a small group of Goosander. I therefore tried at Eakring, and after a while of seeing nothing but Mallard, I gave up. Both have since been reported at both sites. Pah!

Besthorpe was good, I haven't been for ages and there was quite a bit about. On Mons Pool were 3 Redshank and a Green Sandpiper, as well as about 15 Shelduck. I was really hoping for a Pintail, but sadly none were about, but there were good numbers of teal around the whole lake, definitely 150+ I'd say.

Whoopers and Bewicks Swans, Besthorpe

I got good views of the Whooper Swans and Bewick's Swans which have been on site for a while now, giving me 2 nice easy year ticks. Been ages since I've seen a Bewicks too so I was happy with that. I finished with a walk around the north end of the site but might as well have not bothered as I saw hardly anything! Not a bad day, but with only 4 new birds for the year, I feel it could have gone better, but it was nice to get to some places I don't visit often.