Today we move from the Karpas peninsula after eleven days of relentless dawn to dusk searching for migrants and rarities. We have had a good trip in this part of the island with over 150 quality species logged but the only rarity to report was the Isabelline Shrike - small reward and somewhat a surprise for 520 man hours of birding !
We now make our way back to the north west of the island at the well known migration watchpoint at Cape Kournikatis (west of Girne). On the way we stopped at Kouklia and photo'd these Wood Sandpipers. The Red-veined Darters were still present in big numbers. We also found the Slender Skimmer dragonfly (bottom image).
There was no surprise at the airport to find our flight delayed due to the Icelandic volcano. Thus we had one more day at Kournikatis. We were impressed with this site; it is for sure an easy place to bird with no difficult juniper forest to contend with. Reading other blogs, this cape certainly turns up the numbers and we were pleased to see a flock of 60 Ortolan Buntings and a single Cretzschmar's.
Isabelline Wheatear
Red-veined Darter
Slender Skimmer
Super shots Steve the dragonflies are great.
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