Cyprus Days One and Two

Yesterday after a late night flight we had a relaxing day around our hotel in Limassol before checking out the Akrotiri area in the evening.

I returned this morning, before the family got up, to the Akrotiri area Ebird list here  before we headed over to Pafos Zoo for the day here. On the way back to Limassol I managed to drag them all over to Agia Varvara Pools to twitch the Lesser Moorhen  but I agreed I had only 30 mins to see it (it's a tricky bird apparantely that can take hours to glimpse). The car broke down so not a great start (but two Great Spotted Cuckoos flew over the car which was handy) but the mechanic was nearby so we were back on the road quickly. When we arrived at the pools we met a birder who had been waiting for three hours to catch a glimpse of the Moorhen. I lifted up my bins and literally on the first bird I saw I announced,  'there it is', which was a great relief and avoided another family mutiny.

With Great Snipe and Spotted Crake also thrown in for bonus birds at the Lesser Moorhen site, it was a pretty successful bit of stealth birding. 

Still haven't connected with anything I actually came here to see- the three Cyprus endemics, Cyprus Warbler, Cyprus Wheatear and Cyprus Scops Owl (plus the endemic sub-species woodland birds in the mountains). Hopefully will be able to pick them off over the next few days in amongst the Water Parks and other family stuff. Won't bother doing a trip report for this trip as not expecting a high list, will just be happy if I can get the endemics. 

Also caught up with a couple of the herp endemics at the zoo (usually good places for herrps).      

Lesser Moorhen- above and below. World tick 3374.  

Great Snipe (above) and Common Snipe (below) 

Spotted Crake

First-summer Great Spotted Cuckoo 

Ortolan

The Sardinian Warblers were literally at our feet in the zoo, A female here.

The White Storks had become habituated to humans too 

Cyprus Rock Agama, Laudakia cypriaca- a lifer

Troodos Rock Lizard, Phoenicolacerta troodica,  a lifer

Another shot of the Great Snipe

Quite strangely there was this other Moorhen on the Lesser Moorhen pool which showed a lot of yellow on the bill with red restricted to the shield and ridge of the upper mandible. However the red is diffuse and the bill is relatively long and the bird lacks the restrictive white flank markings. Additionally others told me the bird did not have pink legs. I'm glad I didn't see this bird first on my own as I may have presumed it was the Lesser Moorhen. It's presumably an aberant Common Moorhen.