April Dragonflies and Damselflies

A selection of Dragonflies and Damselflies taken during April.

Ischnura elegans (Immature female)

 Ischnura elegans, Mavrokolympos, 06/04/16

 Ischnura elegans, Mavrokolympos, 06/04/16

Crocothemis erythraea, Mavrokolympos, 06/04/16

Orthetrum brunneum (fem), Mavrokolympos, 15/04/16

Epallage fatime, Mavrokolympos, 15/04/16

Epallage fatime, Mavrokolympos, 15/04/16

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Great Spotted Cuckoo

08/05/16 Great Spotted Cuckoo (Clamator glandarius), a brood parasite that lays it's eggs in Corvid nests, mainly in Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica) in Cyprus. The female can deposit between one to six eggs in the hosts nest and can deposit a total of twelve to twenty four eggs in a season. When mating the male presents their favoured food such as Caterpillars or Grasshoppers to the female. Plenty of Great Spotted Cuckoo at Anarita, Paphos at the moment.

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Amur Falcon

06/05/16 Having been in the UK and receiving reports of an Amur Falcon (Falco amurensis) we were thinking we may have missed the first record of this bird in Cyprus. It over winters in South Africa and normally migrates across the Indian Ocean to the far east, which is one of the most difficult routes for a bird of prey to migrate. It was feeding with many Red Footed Falcon and has probably migrated with this western counter part that we are more familiar with. It is easily recognised in flight from the (western) Red Footed Falcon by its white underwing coverts.

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Paphos Foothills

13/02/16
A BirdLife Cyprus field meeting led by John in the Paphos foothills was enjoyed by all today. Highlights seen were close views of Siskin, also Song Thrush, Woodlark and Blackbird were seen. Raptors in the area were Long-legged and Common Buzzard. It was nice to see both a male and female Finsch's Wheatear in the same area together with a Little Owl and Spectacled Warbler. We completed the trip with good views of a Peregrine Falcon on breeding territory. There were also plenty of wild flowers and orchids to view.

Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus)

Giant Orchid (Barlia robertiana)

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Zakaki Marsh

03/02/16 A very quick look around Zakaki Marsh where we were lucky to see the Pied Kingfisher and Pied Avocet.

 Pied Kingfisher (Ceryle rudis)

Pied Avocet (Recurviostra avosetta)

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BirdLife Cyprus Griffon Vulture Census

28/01/16 We completed the Griffon Vulture Population Census for BirdLife Cyprus in the Mousere, Dora area which straddle's the regions of  Paphos and Limassol.
An enjoyable day completing the census for BirdLife Cyprus.
In the six hours spent we had 13 sightings of Griffon Vulture ranging from single birds up to groups of 9, with both the original population of Cyprus birds successfully intergrating with the birds bought in from Crete under the project to increase the dwindling Cyprus population.

http://www.birdlifecyprus.org/en/news-811-Update_on_the_Griffon_Vulture_project.html

International Waterbird Census (day 2)

We completed the waterbird census on Sunday 17/01/16 by walking the Paphos headland coast on the edge of the archaeological site in Kato Paphos.

We started off by seeing 2 Great Cormorant flying in then a Sandwich Tern fishing just off the coast.

Sandwich Tern (Sterna sandvicensis)

Nearby was a Slender-billed Gull, Common Kingfisher and a number of Dunlin feeding. 

              Slender-billed Gull (Larus genei)

                                                                        Dunlin (Calidris alpina)

Continuing along the coast we came across 4 Greater Sand Plover and reaching the end we were disappointed not to have seen the Golden Plovers that frequent this section of the headland in winter. On our return journey though, we were pleased to see the flock flying in from another location.

     Greater Sand Plover (Charadrius leschenaultia)

Eurasian Golden Plover (Pluvialis apricaria)

Other birds seen were Yellow-legged Gull and Common Sandpiper, birds missing for us this day, Whimbrel and Ruddy Turnstone which would have been there but probably further along the coast.

Dave and Jan

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