A birding trip to Cyprus

02nd April 2019

Steve from Western Isles Wildlife was doing a spring reccy trip to Cyprus in the last week in March, and I took the chance to tag along. Unfortunately Cyprus has a reputation for trapping and eating wild birds but I am pleased to say things seem to have improved and we saw little evidence of it. The weather was mixed with sun, wind and thunderstorms, but this helped holding up migrants and the visit proved one of the finest examples of visible migration I had ever observed with thousands of birds passing through. There are also several endemic species and we managed to see them all during our brief stay including the Cyprus Scops Owl. During the visit we recorded 143 species. Cyprus is located on the easter flyway with species moving into the Baltic countries and further east. I managed to see over 20 lifers. As a Harrier enthusiast the highlight was probably the Pallid Harrier with a superb male shown in the image. More images from the trip are being uploaded into the Overseas Gallery.

THE BOOK

"A glorious little gem"

AMAZON

"A book such as this has to look backwards and the author does so succinctly, looking at the work of several of the pioneering naturalists before picking out the publications of JA Harvie-Brown and the Rev. Hugh Macpherson. I know this book fills a real gap in the information available for the Isle of Skye and it will surely sell well at local bookshops."

Andrew Currie Miscellany West Highland Free Press

"A total of 238 species have been recorded, with 14 of those 'red listed' as of high conservation concern ... another innovation has been the inclusion of Gaelic names for some birds. While this is not uncommon in a few other books, the addition of some regional Gaelic names is very unusual and very welcome."

Ray Collier Country Diary 'Up in the Skye' The Guardian

"Illustrated with beautiful photographs of current birdlife on the island, the publication also features sketches by Jean Thomas of The Little Gallery, Portnalong, stimulating the reader's interest further and allowing them to identify species they encounter on Skye."

The Hebridean