September 1st
I started the day nailing some of the odd sounds around the houses, recognising the calls of Short-toed Treecreeper, and seeing a male 'samamisicus' male Redstart on the way to the count station.
The weather was quite fare, and so passage was on the whole less than yesterday, but I'm certainly not going to complain, as I got into the counting groove properly.
A Tawny Pipit flying over, and a couple of subliminal Alpine Swift were new on the passerine front, but a flock of 110 White Stork was a particularly spectacular sight.
We'd already had some close Lesser Spotted Eagle, when the highlight of the day came early afternoon, with an ominous shape looming out of the murk ahead of us...
...which showed the dark upperparts, the large hand, and single underwing 'comma' of a Greater Spotted Eagle! What a bird!
A particularly close male Pallid Harrier was a delight...
...but I was very sad to hear that the bird was shot out the sky shortly after this footage was taken. A brutal reminder that illegal hunting is a big problem in the area. There is currently a dedicated team there monitoring the hunting, and implementing educational measures to reduce it. Attempts from past years have shown some encouraging results.
A good day, with some 12,000 birds in total, mostly distant ones.
In the evening, I was amused to watch the guys from Batumi Birding branding their office - how many people does it take to stick a sticker on a window? ;-)
Come the night, I got the first taster of the quality of moths to be found in the area, with stunning Latin, Orache Moth, Splendid Brocade...
...and a darker form of Bordered Sallow...
...attracted to lit windows. Interesting to see many species which are scarce migrants to the UK.
September 2nd
Today was a slow day, with most of the Honey Buzzard passage occurring in the distance.
Instead I took the opportunity to look at other things.
Looking out to sea was always worth a try, and today I got the Georgia ticks of Little Egret and Grey Heron as flocks migrated south.
In the bushes behind the station I found a confiding male Red-backed Shrike, and below the view point I heard my first Middle Spotted Woodpecker.
The insects were interesting to look at such as loads of Red-veined Darter and a few Long-tailed Blue.
Also this unidentified green-tailed Lizard taking refuge from the hot sun in our shelter.
Nearby was this cracking Wasp Spider - familiar to me, but no less striking for that.
In the evening, more moths were found around outside lights, including a dark Iron Prominent...
...Sub-angled Wave...
...a dark (yet another dark form, why is this? The warmth perhaps?) Porter's Rustic...
Sorry that the quality of the videos in these posts are so poor - a good quality one shall posted at the end of the report. 29th/30th August
I departed Heathrow on Saturday evening and arrived at Istanbul Ataturk airport early the next morning.
I struggled to kill the 9 hours I had till my Batumi flight, so I was delighted to learn of the presence of a 'veranda'. I had my bins in my hand-luggage (naturally) and I was keen to start my Turkey list (that's a list of birds in Turkey, not a list of species of Turkey! :-D ) .
Sadly, this turned out to be a 'cage' everyone used as a smoking area.
Despite the difficult viewing, I saw a few things through the mesh, including Yellow-legged Gull, Cormorant, and Hooded Crow. The first good bird was an Alpine Swift, dwarfing the nearby Common Swift. Several flocks of Yellow Wagtail flew over and Grey Heron and a Kestrel were spotted.
Then, just as I had to go to the gate, I remembered that Istanbul is a bit of a bottleneck for large migrants in itself, and I found a nice north-facing window to check.
Lo and behold, there was a flock of some 300 White Stork heading through!
Don't worry, the wildlife images shall improve!
There was also a couple of very high raptors, probably Black Kite, with them. Also from this window, I saw my first lifer of the trip with a nice rufous Long-legged Buzzard hunting, and it was good to see the familiar below the window itself with a dead Silver Y.
On arrival at Batumi airport I was taken on an impromptu tour of the city which included this rather rustic (and packed!) wine cellar.
I was impressed by the architecture etc of the city (though not the driving!!).
On getting to the accommodation - the house of a Georgian family, I was immediately greeted by the calls of Bee-eater. This would set the tone of the trip really, as the 'prrrrp' was a constant soundtrack to our raptor counts. There were clouds of them!
With a couple of hours of daylight left, I mostly just pottered about the house balcony and garden to see what I could see. Along with a load of unfamiliar sounds (most of which I cracked later!) I managed to spot distant Marsh Harrier, Black Kite, a large unidentified Eagle, and my first ever Levant Sparrowhawk! This male was filmed later in the trip - notice the black, narrow wing-tips and unbarred underparts.
It was a long drive, but we felt it was all going to be
worth it, as we visited the world-renowned vast wetland of The Camargue.
Even before we got there, I had spotted a Squacco Heron on
the edge of a rice paddy field, and we drove slowly past a dry field that had a
few Crested Lark in it.A distant flock
of Glossy Ibis were also spotted.
As soon as we exited the vehicles at the first stop, we were
hit with an appallingly strong wind.Would this put a real downer on the day?
The first place we stopped had reedbed and freshwater pools
on both sides of the road, and although these were hidden by reeds, we had a
constant stream of birds making their way from one to the other.
Several male Red-crested Pochard were seen in flight, a
Hobby flew over, Purple Heron were building their nests…
…and Whiskered Tern were on the move.
It was amazing that anything was making itself heard in the
wind, but I was still able to pick out the grating song of a Great Reed
Warbler, alongside their smaller cousins.
At one point, I noticed three darker herons flying in the
distance. Surely Night Heron, I thought.
Black Kite were the commonest bird of prey, and a few Marsh
Harrier were quartering about.Just
before we were about to leave, two Great White Egret took flight.A smart spot!
We headed for a comfort stop at a visitor centre.In the car park, the ubiquitous Melodious
Warbler sung.
The ‘song’ of the Zitting Cisticola (Fan-tailed Warbler) was
all around, but they were only distantly seen in flight.
Andrew wanted to show us a White Stork nest, but was
surprised to discover the tree had gone!Probably fallen in winds like those we were experiencing!
We moved on to a fabulous viewpoint over the marsh, and our
first views of the famous Greater Flamingo.
Before this, as I got out of the van, I disturbed a huge
Locust, probably a Migratory Locust (Locusta migratoria), but it fled before I
could get a photo.
The lifers came thick and fast at this spot.A male Sardinian Warbler sung nearby, and I
eventually saw it, although briefly.Over the wetlands two Gull-billed Tern hunted. We went on to see a few
more, including one resting in a flooded field.
After a great deal of squinting, I somehow managed to find
some of the hoped-for Collared Pratincole, but they were right at the back,
mostly hidden by vegetation.Just occasionally
one would fly up and show off its distinctive flight and white rump.
Meanwhile, a Fox was worrying the colony of Black-winged
Stilt.
To add to the birds hunting low over the water, two young
Little Gull were found, as were a few Black Tern.Last, but not least, Craig found us a
sparkling adult White-winged Black Tern into the bargain.That’s all the European marsh Terns in one
spot!
Just before we left, I managed to get a good view of a
Zitting Cisticola finally, sitting on a bush.
We reluctantly moved on, but it wasn’t long before we ground
to a halt once again.First, we came
across some intact White Stork nests…
…and then we had a
couple of Bee-eater fly over.Some
movement in a horse field revealed themselves to be the bulk of the Collared
Pratincole colony, so finally we could get good views.
The Bee-eater we had seen earlier, were now hawking about
over the same field, and as we left they were sitting in bushes right by the
road.The only Tree Sparrow of the week
flew past.
We moved on to a lunch spot, chosen more for the shelter it
offered rather than anything else!
It didn’t stop us looking for wildlife though, and I found
this Birthwort, a rare farmland plant in the UK.
The only unusual ornithological observation here was a
distant loose group of four Kestrel hunting.I’ve never seen so many Common Kestrel hovering so close to each other
for so long before, and Andrew suggested they were probably Lessers.Unfortunately, they were just too distant and
into the sun to pin them down, but I did try!
We then started to make our way slowly towards the sea,
alongside the saltpans and the mouth of the Rhone.There was a myriad of small waders about,
such as the plentiful Kentish Plover.
This Curlew Sandpiper was a treat in summer plumage.
And, there were a lot of Little Stint about (plus
Sanderling).
But, one of the main targets was the Slender-billed Gull,
and we had no trouble seeing them as they flew past to bathe in a nearby tidal
pool.
Yellow Wagtail (Blue-headed) were everywhere, as were Yellow-legged
Gull and Avocet.
We eventually made it to the sea, but the strong wind meant
we were battered by a sand storm!In the
brief moment we were out of the van scanning the sea, we were able to spot
distant small Shearwater, probably Yelkouan Shearwater, and I found one or two
huge brown Shearwater in addition, no doubt Cory’s Shearwater.We also had a few Black Tern go past, and
then fly off inland.
We stopped off at another viewpoint and comfort stop on the
way back, and I flushed a Night Heron from by the entrance.Plus, I finally got a glimpse of a distant
Great Reed Warbler singing from near the top of a reed stem.Another tight flock of Black Tern whizzed by,
clearly migrating.
We made it back home eventually, and we commented how we’d
seen all that on a very windy day.What
must the birding be like in perfect conditions!?It was another long day, but a very
satisfying one!
Later in the evening, someone found this Oak Hawk-moth
roosting on a fence.This was the only
nocturnal moth I was able to see all week, as although a moth trap was
available, it wasn’t being run sadly.
