Western Turkey: Birds and History Aug 25—Sep 08, 2008
Posted by Peter Roberts
Peter Roberts
Peter Roberts is based in Britain, lives in the north of Scotland, and has been a keen naturalist since childhood in London. While birds remain his main interest, close con...Related Trips
This was our sixth Birds & History tour in Western Turkey. Our tour was co-led by my good friend, knowledgeable historian, and great raconteur, Umit Ozaydin. The weather started out hot, but cooled down to something quite pleasant. I was glad to see good water levels at our various wetland birding sites, making for some excellent short excursions full of shorebirds and other waterbirds.
We found most of the more special and hoped-for species from the start, with Syrian Woodpeckers in the hotel garden at ancient Selcuk. A lovely scaly, immature Masked Shrike and a bright Rufous-tailed Scrub-Robin were found at the marvelous Roman site of Miletus. A bright male Rueppell's Warbler popped up in the glorious mixed scrubby hills of Samsun Dag National Park. The sweltering saltpans at Camalti were memorable for the great views of Pygmy Cormorants—sitting side by side with Great Cormorants to convince us of their diminutive size. Sombre Tit, Isabelline Wheatear, Long-legged Buzzard, and (all-too-briefly) Cretzschmar's Bunting were found in the wild rocky landscapes en route to Dalyan. Kreuper's Nuthatches were "a dime a dozen" in the pine forests near Agla, while virtually every amazing Roman and Byzantine ruin visited had a pair or two of Rock Nuthatches. The stunning fields of carved rock sarcophagi at Pammukale were a dramatic backdrop for great looks at the dapper and very localized Finsch's Wheatear.
Lake Manyas was lively and abundant with birds including record numbers of Dalmatian Pelicans and Ruddy Shelducks. Above the Ottoman city of Bursa, in that brash ski resort (but wonderfully clear air) at Uludag, the very special Fire-fronted Serin did us proud this year with long, slam-dunk scope views for all. And what more dramatically historic setting could there be for a seabird than the Bosphorus and ancient Istanbul, with those dashing flights of Levantine Shearwaters? The rich deciduous forests around Istanbul hosted Gray-faced Woodpecker, while even at our historically-sited hotel in Istanbul we were treated to daily views of Europe's only Laughing Doves. The raptor and stork migration over the Bosphorus was not remarkable this year, but one or two thermals of European Honey-buzzards and a single group of Black Storks saved the day.
With always far more to see and do, more wonderful historic places to explore, and more birds to find than we could ever fit into a two-week tour, we were never wondering what to do next. There was a constant mix of birding and amazing historical sites, explained so richly by Umit—a fount of historical knowledge. He made the 3,500 or so years of history—Byzantine temples, ancient Roman libraries and baths, vast amphitheatres, carved tombs and sarcophagi, dazzling Ottoman mosques, and lavish Turkish palaces—all come alive.
As a fall tour, with all the surprises that watching birds on migration can bring, each Western Turkey: Birds & History tour ends up pleasantly different from the previous one, yet some wonderful aspects thread themselves reassuringly into every year, making it always an exciting adventure. I certainly have not tired of revisiting these great historical locations spanning thousands of years of civilization, and pondering, "What did the Romans ever do for us?"