Where there's water there are birds - Part 2

Watering the fields at Jardinah farm -late June

On the second half of Friday (25th June) we visited a hugh farm just outside Jardinah. Jardinah is about 25 kilometres south of Benghazi and about 15 kilometres in from the coast.

We were invited there by one of the deputy farm managers, James who is an ex-pat friend.

I have wanted to visit one of these "project" farms ever since I found out about them. They use water from "the Man made River"  - a hugh aquifer from the desert and are well irrigated.

They can produce very unLibyan habitats! I have a suspicion that they may house birds not found anywhere else in Libya but that is to be proven.

Each farm varies but this one mostly produces maize, (winter) wheat, alfalfa and barley.

On arrival at the farm the first thing you notice is the hugh noise made by hundreds of house sparrow who nest in the avenue of trees outside the main entrance. They know a good spot when they saw one.

Inside the farm my instant reaction was to be astounded how many white stork I could see. There are only supposed to be about 60-80 in the colony at Al Marj (90 kilometres away).  If this is the only colony (as has been previously reported) then most of them must have taken the long trip here on Friday.

White stork and pallid swift at Jardinah farm - late June

They seemed particularly interested in the fields where alfalfa had been recently cropped. I was euqally surprised to see so many pallid swift. This bird breeds on cliffs and on tall buildings, neither of which can be seen from the farm.  Whether they have come as far as the storks I don't know. There were also many barn swallow which was less surprising.

In the maize fields were plenty of cattle egret. The maize has not grown above about 50 cm yet but will grew to nearly 2 metres tall. It has quite a few weeds which probably provide additional food opportunities for several bird species. Even more helpfully for the birds is that many of the fields are waterlogged in a few places. 

a pool of water in a maize field - Jardinah farm - late June

I didnt really have anywhere near enough time to inspect the farm which has 54 extremely large fields but my initial observations are encouraging my orignal assumption that the mix of birds may be atypical for anywhere else in Libya apart from similar farms.

First I saw my first two calandra lark. These birds were in a field which had been harvested for winter wheat. There was quite a bit of grain left around and this would look like a feast to them. This bird is on the distribution maps for north east Libya but it had evaded my attention until Friday.

Second I saw a large number of larks in the flat sandy area right next to a wet maize field. The birds were also in and out of the field but observation was easier on the sand.  The flock was mixed and the birds were variable. I viewed this flock for at least 45 minutes. I had thought the majority of birds were short toed lark. even though this bird is only recorded as a winter vistior to north east Libya and not a summer resident. However correspondence with experts suggests the ID question is very open.

The birds were highly variable and also in the loose flock . I am pretty sure there were one or two lesser short toed lark which is well documented here.  In the same patch of land were a small number of crested lark but they didn't behave as part of the flock. However for once I spent quite alot of my time in a place where I was doing what my blog says I do - birding for a lark!  It didnt have the numbers or variety of larks that the Mugam Steppe does in Azerbaijan (skylark, oriental skylark, calandra lark, bimaculated lark, crested lark, short toed, lesser short toed, white winged lark and even black lark in a cold year) but it was great renewed practice.

two different members of a lark flock - Jardinah farm - late June

My time here was tantilisingly short. I have come close to making my most exciting call. I thought I saw a water pipit. Certainly the bird winters in the Benghazi area. . It is known to like waterlogged coastal sites among other places and this fits especailly as the environment is artificially more like northern Italy than northern Libya. The bird I saw certainly had a black tail with broad white edges but I didn't get a full view.So I am not going to call it. It will be a spur for me to return the next time we get a cool day this summer.

Where there's water, there are birds - part 1

Sebkha (saltpan) near Gaminis beach - late June

Yesterday, at long last, it was cool (in Libyan terms) on one of my regular Friday day trips out in the countryside. Instead of the 35 to 42C I have suffered on all my recent trips the temperature gauge stayed in the range 25 to 28 C all day. So this was a day to go south.

As usual I went with a couple of work friends. This time it was Wendy and Johnny. The plan was to visit coastal areas first and then go inland to visit another friend James who is the deputy farm manager of one the Government's prestige farms.

Yesterday's theme was water. We sought out coastal watering holes and the farm is extremely well irrigated and as you will see later provides a distinctly unLibyan set of habitats. And I am very excited about this place. But more later.....

I have divided the account of the trip into two blogs because the farm probably deserves a blog to itself.

So lets look at the coast first.

The south coast out of Benghazi looks distinctly different to the north east coast. Whereas the north east coast is garrigue which grades to maquis in places as you go further from the city, the south coast starts off as garrigue but grades rapidly to semi-desert. This change is difficult to see in places because so many new flats are being built just south of the city.

By the time we reached Gaminis which is about 40 kilometres south of Benghazi, the change is virtually complete. We headed out of the town of Gaminis westward on the beach road. On the left just one kilometre from the beach is a sebka (saltpan) which is apparently very large in winter and excellent for water birds - large and small.

I was very pleased to see there is some permanent water all year round (see picture at the top of the blog). Uunfortunately the area has attracted some fly tipping and a pack of wild dogs! Nevertheless it also attracts birds which is what I hoped.

There were a few trees and bushes as well as some lush vegetation. House sparrow was immediately apparent. I have been in Cyrenaica long enough and in enough places to finally have confidence to say that I no longer believe they are any spannish sparrow in north east Libya. I think the maps are wrong again!
The most surprising sight here was yet another flock of goldfinch. There were probably 10 or so. Like in Old Marj (100 kilometres away) I saw NO adults in the flock (not a red face to be seen). I know the locals cage the adult birds but I find it hard to believe so many of the adults are out of circulation. It looks like its a normal phenomeon for young goldfinch to form flocks soon after fledging.

young goldfinch at a sebkha near Gaminis beach - late June

The flock was quite mobile and the birds seem to be enjoying their flight.

young goldfinch in flight- sebkha near Gaminis beach - late June

There were several other species of bird near by. There were many barn swallow attracted by both the water and insects.

I saw another bee-eater on a wire. This adds to the observation in early June of two (one juvenile) on the north eastern coast. Its beginning to look more and more likely that Cyrenaica does support a small number of breeding bee-eaters.

Als on a wire was a great grey shrike (aucheri). This is my most south westerly observation of this sub species yet.

great grey shrike near Gaminis beach - late June

There were also a couple of familiies of turtle dove - adults with fledged young.

Finally the ubiquitous crested lark was present on the fringes of the vegetation and in the semi desert near by.

crested lark -saltpan near gaminis beach - late June

The sebkha didn't hold enough water for any specialist water species such as reed warbler. There was just enough to sustain decent amounts of vegetation.

After leaving the Gaminis area we travelled further south until we reached Altifelel. On the coast there is a massive dry saltpan.

part of Altifelel saltpan - late June

This area is part of a large complex of salt pans which are flooded in winter and known as excellent wintering places for many water birds including flamingoes. In the summer it looks like one of those places they race cars to break the world land speed record!

Well nearly all of it is flat and empty but not quite all. Man has dug a few trenches in two places (see picture below).

water channels in the saltpan near Altifelelel

There are plenty of kentish plover near the water channels. Despite spending half a day searching for water. This was my first water bird.

The next half of the day was spent on a farm where there was an abundance of water. This is the subject of the next blog.

More nightingales in Janzour

Nightingale in Janzour, West Tripoli, March 30th

I first saw a nightingale in Libya about a week ago. Since then I have seen about a dozen and heard many more. And yet until recently it was not even acknowledged to be in Libya. In the new collins guide the distribution map shows a blank. But at the moment the nightingale is travelling through in great numbers and obviously in such varied places as the railway line, Tripoli and a proverbial middle- of- nowhere wadi near Tarhunah (three seen last Friday).

So I was very pleased and impressed that African Bird Club revised checklist includes this bird. Slowly but surely the birding world's collective knowledge of Libya is improving. Nevertheless, I felt I had to photograph one (see above) to prove my point! I have spent quite a few fruitless hours on this self appointed task. In the end one obliged near the railway line in Tripoli.

I'm still walking the (future) rail line when I have the odd hour or two since its the closest natural habitat to my flat. I am still occasionally seeing new species there too. The latest additions have been a little owl which took a typical corner position on a near-by house and pallid swift. Several pallid swift have joined the barn swallow skimming the air for insects over a well irrigated barley plot.

Little owl on look out Janzour, West Tripoli

One new migrant was seen earlier this week. It was a pied flycatcher. This is well documented as migrant here.

I managed to get a long distance shot of a blackbird this week too. This bird is not at all common as a wintering species mainly because they is so little non-eucalyptus woodland.

blackbird, Janzour, West Tripoli, March 29th

There have been some more subtle changes in the locality since last week. The turtle dove is proving to be a lot less jumpy and more amenable to photography. Maybe it is because it is not being shot at unlike along most parts of its migratory route. Although many Libyans still think hunting is a good pastime not many have access to guns. Gun control is strict here. This is to be applauded.

Turtle dove, Janzour, West Tripoli

On the way back from the railway line to my flat I walk past a water tower in Central Janzour. This is a guarenteed place to see pallid swift since near all of the crevices are occupied by families of pallid swift. The tower really is an urban simulation of a cliff face! I am privileged to have them as neighbours.

Water tower, central Janzour

Suburban birding or stone curlews galore

The railway line, Janzour, West Tripoli

This weekend I stayed in Tripoli. I tend to do a trip into the countryside every second week to help my wallet and to give me chance to keep up to date with logging all my data (and blog). This week though I did some extra birding very locally. After a tip-off from a work colleague I think I now know the best place to bird on foot if you have just 24 hours to spare and you are visiting Tripoli.

A few years back the Government decide it would build a railway from the Tunisian border to the Egyptian border. The land was put aside and no development can take place on a 50 metre wide corridor. The railway line is probably years away from being built. In Tripoli, the rail route links plenty of green sites by a wild life corridor. I found out over March 18th to March 20th that it makes for great sub-urban birding.

The best start point is just south of Janzour cemetery. It's best to walk eastwards towards Seraj in the afternoon and westwards out of Janzour in the mornings if you want to avoid walking and birding into the sun.

I saw a surprising number and type of "rural " birds! This time of year there is a state of flux. I saw a mix of residents, winterers, summer visitors and passage birds.

Before I set out I noticed that the bushy and woody area in front of my flat has got some new blackcap in the bushes or perhaps the old ones had returned. They were joined (at least until today) by a single greenfinch in the trees. I had thought these winter visitors had left the resident serin, spanish sparrow and laughing dove to it. Meanwhile one summer visitor, the turtle dove arrived almost a week ago in the parkland.

After inspecting myown frontyard (as described above) I went walking at the crack of dawn along the railway which is 10 minutes from my flat. I was shocked to see a stone curlew almost immediately by the side of the rail corridor. I soon saw barbary partridge too. In fact I later saw barbary partridge many times on different parts of the line.

stone curlew (left) barbary partridge (right)

The most amazing sight however was soon to come. In one field I counted 25 stone curlew!

It was still only 9 am the first time I saw them. They were noisy too. As soon as one of them saw me they all froze. They looked really stupid. 25 stone curlew pretended to be statues in one field.
I assume these were wintering birds gathering to leave for Eastern Europe. We have our own resident birds but let me assure you they don't pack in at a density of 25 per field. As a check, I visited the same site two days later at 9am and at 12 noon and they were still there. If anything there were more. I checked the adjacent fields and there were no curlews there.

I am not disclosing the exact location because stone curlews are a favourite prey of falconers. It's not a big sport in the Tripoli area and I don't want it to become so!

Five stone curlew out of 25 in one field - Tripoli area

Three feral dogs were around the second time I visited the stone curlew. I saw two brave stone curlew march straight up one of the dogs which then ran away.

As well as the stone curlew I saw a few other lingering wintering birds along the rail line. In the far west of my walk I spotted my first blackbird since I moved to Libya six months ago! It was a lovely sight. I had heard them several times before. It would appear they like shaded well watered areas such as irrigated citrus groves most of which are private property. The other wintering birds I observed was a robin and a few chiffchaff in different places. And finally there are still a few stonechat around but there numbers are drastically down on two weeks ago.

While some wintering birds are still lingering, some summer visitors have arrived. I saw more turtle doves in the agricultural areas. But they were very jumpy when I tried to photograph with my basic camera. One stretch of the line had several barn swallow skimming the air for insects.

The walk was also surprisingly good for seeing many of the residents too. There were several families of fulvous babbler along the route.

fulvous babblers (above)

Hoopoe was also common on the ground, and laughing dove in the trees and on wires. I have to be more careful with identification of doves with the return of the turtle dove. There are also rock dove and pigeon around. Serin and spanish sparrow were very common.

suburban hoopoe (left) and laughing dove (right)

suburban serin (left) and spanish sparrow (right)

It is already the breeding season for desert grey shrikes. I came across two groups of fledglings.

One fledgling desert grey shrike in a group of three

the two local breeding subspecies of desert grey shrike - algeriensis (left) and elegans (right)

Once again the books aren't very accurate with the distribution of desert grey shrike in Libya. Contrary to books, the main breeding sub-species even on the coast is elegans. It outnumbers algeriensis by at least 3 or 4 to one. Just to add to the mix, in mid winter they are joined by a few iberian grey shrike which are most obviously different.

Another breeder which is posing me a sub-species issue is the sardinian warbler. Like the stone curlew, the winter population is greater than those who stay behind. However, I am beginning to question whether all the residents are of the sub-species melanocephala. A very few are decidedly lighter (like the one below) . It's a long shot but I wonder if it is the sub species valverdei which is found in southern Morrocco.

A light coloured sardinian warbler

Another resident breeder which was seen several times during my walks is cattle egret. On one occasion it was next to a cow, true to its name. It's not even in the new Collin's guide as being in Libya at all. But I have now seen it near Wadi Kaam and now Tripoli. It is recorded by others as being quite numerous near Benghazi too. It only seems to inhabit the wettest meadows in Libya created by irrigation or a high water table.

Cattle egret- Tripoli

Other less common resident birds were also present. A flock of goldfinch briefly made an appearance and linnet was seen once.

local linnet- railway line, Tripoli

Even crested lark make it into the urban area. Several can be seen at Janzour cemetery near the rail corridor. The final resident I met on my walks was kestrel.

There were naturally some passage birds as well. I met just one sub-alpine warbler. It was the only bird in an area which was active at one o'clock in the afternoon. Maybe Tripoli at midday is cooler than where it has just come from! I had a definite identification on one isabelline wheatear and two female whitchat. Although the passage birds lacked numbers there was at least some variety.

All in all I had a surprisingly good time virtually on my doorstep.

The plain

Camels 40 kilometres inland from Zuwia

A naive view of the landscape of Tripolitania is that it is Mediterranean in character as far south as the Jebel Nafusa hills. And that south of the Nafusa is the Sahara. Actually the Mediterranean strip is only 20-30 kilometres wide. Inland from the strip is drier and much of it is flat semi desert well before you reach the hills. The hills are only 60 kilometres directly south from Tripoli but they are 120 kilometres south of the sea further west nearer theTunisian border. So the drier plain which is north of the hills is wedge shaped. On Friday March 12th We birded the thin end of the wedge! - only 50 kilomtres south west of Tripoli.


Ibrahim, Maria who is a friend from work and I had lucky weather. It was often cloudy. The plains can be hot even in March but not last Friday. Our first stop was in an area which was not semi desert. Sometimes the land can be greener in a small area probably because there is underground water or it's in a wadi. The area where we made our first stop was a little greener and had acacia and tamarisk bushes. There were some surprises here. The main bird population were migrants. There were tens of northern wheatears (see second set of pictures below - left). There was also one isabelline wheatear among the migrants. The second most common bird were sub- alpine warblers (see below for two shots of the same bird in a tamarisk). The wheatears were mostly on the ground and the warblers were always in the bushes.

sub alpine warbler in tamarisk

The local birds were mostly crested and thekla larks but amongst them was at least one tawny pipit (see below right). Its longer legs, lack of crest, longer tail, plain grey/brown back immediately separated it from the other birds near it. Thanks to Moshe who posted to my blog that it was a tawny pipit and not a female hoopoe lark as I had orginally posted. In my defence they are confusable and one is much more common here than the other. Please see the entry on hoopoe larks in the new Collins guide for a comparison! There was also a mobile flock of lesser short toed larks. Why doesn't this lark stay still?

northern wheatear(left) tawny pipit(right)

There was also a family or two of fulvous babblers in the bushes. A small number of desert grey shrike were also present.

Then we moved on it was to an area of more typical semi desert. Again the dominant lark was crested. One hoopoe lark was heard calling for about 15 minutes among the other voices. Then suddenly out of the blue it performed its courting flight right in front of Maria and I even though we hadn't seen the bird on the ground. It rose up about 4 metres with its black and white wings outspread. Seconds later it seemed to have nose dived back to earth. We still couldn't find it on the ground. Where even there was any concentration of bushes in this area (by a wadi - for example) there were more fulvous babblers. One bush held a sole willow warbler too.

A babbler on look out duty (left) and a desert wheatear (right)

A wall in the neighbourhood provided accommodation for nesting spanish sparrows and the next wall had a desert wheatear who seemed totally unafraid of us. We also saw one black wheatear during the day. The black wheatear isn't really a bird of the plains in Libya though a few venture down during the cooler part of the year. This is contrary once again to the distribution maps in recent guides which suggest it is resident!


You have to be patient when you bird the plains. The density of birds isnt high and they all seem to look like the earth they are standing on! We were very fortunate to come across cream coloured courser on four occasions and I don't believe it was the same group each time!

A cream coloured courser walking away (above)

There were a few more observations left. A kestrel was seen hovering over the semi desert. It looks like some wintering species are still hanging about. We saw a solitary white wagtail on the one mound in a flat semi desert area.

One final stop was in a less dry area on the way back towards Tripoli. This was quite close to our first stop. There was a flock of wintering skylarks along with crested larks. More fulvous babblers were in the bushes. There we also saw our only long legged buzzard of the day.

Finally I must state that on Friday we saw yet more collared doves as well as laughing doves and pigeons near the settlements . The collared dove is colonising Libya at a rate of knots. One day a distribution map may actually show its in this country - along with cattle egret, moussiers redstart and several others. There may not be huge numbers of birds in Libya but there are a lot more than people think!

Libyan collared doves (left) and a wintering white wagtail (right)

Far out at Farwa

Last Friday, I visited Farwa. Farwa is in the far north west corner of Libya on the border with Tunisia. It's special. The island offers a very big lagoon with 90% protection from the sea. The lagoon is never deeper than one metre and its very,very big. It doesn't get polluted because it is connected to the sea at two narrow points north and south of the island. Curlews, spoonbill and a very large variety of other waders love it in winter. Whatever the height of their legs there is a space for a wading bird at Farwa.

But that isn't all. Inland and south of Farwa is a saltpan called Boukamesh. In winter this can be enormous (it goes into Tunisia) when full. And when it has water, hundreds of Flamingo move down from Jerba to their preferred winter holiday resort. Beware though, if it hasn't rained heavily the saltpan will be empty. Sadly it was virtually totally so on Friday! However as slight compensation two flamingos were seen at Farwa lagoon (see photo at the top).

That still isn't all. As well as a lagoon, island, and sporadically flooded saltpan, there is prime coastal garrigue and some maquis. In fact with the sand flats next to the saltpan the majority of the habitats of Libya are present in one place.

Twice now when we have visited Farwa we have not been able to avoid the temptation to stop at the Zuwarah- Al Mantoub saltpan which is en route. It can be seen from the main road. As we drove passed we saw that there were the usual large number of gulls. We reversed immediately. Closer inspection shown although a majority were Black Backed Gulls and Lesser Black Headed there were a few YellowLegged and Mediterranean Gulls. The prize sighting were three Caspian Terns among them. Below left you can see Martin and Ibrahim working out how to get a decent photograph of them. We got a bit of a hazy one in the end (see right below). The Caspian Tern is the one with the red bill.





These Caspian Terns could easily be the laziest ones in the world. The most southerly breeding colony is at Farwa. If these are from there they have flown 30 kilometres this winter. Most of their cousins fly from the Baltic or Caspian to the sub Sahara. This is roughly 100 times as far!

When we finally arrived at Farwa we chose to go to the salt pan first. To our collective embarrassment we were fooled by a mirage (honestly) to think there was plenty of water in it. We detoured to the south bank of it to get better light only to find the saltpan was nearly empty. Not only the saltpan has been affected by the abnormally very warm and dry winter. Even the almond trees are in blossom 6 weeks early.

Obviously a local farmer thought they would be more birds near the salt pan then we found. See his scarecrow below. But has nobody told him there are no crows in Libya?

As already mentioned the Farwa area is not short of birding options. You can lose on the saltpan swing and win on the lagoon and heathland roundabouts. We won on both roundabouts.

The heathland between the saltpan and the coast varies between almost desert (near the saltpan) though semi-desert to garrigue and even a few trees all in the space of 5 miles. We saw a desert wheatear, a flock of babblers (see one below left) and a Sardinian Warbler (the blurred picture below left) and many singular Stonechats (see the rather nice right photo ).

My favourite sighting in this area though was a mixed flock of local Goldfinches with immigrant Greenfinches (see below).

The Greenfinches scared more easily than the goldfinches. When I approached too close the flock separated by species! The Greenfinches flew straight to a tree which conveniently had few leaves.

On finally leaving the hinterland we had far too little time left for the coastal lagoon. On the fields next to it was a Kestral at rest (below left). But the lagoon did not disappoint. There were Spoonbill shifting the waters, dozens of Curlew in the water, and many other types of waders. See Turnstones and friends busily eating (below right).

And finally there is a blow up of the first photo of this blog showing the flamingos so large you might just be able to recognise them rather than take my word for it.