Ringing in Cyprus 6th April to 20th April 2010
This was written by: Geoff Mawson


Our trip this year was timed to coincide with peak migration through the island of Cyprus. A return to the UK on the 20th April would also allow me to attend the BTO Ringing and Migration Committee meeting on the 24th April. Little did we know at the time that that the end of our stay would be 'clouded' with uncertainty due to a serious volcanic eruption in Iceland grounding most of Europe's aircraft.

Black-eared Wheatear

Sorby Breck ringers this year included Steve Samworth, Geoff Mawson and Eleanor Wilkins. We were joined by Kevin Sayer, Michael Holdsworth, Ken Venus and Karen and Andrew Moss. In addition, Melis and Mark Charalambides from BirdLife Cyprus ringed with us for a few days at the beginning of our stay, making it possible to ring more sites effectively. It was Sorby Breck group's thirteenth Cyprus visit ringing at Ayios Minas an olive grove and carob tree site, two marshland sites at Polis, an inlet into Evretou Dam and finally at Achelia where the stream through the valley flows into the sea.

Hoopoe

Turtle Dove

Our first three days featured resident Sardinian Warblers and Cetti's Warblers, with few long distant migrants, Great Snipe, Savi's Warbler and Sub-alpine warblers being the best of the species. The highlight however was an all black aberrant Sardinian Warbler (read article here). There was heavy rain overnight on the 10th April and our best day followed. We ringed 13 Savi's Warblers, Redstart, Whinchat, Thrush Nightingale, Little Bittern and our largest catches of Reed and Sedge Warblers. Fat scores on this day were high indicating a forced break in migration rather than a forced stop to replenish fat supplies for the journey.

Little Bittern

The rest of our stay then settled into a regular catching pattern with migrating birds passing through our ringing sites. Pied, Spotted and Collared Flycatchers were 'early' on the 12th April with Orphean Warbler and Bonelli's Warbler on the late side this year. Clear night skies with wall to wall sunshine by day did mean the birds were passing over Cyprus but we did control a Budapest ringed Sedge Warbler and the first Praha ringed Great Reed Warbler.

Male Collared Flycatcher

Waders featured well with Wood Sandpiper (13), Common Sandpiper (4) and Green Sandpiper (6), Little Stint (2), Great Snipe (3), Common Snipe (3) and a Ruff. Both Little and Baillon's Crake were ringed, the latter being a first for Steve. Five Little Bitterns and a Squacco Heron were testament to the amount of water still on the island. I had never seen Evretou Dam so full.

Little Stint

We ringed 60 species during our stay. The 19 Savi's Warblers were my highlight for the trip, for Eleanor the Red throated Pipit was a real treat and Steve was still enthusing about the Baillon's Crake long after its release.

Baillon's Crake

Eleanor has completed a trip ringing list for those interested (see below) and my thanks to the ringers involved for their excellent photographs. This short account was written on our penultimate day. Our final session was to be at Ayios Minas prior to our flight home later the same day. The news reports were not good for those wishing to fly home, and with no flights from Cyprus for five days we could only guess at what would happen next. In the end we did little extra ringing and more bird watching arriving home a week later than expected.

Squacco Heron

CYPRUS 7th to 20th APRIL 2010

Site Code
AM
UP
E
AC
UP
AM
LP
UP
AC
AC
LP
UP
E
AM
Species Totals
Date April
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Species
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
Little Bittern
2
1
1
1
5
Squacco Heron
1
1
Baillon's Crake
1
1
Little Crake
1
1
Moorhen
1
1
Little Stint
2
1
3
Ruff
1
1
Wood Sandpiper
2
3
1
3
2
1
1
13
Common Sandpiper
2
1
1
4
Green Sandpiper
1
1
2
1
1
6
Great Snipe
1
1
1
3
Common Snipe
1
1
1
3
Kingfisher
1
1
1
1
2
6
Turtle Dove
1
1
2
Hoopoe
1
1
Wryneck
3
3
Scops Owl
1
1
Barn Swallow
2
1
2
1
3
1
10
Tree Pipit
1
1
6
1
1
1
11
Red-throated Pipit
1
1
Black headed Wagtail
4
2
6
Yellow flava Wagtail
1
1
Robin
0
Nightingale
1
1
1
3
Thrush Nightingale
1
1
2
Redstart
1
1
2
Whinchat
1
2
1
4
Black-eared Wheatear
1
1
Song Thrush
2
2
Cetti's Warbler
5
11
3
4
17
20
5
11
8
15
99
Savi's Warbler
1
1
13
3
1
19
Sedge Warbler
2
2
64
1
8
1
4
1
8
1
7
99
Reed Warbler
4
1
64
39
13
2
2
33
15
173
Great Reed Warbler
1
1
4
8
2
4
3
2
2
6
33
Olivaceous Warbler
1
1
1
1
3
3
5
15
Sardinian Warbler
2
12
17
7
7
3
14
7
4
3
6
5
11
5
103
Cyprus Warbler
1
1
Orphean Warbler
1
1
Garden Warbler
1
1
Lesser Whitethroat
3
2
5
3
13
Common Whitethroat
1
4
4
3
1
1
14
Subalpine Warbler
1
1
Blackcap
1
2
2
5
19
14
8
8
1
1
3
4
1
7
76
E.Bonelli's Warbler
1
1
5
7
Wood Warbler
1
12
13
Willow Warbler
1
1
1
1
4
Chiffchaff
1
1
1
3
Zitting Cisticola
2
1
1
2
6
Spotted Flycatcher
1
1
Pied Flycatcher
1
1
Collared Flycatcher
1
1
2
Great Tit
3
1
1
1
4
1
11
Woodchat Shrike
1
1
House Sparrow
1
4
1
1
3
7
1
4
5
3
30
Spanish Sparrow
2
2
6
1
6
10
12
1
1
41
Serin
2
6
8
Greenfinch
1
1
3
7
5
1
5
1
3
10
37
Goldfinch
12
1
1
3
4
1
1
18
41
Linnet
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
12
Cretzschmar's Bunting
1
1
2
Ortolan Bunting
1
1
Daily Totals
20
31
39
47
206
64
144
65
67
22
98
53
52
59
967

AC - Achelia

AM - Agios Minas

E - Evretou

LP - Lower Polis

UP - Upper Polis

Ortolan Bunting

Geoff Mawson