10/10/2009
After birding in north eastern Greece a few years ago we had planned to continue further east into the Western Palaearctic region to add more species to our lists. The Morocco trip gave us a nice taste of desert birds and we liked the culture there so Turkey was chosen as the next destination where we hoped to catch up on many Middle Eastern species. This was a long trip (4000+ kilometre round drive) but spaced over a two week period it never at any time felt stressfull even with the long distances involved. We found around 220 species without too much trouble on a route from the capital Ankara south to the Mediterranean coast, down to the Syrian border, then east all the way to Van near the border with Iran. We then took an inland route back towards Ankara but a puncture meant we were less than keen to head north for Caucasian Black Grouse at Sivrikaya without a spare.
Some of the highlights included Caspian Snowcocks at 3200m at five in the morning in the Tarsus Mountains; Grey-headed Swamphens and Graceful Warblers in the Göksu Delta; White-throated Kingfishers in the Tarsus Delta; Birecik – so many great birds along the Euphrates including Pied Kingfisher, Striated Scops Owl, Iraq Babbler, Black Francolin and Dead Sea Sparrow; the stone heads of the tumulus of Antiochus at Nemrut Dagi with Red-tailed Wheatear, White-throated Robin, Finsch's Wheatear, Cinereous Bunting and Trumpeter Finch; driving down into the huge volcanic crater at the other Nemrut Dagi with Armenian Gull, Rose-coloured Starling, Crimson-winged Finch and Red-fronted Serin; Lake Van, more like an inland sea with its own microclimate with lightning storms and a nocturnal downpour flooding our tent (should have taken the good one) but cheered later with White-headed Duck, Paddyfield Warbler, Citrine Wagtail and Greater Flamingos; Mongolian Trumpeter Finch on the lava fields at Serpmetas; Saker, Grey-necked Bunting and Golden Eagle around the spectacular Isak Pasa Palace at Dogubayazit near the Iran border and of course the tremendous landscapes, hospitable people and good food - well, good at the time – maybe shouldn't have cleared those salads every night.
HIGHLIGHTS
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Saker · Caspian Snowcock · Black Francolin · See-see Partridge · Pale Scops Owl · White-breasted Kingfisher · Pied Kingfisher · White-spectacled Bulbul · Radde's Accentor · White-throated Robin · Finsch's Wheatear · Red-tailed Wheatear · Graceful Warbler · Paddyfield Warbler · Upcher's Warbler · Krüpper's Nuthatch · Eastern Rock Nuthatch · Iraq Babbler · Dead Sea Sparrow · Yellow-throated Sparrow · Pale Rock Sparrow · Red-fronted Serin · Mongolian Trumpeter Finch · Desert Finch · Grey-necked Bunting & Cinereous Bunting.
LOGISTICS
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Flights
Return from London Heathrow to Ankara Esenboga with BMI cost £355 each including taxes, fees and charges.
Ground Transport
We used Almira Rent Turkey booked through Holiday Autos. An economy 2 door with a/c cost £375 for the period 0330h on 28 June to 1300h on 13 July. We covered 4000+ kilometres.
Accommodation
Hotels of varying standard were used (see daily notes for the names), some through recommendations in previous trip reports or Lonely Planet, and other were found just by turning up at a likely looking establishment on the evening. We camped one night which coincided with the only rain of the trip - and it was an all-night thunder storm! For seeing Caspian Snowcock in the Toros mountains we stayed with Ali at Ozsafak Pension in Cukurbag www.ozsafak.net (75 euros each including evening meal, lunch and jeep ride to the site at around 3100 metres).
Maps
The Marco Polo 1:800 000 map (£7.50 from Stanfords) was used in conjunction with published trip report directions and we found this sufficient for our purposes.
Fuel
Petrol was not cheap in Turkey! It was around 3.14 YTL/l which meant an average fill up of 40 litres cost about £55 or 1.38/litre!! I'm not sure off hand but this allowed us to roll for 800-900 kilometres on a tank. Petrol stations are everywhere. To see six in a row is not unusual. One bonus is you may get free tea and a car wash.
Exchange Rate June 2008
YTL 2.25 = £1.00
LITERATURE, REFERENCES & ONLINE RESOURCES
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• Green, I, & Moorhouse, N. 1995. A Birdwatchers' Guide to Turkey. Prion Ltd.
• Porter, R.F. et al. 1996. Birds of the Middle East. Helm.
• Svensson, L. et al. 1999. Bird Guide. HarperCollins.
• We used the following internet published trip reports both at the planning stage and in the field:
• Klaus Malling Olsen (2005, 2006, 2007), Kasper P Hendriks (2004), Richard Bonser (2004), Andreas Kristensen
• (1999), Juha Niemi (2001), Troels Eske Ortvad (2004) and Mattias Gerdin, Måns Grundsten, Johan Ställberg & Micke
• Wilson (2005).
• Further reports can be found at Travellingbirder.com (the Internet portal to birding travel and birdwatching trip
• reports)
• Other useful websites:
Doga Dernegi
BirdLife International
Turkish Birding
• Western Palaearctic Yahoo Group: [email protected]
Welcome to our web site. You will find some information about us and a place which is very nice and fantastic. There is hot and cold water, showers and a washing machine. Camping places for tents are avaliable also.There are 10 rooms with 2/3 person for each. ...
