Sunday, April 28, 2019

Saturday 27th April.......things tern around somewhat.

An early start to Lady's Mile and adjacent areas.  Four Tawny pipit along one of the tracks seemed newcomers and a Whimbrel flew over calling.  A "cloud" of around 120 Glossy Ibis over Akrotiri salt lake and an accompanying swarm of 40/50 Slender billed Gulls appeared to have been disturbed  by something.  We settled by one of the farthest pools , now clearly reducing in size by the day , and soon had 42 Gull billed Terns descend and start feeding. After a short while, and great views , they all set off almost in line ENE and were lost to view. A little later I found a flock of 46 of them down on a small island at the northern end. I couldn't rid myself of the close coincidence in numbers but felt that the birds were actually separate despite the ( then ) total of 88 being rather high !! Within this same time frame 6 Little Terns arrived and dispersed.  Remarkably this movement didn't appear to include generally any common waders as only a single Kentish Plover was found.

Moving across to Agios Georgios Blackcaps and Spotted Flycatchers were seen at various places and a further 90 Glossy ibis were seen moving north.  A usual inspection round of the wetlands produced increased numbers of Collared Pratincole with some appearing to be on the move. Finally , a return inspection of the Lady's Mile area produced a Lesser Grey Shrike , a Red backed Shrike and a rather dark female Montagu's Harrier which struck off ENE across the bay ascending very gradually until lost to view.

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