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Hi Birders,
From 3-17 June I was travelling in Turkey as part
of a small group tour organised by the company "Explore". While the tour
was a general tour of such places as Istanbul, Gallipolli, the greco-roman
ruins of the SW Aegean Region, a 3 day session by sailing boat from Dalyan
to Fethiye, Central Anatolia and the underground cities, Ankara and back to
Istanbul, there were some opportunities for bird watching!. Gallipoli, the ruins
of Ephasus, Pergamum, Alinda, Troy & Aprodisias, the Cappadocia Region and a
half day trip to the Sultan Marshes at Kayseri all were good birding sites!
Altogether 92 species were seen but on the whole I
would have to say that there were less raptores in the wheat-growing Districts
of SW Turkey compared to our own wheat belt and generally birds were harder to
find compared to Australia. Natural wetlands are very scarce because of the
intense irrigation that is carried out in that country and even the Ramsar site
of the Sultans Marshes would appear to be suffering from too much water being
taken away for irrigation (shades of our own Macquarrie Marshes, which it
resembled)! Our half day trip to the Sultan's Marshes was done outside of the
Explore Tour. Birds that were new for me included Short-toed Eagle (with
snake!), Long-legged Buzzard, Egyptian Vulture & European Marsh Harrier. The
most common raptore was the Common Buzzard and while I was determined to find a
Lesser Kestrel alas I could only identify Common Kestrels.
In the Sultan's Marshes I saw my first Northern
Night Heron, all 400 going to roost at daybreak!, Purple Herons, Red-necked
Grebes, Squacco Herons, Little Bitterns (also seen Australia), Northern Marsh
Harrier, Cetti's Warbler, Great Reedwarbler, Corn & Black-headed Buntings
and finally 4 Black Terns in breeding plumage!. The greco-roman ruins proved to
be good places for Wheatears, where I saw Northern, Black-eared, Isabelline
& Finsch's, as well as Crested Larks, Little Owls and Red-rumped Swallows.
Four species of Shrike were also seen viz Masked ,Great Grey, Red-backed &
Woodchat. In the intensively farmed small fertile valleys of Cappadocia I saw
Golden Oriole, European Cuckoo, European Rollers and Bee-eaters; In the
underground cities of the Soganli Valley there were Black Redstarts & Crag
Martins about the ruins; in the Topaki Palace gardens in Istanbul there were
Barn Swallows & House Martins, Great Tits, Tree Sparrows, Common &
Alpine Swifts; while crossing the Bosphorus at a number of places, flocks of
Yelkouan Shearwater (once lumped with the Manx Shearwater) were often seem, as
well as a pair of Meditteranean Gulls although only a lone Cory's Shearwater was
seen at sea off Dalyan! The Yellow-legged Herring Gull, was aboundant and nested
extensively on appartment roofs in the cities.
A pleasant feature of the landscape was the large
numbers of White Storks to be seen. They often nested on the ruins of castles
and cities in the country towns, and sometimes Spanish Sparrows had their nests
in the base of the Stork nests. It was not uncommon to see 3 & 4 large young
in each stork nest! Travelling in Turkey proved to be quite safe, the people
were hospitable and wanting to try out their English on you and all seem to have
some relative in either Sydney or Melbourne! We had some great meals and a most
enjoyable two weeks.
For those who are interested I have prepared a list
of Turkish birds that includes records from a number of observers since 1996,
including the recent visit by Philip Brook and also myself. Seperate to
this is the list of birds that I saw and details of where they were seen etc!
Please contact me direct if you are interested in receiving
same.
Alan Morris
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