22 May 2024 - Latchi & Polis, Cyprus
« Newer | Older »Black Francolin, Roller, Bee-eaters, Hoopoe, Zitting Cisticola
This morning I retraced my journey from yesterday, heading for Polis Reedbeds. A couple of Bee-eaters were feeding over the beds on my arrival but not much else. It wasn't long however before I heard Black Francolin singing. I crossed over at the mid point and scanning a field of cut crops found a male Francolin. Nearby was a female, and shortly after the male began to sing.I watched as they moved through the field, the male singing from time to time. In the same field were 3 or 4 Yellow Wagtails,including an adult Black-headed type. They were hard to track though in the foliage and I couldn't relocate the adult male. A Crested Lark also called from the same field but I didn't see it.
I then carried on to the southern end and stopping on the main road by a small bridge, I saw two Red-rumped Swallows and managed to get some flight shots. A Roller perched briefly on wires nearby. I headed up towards Tera, like yesterday, but didn't see much at all on the way up. Stopping at the very top where I'd seen the kestrels yesterday, I got out and immediately flushed around 15 Chukar. I took a short walk but didn't see anything, and returning to the car, flushed another (possibly the same) group of Chukar. Heading back to the villa proved uneventful.
After breakfast Sam and I went for a walk south from the villa. We soon saw a Long-legged Buzzard and shortly after heard a Hoopoe. I located it fairly distant on a dead tree, where it sang for some time. Nearby we heard a Francolin singing, quite close in a field of crops, but couldn't locate it. Further down the road a Zitting Cisticola flew up and landed briefly on the wires. There were also a few Bee-eaters around. Back at the villa another Long-legged Buzzard made a brief appearance. It was very hot (29°C) and quite humid, so we spent most of the afternoon chilling by the pool. Later on I took the rubbish into Latchi, looking for a place to dump the plastic bottles, and on the way back lots of Bee-eaters were on the wires. It was quite overcast though, so the photos turned out a bit flat.
For tea we had takeaway souvlaki from Anthoulis in Polis, and very nice it was too. As I dumped the rubbish late on i saw a Palpita vitrealis and heard Nightjar.
Black Francolin , 1/500 sec, f/7.1, 500 mm, ISO 640
Black Francolin, 1/500 sec, f/7.1, 500 mm, ISO 500
Red-rumped Swallow , 1/2000 sec, f/7.1, 500 mm, ISO 320 (view full size image)
Red-rumped Swallow, 1/2500 sec, f/7.1, 500 mm, ISO 320
Roller, 1/2500 sec, f/7.1, 500 mm, ISO 400 (view full size image)
Hoopoe, 1/640 sec, f/7.1, 500 mm, ISO 100 (view full size image)
Zitting Cisticola, 1/1000 sec, f/7.1, 500 mm, ISO 100 (view full size image)
Bee-eater , 1/640 sec, f/7.1, 500 mm, ISO 800 (view full size image)