TURKEY 3 June 2012: Uzuncaburc to Camardi

Having long wanted to visit Turkey, Nick Preston and I arrived at Adana somewhat delayed just after midnight.  We picked up our hire car and Nick drove to Demircili in the hills above Silifke, arriving at about 03:30 am we slept in the car somewhat fitfully for an hour before it started to get light.  Our main target, Olive Tree Warbler, was singing from a patch of bushes next to where we'd parked opposite the cemetery and when it got properly light we saw 3 and heard another two in the immediate area before continuing up the road towards Uzuncaburc.  We eventually got to the decent pine forest and in the obvious picnic area on the right our other target Kruper's Nuthatch was easily found, and two more Olive Tree Warblers.  It was getting hot and we'd a long drive ahead of us so we decided not to visit the Goscu Delta but headed back along the coast towards Adana before turning north to Nigde.  A small wetland area here at the far end of a reservoir was a bit disappointing and we continued over a range of hills to Pension Ozsafak in Camardi (a route pioneered some years earlier by an old friend Michael Grunwell, thanks Mike).  Highlights of the day were 10 Kruper's Nuthatches, 5 Olive Tree Warblers, a singing male Ruppell's Warbler, 2 male Cretzchmar's Buntings, 2 Red-footed Falcons, a male Ferruginous Duck, 5 Bimaculated Larks, 3 species of shrike and a small flock of Rose-coloured Starlings flying over (which unfortunately I missed).

Masked Shrike on the way to Uzuncaburc

Kruper's Nuthatch, smaller than expected

Olive Tree Warbler near Uzuncaburc - rarely still for long enough for me to digiscope

Red-rumped Swallow was much easier sat on a wire by the road

distant Bee-eaters

drake Ferruginous Duck with Pochards on the barrage between Nigde and Bor

higher section of the road to Camaradi, the distant Aladag Mountains held our next target species

our hire car on the road to Camaradi

Red-backed Shrike on a lower section of the Camaradi Road