Cyprus Summary - Go East?

I must admit my technical problems on this trip are causing me some problems regarding my summary. I'm aware that time is marching on and it's in danger of becoming "less than topical". I will persevere. Good job there's no British migration yet!!

Tonight I want to concentrate on the Eastern sites...

Achna Dam - This reservoir is on the border between Turkish and Greek Cyprus. There is much evidence of manned defences. My target was White Pelican which would be an addition to my Cyprus list. Fairly common in the Autumn but unusual in Spring. I made two visits. The first a whistle stop effort for the WP while Louse was in the Mall! Our second was far more leisurely.

Our view on arrival...

You can just make out the raft. Guess what was sat on it this time...

Not everybody's cup of tea but an impressive beast nonetheless. The Cormorant thought so!

Plenty of preening...

Time to leave and try and find the shallow end access.  Not easy. Fortunately I'd eventually managed to find a way last winter and things thankfully hadn't changed. We negotiated our way down the
(fortunately) dry path and had lunch. Excellent habitat here. A decent selection of waders were present including Ruff, Green Sandpiper, Spur-winged Plover, Little Ringed Plover (c10)...

Black-winged Stilt and Little Stint.  then noticed a Pipit that looked interesting. It was very distant but eventually it came (slightly) closer...

Water Pipit

The weather was set fair, so we spent the afternoon here. Nothing else of note was seen...until we were packing up to leave. A wagtail appeared, common in Cyprus BUT special to me. I give you Black-headed Wagtail...

The bird was right by the car and totally unconcerned by our presence. Really chuffed to see this beauty so well...even Louise was impressed!

Our second eastern venue was Oroklini Lake. A superb wetland area just to the east of Larnaca. It has a tower hide giving panoramic views over the area. Last winter I was lucky enough to see White-headed Duck here. Red-crested Pochard and Spur-winged Plover were present and a nice group of Cattle Egrets lingered...

...and more Flamingos of course...

Time to head West...