Dermot Breen's Blog: whimbrel

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Sunday, 3 February 2019

Cyprus 3rd September 2018

I headed over to Paphos Headland which is one of the more famous sites in Cyprus. It proved to be one of those famous sites that was a massive let down for me I'm afraid. The site is an extensive and very rich archaeological site and worth a visit for that reason alone. I had great difficulty finding the actual entrance to the site however as there were no signs whatsoever for the place. The entrance building looked like a toilet block and was completely incognito with the one sign saying what it was perfectly hidden by green scaffolding netting. I ended up walking around the entire 4km length of boundary fence trying to enter the site only to come back to where I originally started! When I finally managed to accidentally stumble across the entrance and pay the entrance fee the staff inside were particularly obnoxious and apathetic. There were a few interpretive panels with bird information but these were in behind locked gates at the lighthouse, kind of defeats the whole reasoning for putting them up in the first place. Combined with the absent of migrants the place definitely left a very bad impression on me! The best birds were actually picked up outside of the site along the coast when I was trying to get into the place which in the form of a small group of Greater Sand Plovers. These were a new addition for my Western Palearctic list. The other new WP additions from the trip included Spur-winged Plover and Marsh Sandpiper.
I headed inland from here and checked Kannaviou Dam, Evretou Dam, Pikni Forest, etc. and apart from a Bonelli's Eagle, Long-legged Buzzards and a Masked Shrike there wasn't much of note. I saw about three of the latter during the entire trip but all were either seen as I was driving or were very brief.

Greater Sand Plover

Kingfisher and Whimbrel

Whimbrel

Long-legged Buzzard

Cyprus Wheatear

Northern Wheatear

The covert entrace to the Paphos Archaeological Park.

Sunday, 4 June 2017

Waders May 2017

A few pictures of a some recent waders including a pair of breeding Dunlin, a late staying Purple Sandpiper and a migrating Whimbrel.
While Dunlin were never a common breeding wader in Ireland their numbers have crashed like most breeding waders in recent decades. The last breeding population was judged to be just 150 pairs in 2008 (Lauder et al., 2008). I would think that the number is probably even half of that now at the very most. During the 2007 - 2011 Bird Atlas they were only recorded breeding in counties Galway, Mayo and Donegal. Most are to be found in Mayo. One of the few breeding locations in Galway was within the recent large "Cloosh Forest fire" which has destroyed the area of quaking blanket bog where they found breeding in. They start breeding much later than other wader species.

Female schinzii Dunlin

Male schinzii Dunlin

Second calendar Purple Sandpiper in breeding plumage.

Whimbrel

Saturday, 6 May 2017

Sri Lanka 26.2.2017

Our penultimate day and last full day in Sri Lanka was spent at Tissa Tank in the morning which was literally on the other side of our hotel. We visited Bundala National Park in the afternoon missing the morning rush hour. This park isn't as popular with your average tourist as there are no Leopards to be found inside. One of the highlights here was the big area of lagoons/salt pans which held good numbers of waders. While most of our group we busy looking and photographing a close Osprey (our only one of the trip) I spied a rather arresting looking small wader on the other side of our 4x4's. A full summer plumaged Red-necked Stint no less! I was delighted to find this lifer for myself and what luck to find one in this stunning plumage. Red-necked Stints are supposed to be a rare winter visitor to Sri Lanka. I would imagine they are probably a little more regular in the country given that a few are probably overlooked due to being in winter plumage. Interesting none of the numerous Little Stints seen showed no hint of moulting into summer plumage. Certainly another of my own personal highlights of the trip.