BBC 2004: Southern Turkey

In May 2004, Mike and I followed up 2003's first BBC international expedition to the Arctic with a trip to southern Turkey. We started in the tourist town of Antalya, and reached our easternmost point one thousand kilometres drive away on the Euphrates river.

We visited many marshlands along the coast and inland.

Whilst driving through one marsh, I was aware that the next new species I would see would be my 1,000th. A big bird flew up from a ditch beside the road and headed up into the sky. Mike said it had a piece of string attached to its leg - but it was a snake, which it transferred to its mouth - it was a Short-toed (Snake) Eagle (Circaetus gallicus), my 1,000th bird.

By the road we found a very agitated Spur-winged Lapwing (Vanellus spinosus). We then saw that it was a female with chicks, which ran up to her for protection.

We had great views of one of the most enigmatic waders, the Collared Pratincole (Glareola pratincola). 

We always check electrical wires for perched birds as we drive along the back roads. This time we came across a Little Owl (Athene noctua) - named after the greek goddess of wisdom, Athena...

...and a real find, Rüppell's Warbler (Sylvia ruppeli) - a migrator from north-east Africa which breeds only in the south of Greece and Turkey. It is one of the fifteen animals named after the German naturalist and explorer Wilhelm Peter Eduard Simon Rüppell, who is famed for his explorations of Egypt and Ethiopia at the beginning of the 19th century.

Moving inland, and eastward, we moved into the range of the Asia Minor Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus xanthoprymnus), found from central Turkey to Iran...

...and flocks of Rose-coloured Starlings (Pastor roseus), which can be found from Turkey east to the Caucasus and cental Asia.

The Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris) has an interesting distribution across the northern hemisphere. It is resident from the Balkans to China, and in North and central America. In addition it is a summer breeder in the arctic regions of Scandinavia, Russia and Canada, and overwinters in north and eastern Europe. It may be no surprise that forty-two subspecies are recognised! We saw the Southern Horned Lark (E. a. penicillata), found from eastern Turkey to the Caucasus and Iran.

Finsch's Wheatear (Oenanthe finschii) is found from Turkey to Pakistan. It is named after another German naturalist and explorer: Friedrich Hermann Otto Finsch, who also has a crater on the moon named after him. He recieved a doctorate for his monograph on the parrots of the world.

From the Sultan Marsh, south of Kayseri, we could see the Aladag mountains rising. We knew that there the Caspian Snowcock (Tetraogallus caspius) could be found - it is confined to mountains in eastern Turkey and the Caucasus, at altitudes above 2,000 m.

We also knew there was a farmer in the village of Demirkazik who could take us up the mountain of the same name to see the Snowcock. Here you can see the mountain and the cart which he would pull us up on behind his tractor.

We had a really uncomfortable ride up the mountain in the dark of early morning to arrive at sunrise in fog, which we waited to clear but which never did. We heard Snowcocks calling, but never saw them. As a consolation, at our feet we found a nest of Radde's Accentor (Prunella ocularis) - which shares the distribution of the Snowcock, and extends down into Israel and Iran. Gustav Ferdinand Richard Radde was a Danzig born naturalist who settled in Tiblisi, Georgia, in 1868.

Our easternmost point, Birecik, on the Euphrates river, twenty km from the Syrian border.

We visited a semi-wild colony of Northern Bald Ibis (Geronticus eremita) which was established with 11 individuals in 1977 as a conservation measure. There are now over 260 birds. This Ibis has been extinct in Europe for over 300 years, although introduction programmes are also happening there. The only wild populations left are in Morocco, making up about 500 individuals.

We walked along a gorge that was guarded by Red-fronted Serin  (Serinus pusillus). Above us we saw a huge plane slowly moving across the sky, and guessed it was a NATO bomber. But closer inspection revealed it to be a Beared Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus).

It is well known that a Pallid Scops Owl (Otus brucei) lives in a tree of the garden of the cafe in Birecik. It is a bird of the Middle East and Central Asia - but some individuals go west into Turkey. We visited the cafe and sat and had some tea and a joke with the boys running it, after which they showed us the owl. Whilst we were there a Dutch group arrived and asked the boys where the owl was, without even making polite conversation. The boys told them the owl wasn't there that year.

 

Mike and I saw over 120 species of birds. Other local specialities included Long-legged Buzzard, See-see Partridge, Black Francolin, Isabelline Wheater, Eastern Olivaceous Warbler, Menetries's Warbler, Eastern Rock-nuthatch, Rock Sparrow, Pale Rockfinch, White-throated Robin and Graceful Prinia. BBC expeditions were well into their stride.