Early this morning we headed to an area about 40 minutes drive north-west of Gaziantep, which has traditionally been a regular area for Kurdish Wheatear. The names of Yesilce and Durnalik have long held a fascination for me over the years, as they are home to some of the best birding in Turkey. We pulled off the narrow country lane onto a dirt track and walked maybe a couple of hundred metres to an overlook where we spent the next hour or two. Immediately it was apparent this wasn’t a good enough spot for the wheatear, despite a recent report of one from this exact spot.
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| Scanning from the viewpoint |
A fine Eastern Black-eared Wheatear posed beautifully on some rocks, and as we scanned around the area we picked up Woodchat Shrike & Black-headed Bunting, but more impressive was our first sighting of the much-wanted Upcher’sWarbler singing away from an orchard next to the track we were parked on. It took a while to get decent views, but we needn’t have worried as this species proved to be reasonably common over the coming days.
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| Eastern Black-eared Wheatear |
As we walked back to the minibus, a White-throated Robin was spotted and eventually a female showed very well down to a few metres away.
It was cold and overcast today and activity was pretty slow, so we drove to another area just a few minutes way. This proved to be a really good move as we found a number of desirable species as we hiked up a rocky track on the edge of a small village. A Long-legged Buzzard flew over as soon as we arrived but what was truly amazing was seeing a pair of superb Upcher’s Warblers feeding on the rocky slope beside the trail.
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| Upcher's Warbler |
They gave repeated views on the ground, then singing from some small bushes. Wow! Further up the track, a pair of White-throated Robins showed well as they chased each other around the branches of a small tree below us.
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| White-throated Robin |
The weather was slowly improving and we finally had blue skies and sunshine and more and more birdsong filled the air. Our first Cinereous Bunting posed nicely nearby, uttering its typical bunting-like song, and just then an Eastern Rock Nuthatch called from the cliffs higher up the slope.
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| Cinereous Bunting |
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| Eastern Rock Nuthatch |
After a few minutes we had a pair teed up in the Swarovski and what great characters these birds are. Walking higher up the stony track we had a Cretzschmar’s Bunting, a fine male Common Rock Thrush and after hanging around on the stony plateau for a while, a Pale Rockfinch suddenly flew in and began feeding on some tall seed heads right in front of us. This was a lifer for me and in my excitement at finally getting this species I totally fumbled any attempts at getting a photo. I was possibly overexcited at seeing my bogey bird and what a tart’s tick it is! Elated with seeing this species (well I was anyway) we began walking back down towards the minibus for a late breakfast, when a pair of Desert Finchesappeared and slowed our return even more. But what a morning it had been and well worth the effort to hike up onto the plateau.
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| Our first view of the Euphrates River |
A short hour’s drive got us to Birecik and we headed immediately headed north of the town to a bend in the Euphrates river dominated by reeds. We drove along dirt tracks and crossed a weedy field where a pair of Rufous-tailed Scrub-Robins posed, European Bee-eaters flew over and a Delicate Prinia sang from a fence. At the end of the field we stumbled upon a flock of Glossy Ibis with a fine Northern Bald Ibis, complete with leg bling, feeding amongst them.
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| Northern Bald Ibis with 'bling' |
Just around the corner we found ourselves overlooking the Euphrates river, so we stopped here and had a cup of coffee. From our vantage point we found several Iraq Babblers almost immediately. What a result! A Grey-headed Swamphenwas seen by a few of the group, and there was a constant procession of Pygmy Cormorants flying along the river. A few Spur-winged Lapwings were present, a Purple Heron stood at the edge of the reedbed and plenty of common birds were around as well. By now it was early afternoon so we drove into the town to have another great picnic lunch in the famous town park where we failed miserably to find a day-roosting Pallid Scops Owl! After a quick check-in at the not-so-glamorous hotel and with not too much to entice us to linger, we headed out into the hills behind Birecik to check out a few sites for See-See Partridge.
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| See-See Partridge - phonescoped from a distance!! |
A long rough track took us to another viewpoint overlooking a narrow valley, with some scrubby fields and a hillside opposite us. Well, Vince came up trumps again as he spotted a partridge on the opposite hillside and after some hasty directions and much panic everyone managed to see what turned out to be a pair of partridges feeding and calling back at my iPhone. The views were really good in the big Swarovski scope and even allowed for a few dodgy phonescoped images.
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| This narrow valley held Menetries's Warbler |
It turned out that we watched these birds for a good hour and during this time we found a family of Menetries’s Warblers below us and there was also another pair of Upcher’s Warblers as well. And we ended the day with a spotlit Pallid Scops Owl visiting its nest hole in the park and a fantastic dinner overlooking the Euphrates river complete with wine and beer!
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| A great way to end a fabulous day... |
Say hello to David 👍🏼
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