Birding/ Bird watching on Cyprus - March 2021

Troodos Mountains

Troodos (sometimes spelled Troödos; Greek: Τρόοδος [ˈtɾo.oðos]; Turkish: Trodos Dağları) is the largest mountain range in Cyprus, located in roughly the center of the island.

Its highest peak is Mount Olympus (Greek: Όλυμπος), also known as Chionistra (Greek: Χιονίστρα), at 1,952 metres, which hosts the Sun Valley and North Face ski areas with their five ski lifts.

The Troodos mountain range stretches across most of the western side of Cyprus. There are many mountain resorts, Byzantine monasteries, and churches on mountain peaks, and nestling in its valleys and mountains are villages clinging to terraced hills.

The area has been known since antiquity for its mines, which for centuries supplied copper to the entire Mediterranean.

In the Byzantine period it became a centre of Byzantine art, as churches and monasteries[1] were built in the mountains, away from the threatened coastline. The mountains are also home to RAF Troodos, a listening post for the NSA and GCHQ.

The name Troodos probably comes from one of two sources: either τρία + ὁδός (tría + hodós), referring to the three roads that lead to the mountain, or τό + ὄρος + Ἄδος (to + oro + Ados), meaning the mountains of Adonis.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Friday 12 ^th of March 2021 and we leave Paphos at 6 thirty and we left Paphos bound for Troodos Mountains. We have a gorgeous landscape around us and blue sky and sunshine.

We have planned to stop for a cup of tea if the cafe is open. And there are also birds to be seen in the trees behind the cafe. But the cafe is closed so we just continue towards Troodos Visitor Centre and the birding area.

We stop to take a picture of the beautiful view

We are soon in the mountains and it is a beautiful area. We pass the area where the Griffon Vultures come to feed. By the time we reached the village Pano Platres the landscape was white of snow and the road was covered with ice.

It was really beautiful with the trees and the landscape was covered in snow. But DARN!!! It was flippin' cold coming out from the car. I had brought some of my winter equipment from Sweden and I got dressed at the car before we left to look for birds.

Snowy landscape

Snowy landscape

Snowy landscape

We walk around in the snow and we see plenty birds in the tree tops, just the reason why I don't like to watching birds in the forests. Always high up and next to impossible to get any pictures and to ID the small birds high up in the trees.

My Guide could ID the birds, but we did not get any pictures. The sun was shining and it was quite comfortable to walk around to look for birds.

Ski Club

Coal Tit

We went back to the car and we will go to the picnic area a few minutes north. This is an area to see the Crossbill and the Short-toed Treecreeper. My Guide could hear the Crossbill and we went to look for the bird.

We found the bird in top of the tree, of course too far away but we gave it a try. But at least we can see why the bird is named Crossbill.

Then I walked up the hill to look for a Short-toed Treecreeper. This bird was impossible to get on picture. But I could record the bird calling and there was another bird answering the call.

Crossbill

Crossbill

Listen to the Short-toed Treecreeper

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Remarks from the Recordist

Recorded with my ZOOM H5 Handy Recorder. High Pass Filter applied with Audacity

One bird singing and a second bird answering. We can hear the Common Chaffinch in the background as the area was full of Chaffinches

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Remarks from the Recordist

Recorded with my ZOOM H5 Handy Recorder. High Pass Filter applied with Audacity

One bird singing and a second bird answering. We can hear the Common Chaffinch in the background as the area was full of Chaffinches

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Remarks from the Recordist

Recorded with my ZOOM H5 Handy Recorder. High Pass Filter applied with Audacity

One bird singing and a second bird answering. We can hear the Common Chaffinch in the background as the area was full of Chaffinches

I got three recordings of the Short-toed Treecreeper when I turned around to make a recording on one of the Chaffinches in the trees around us. I was quite happy even though the pictures of the Crossbill. No picture of the Short-toed Treecreeper but I had the recordings.

So yes, I was quite happy when we left for the car. We could hear a lot of birds but we could not see so many. We spotted some birds at the picnic area but no pictures.

Listen to the Common Chaffinch

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Remarks from the Recordist

Recorded with my ZOOM H5 Handy Recorder. High Pass Filter applied with Audacity

There were many Common Chaffinches in the trees singing.

Short-toed Treecreeper in the background.

Today's track at Troodos

eBird Report

Troodos, Lemesos, Cyprus
Mar 12, 2021 07:49 - 09:37
Protocol: Traveling
3.52 kilometer(s)
Checklist Comments: Bird watching with Cyprus Bird Watching Tours.
8 species

Northern Goshawk 1 Heard only
Coal Tit 4
Short-toed Treecreeper 2 Only one seen. The other replied on the call from the first bird that I recorded
Eurasian Blackbird 1
House Sparrow 5
Common Chaffinch 1
Common Crossbill (Cyprus) 1
Eurasian Siskin 5

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S83228104

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)

We leave the picnic area and we continue down the Troodos for a few minutes when we leave the road to another picnic area. We park the car and we walk around the area. We have Chaffinches sitting and singing in almost all the trees around us. We spotted one Hoopoe in the snow covered grass and we tried to sneak up on the bird. Would have been nice with a Hoopoe in the grass.

We see a wren and Eurasian Jay and we can hear the Eurasian Scops Owl. And we are soon seeing a second Hoopoe. So here is a lot of birds in the area. It is a nice picnic area and I enjoyed walking around the area. Blue sky and sun and almost all the snow was gone.

Walking around at Livadi tou Pashia

Walking around at Livadi tou Pashia

Listen to the Common Chaffinch

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Remarks from the Recordist

Recorded with my ZOOM H5 Handy Recorder

Chaffinch singing and we also hear replying birds

Today's track at Livadi tou Pashia

eBird Report

Livadi tou Pashia, Lefkosia, Cyprus
Mar 12, 2021 9:39 AM - 10:27 AM
Protocol: Traveling
1.71 kilometer(s)
Checklist Comments: Bird watching with Cyprus Bird Watching Tours.
7 species

Eurasian Scops Owl (Cyprus) 1 Heard only
Eurasian Hoopoe 2
Eurasian Jay 1
Eurasian Wren 1
Eurasian Blackbird 1
European Robin 1
Common Chaffinch (Common) 15

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S83228606

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)

We leave the area and we are at a new picnic area after 2 minutes. We drive through the area and we turned around in a stream at the bottom. We drove back on the dirt track. Not many birds to be seen here and we left for another eBird hotspot: to have our picnic lunch.

Coal Tit looking for food

Today's track at Almyrolivado picnic site, Troodos

eBird Report

Almyrolivado picnic site, Troodos, Lemesos, Cyprus
Mar 12, 2021 10:28 - 10:50
Protocol: Traveling
2.96 kilometer(s)
Checklist Comments: Bird watching with Cyprus Bird Watching Tours.
4 species

Coal Tit 2
Eurasian Wren 1
European Robin 1
Common Chaffinch 2

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S83228976

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)

We park the car at the Botanical Garden and we bring the picnic bag with us and we walk to a bench where we can sit and enjoy the lunch. We can hear a Eurasian Jay calling from behind us and I manage to make a recording.

We are going to check out the stream but I see one Coal Tit landing to get in to a hole in one of the stone walls so I sit down waiting for the bird to come out to get a picture.

But the Coal Tit leaves the hole much quicker than it took to get in so no picture.

Troödos (Τρόοδος) Botanical Garden

Listen to the Eurasian Jay

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Remarks from the Recordist

Recorded with my ZOOM H5 Handy recorder. High Pass Filter applied with Audacity

Bird calling from below when we have picnic on the mountain

Today's track at Troödos (Τρόοδος) Botanical Garden

eBird Report

Troödos (Τρόοδος) Botanical Garden, Lemesos, Cyprus
Mar 12, 2021 10:54 - 11:30
Protocol: Traveling
0.36 kilometer(s)
Checklist Comments: Bird watching with Cyprus Bird Watching Tours.
4 species

Eurasian Jay 1
Common Magpie 1
Coal Tit 1
Common Chiffchaff 3

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S83229485

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home

We leave Troodos to get back to Paphos. Driving back over Troodos we could see that almost all the snow had melted. Some snow remaining in the shadows, otherwise no sign of any snow. As we drove down from the Troodos we could see the temperature rising on the thermometer in the car.

I had my daily 30 minutes power nap coming back home. Fish fingers for dinner, something I found at the supermarket. I liked fish fingers as a kid and that is a long time ago, but it still tasted good. And the fish ishopefully healthy as well.

Fish fingers

We will drive to Larnaca tomorrow morning and my Guide will pick me up at 6 o'clock tomorrow. We hope to see and get pictures of some of the Warblers I had not got any pictures of.

Click HERE to find out if we see any interesting birds.

Tweet

OK, it has come to my knowledge that we have senior citizens visiting my web page. How hard can it be? So it's not very easy for them to see the blue coloured links to the next page.

Jiffy (also jiff)

noun [in SING.] informal a moment: we'll be back in a jiffy.

ORIGIN late 18th cent.: of unknown origin.

So as you understand, in a jiff pretty much depends on your internet.

So I put a “Next” button here and I hope that there isn't any problem to understand how to use that one. So just CLICK the “Next” button on your left hand side and you will be on the next page in a jiff!

Marunong ka mag-tagalog? Walang problema! Magpunta sa kabilang pahina pindutin ang “NEXT” button sa itaas

Faites vous parlez le français? Pas de problème! Pour arriver à la page suivante faites s'il vous plaît un déclic le bouton “Next” ci-dessus!

Haga usted dice el español? No hay problema! Ver la siguiente página sólo hacer clic el botón “Next” encima!

Farla parla l'italiano? Non problemi! Per vedere la prossima pagina lo scatto per favore giusto Il bottone “Next” sopra

Sprechen sie Deutsch! Kein problem! Wenn Sie die folgende Seite sehen wollen gerade klicken der Knopf “Next” oben!

คุณพูดภาษาไทยได้ไหม ไม่มีปัญหา ถ้าคุณต้องการไปหน้าถัดไป ให้กดปุ่ม “Next” ข้างบนนี้

Вы говорите по-русски? Просто нажмите синюю кнопку "Next" с левой стороны и Вы моментально переместитесь на следующую страницу!

E ni Svenskar och inte förstår Engelska så ska ni skämmas. J och Björn, med det menar jag inte att alla mina stavfel ska ältas varje gång vi träffas.

Well, the flag of Skåne, just a BONUS flag.

You are visitor no.

To www.aladdin.st since December 2005

Visitors from different countries since 26th of September 2011

Mobilize your Site

View Site in Mobile | Classic