During early October we were lucky enough to stay in Cyprus with friends, in the lovely village of Kala Chorio, which nestles in the foothills of the Troodos Mountain range. Kala Chorio stands at 600m above sea level with a beautiful rural landscape of rugged hillsides mixed with rough vegetation, orchards and vineyards.
The weather was mostly fine and sunny, with temperatures in the high 20T’s except for in the evening when it was decidedly cooler, particularly towards the end of our break. The good weather was interrupted by thunder storms on the Wed and Thursday of the first week. Unfortunately however, this did not bring in the falls of migrants that one might have hoped for, at least not in the immediate vicinity.
Apart from local endemics which show fairly well, locating birds was generally like pulling teeth, which I continue to put down to the general “hunting” culture on the island. Two recent unfortunate stories back this up, one from our host who some weeks ago admonished two men for taking pot shots at a Beeeaters on the wires below his house, his attention having been drawn not so much by the gun fire but the sound of cartridge shot raining down on his metal roof. The second story relates the widely reported Birdlife International story, quote *:
“52 Red-footed Falcon –listed as Near-Threatened by BirdLife- have been found shot at Phasouri in Cyprus, a well-known poaching 'black spot'. The finding has appalled conservationists throughout Europe, and has led to BirdLife Cyprus renewing calls for action on the issue”.
(* for those unfamiliar with this go to : http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2...n_massacre.html)
Ironically the birds featuring in these two cruel tales are amongst the most gregarious, benign and beautiful.It is quite likely that perhaps the whole seasons breeding effort of a group were wiped out in one go.
We were lucky enough to see several groups of Red Foots, numbers of which varied; at Kala Chorio from single birds to 20+ and near Kolossi orange groves, parties of 10 – 30 birds.
(To be continued)
Kala Chorio :
Birds seen over the period 9th October – 17th October 2007House Sparrow
Great Tit
Nightingale
Lesser whitethroat
Whitethroat
Blackcap
Cetti’s warbler
Cyprus Warbler
Cyprus wheatear
Stonechat
Spotted flycatcher
Beeeater
Kestrel
Red footed falcon
Short Toed Eagle
House Martin
Crag Martin
Swallow
Red rumped swallow
Red backed shrike
Crested lark
Tree pipit
Greenfinch
Goldfinch
Magpie
Chukar
White wagtail
Heard but not seen : Scops Owl
