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.

Qasr Libya and Al Marj

two chaffinch near Marj -mid June

The heat yesterday was blistering. It reached 41 C in the shade in Benghazi. But Friday (the first day of the weekend in Libya) is my day to do long distance trips come hell or high water. It makes me sadder to know that on Wednesday this week the forecast high is only 26 C.

Anyway, I set out with two work friends - Wendy and Martin towards Marj and Qasr Libya which are north east of Benghazi at 250 m and 5oo m respectively. Despite the height it didn't seem much cooler in the hills than in the city.

Our first stop was near Marj. We visited here two weeks before but I wanted to get a picture of the local chaffinch (fingella coelebs africana) which I failed to do last time. As I confirmed on this trip but had guessed before, chaffinch is extremely common in Cyrenaica. There is plenty of natural forest and glades of trees based on cypress. These places seem invariably to have chaffinch. This contrasts with Tripolitania where cypress is much less common but is associated with serin.

Sure enough we found an avenue with cypress on either side of a track which was shaded enough for chaffinch to forage on the ground in the heat. However after taking a few shots my camera packed up! At first I thought it was the heat but then I realised I simply hadn't recharged the batteries. So sadly this blog only has pictures of chaffinch but the commentary is the same!

a chaffinch in profile - Marj - mid June

Note this bird is much greener than the nominate sub species especially on its back.

rear view of chaffinch -Marj -mid June

In the same areas around there we also house sparrow. (I still haven't seen a single spanish sparrow in Cyrenaica). Martin drew my attention to an adult goldfinch resting on a barred wire fence. We didn't see this species at Marj last time (though we saw some juveniles near Old Marj about 10 kilometres away).

In slightly more open terrain we saw both woodchat shrike and great grey shrike. In any terrain with trees we saw the trio of laughing dove, pigeon and turtle dove. There was also hoopoe in the fields.

We moved on towards Qasr Libya but before we had gone 3 kilometres out of Marj we saw a white stork nest on top of a fairly low pylon complete with two adults and two young. I sorely missed my camera at this moment. While we stopped to view the nest, a long legged buzzard landed on a near-by telegraph pole and a cattle egret flew by.

After these sightings we moved on and up to Qasr Libya. Qasr Libya is the site of byzantine churches bult in 539 AD. There are at the top of the hills overlooking the neighbouring countryside. The mosaics in the museum and the two churches are very moving.

When we got there it was the middle of the day and things were sweltering. Nevertheless it would appear that the gardens around the churches have more birds than most other places nearby. This is probably because of the variety of native trees and bushes. There is more shade including some in the churches which birds can access to by flying in through gaps.

The gardens had more house sparrow (nesting in the churches) and chaffinch. As well as the usual dove duo there were some genuine rock dove. The shrike here was great grey shrike (aucheri). Much of this information is well known as this place has been well monitored before by tourists who are also bird watchers.

After viewing the churches we moved on down towards the coast. We took the scenic route which follows wadi kouf gorge for part of the way. We stopped a couple of times on the way down but there was very little noticeable bird activy in the heat. I did see a couple of juvenile chaffinch. The most interesting observation were the swifts. The only document resident swift in Libya is pallid swift but to me these birds looked like common swift. There were darker and thinner. I will certainly look more carefully next time.

Once again on one of the Friday trips my friends chose the beach option at the coast while I birded the coastal heath. I saw one kentish plover on the beach before I left them to it for an hour or so. Barn swallow was also near-by.

When you walk away from the beach it grades quickly from garrigue to maquis. In the garrigue I saw crested lark and in both the garrigue and maquis were plenty of sardinian warbler. In the maquis I was able to have a prolonged view of a family of chaffinch, a male, female and two fledglings. Near the one local dwelling were house sporrow again.

On the way back home we saw three common raven as we climbed back into the hills. Yet I still haven't seen any egyptian vulture or golden eagle which are reported in the Jebel Akhdar. I suspect if these birds are still in Cyrenaica then the best bet to see them is a little further east from Qasr Libya where it is slightly higher and wilder.

Buduzeera park, Benghazi

Buduzeera lake- Benghazi - mid June

Buduzeera is a natural semi-salty lake on the north eastern edge of Benghazi. I have no idea where the water comes from but is presummably from an underground aquifer. I wonder if the aquifer may be linked to the sea and whether the bedrock filters out the salt. I have made a mental note to find out.

Anyway, the lake has been landscaped and is surrounded by holiday chalets. The landscaping is more environmentally sound than is normal in Libya. The lake is surrounded by tall reeds.

Naturally it has some interesting bird life. It has the ubiquitous house sparrow around the chalets. There are also laughing dove and pigeon. On the grass hoopoe graze. On several vantage points are great grey shrike (aucheri). As elsewhere in the city there is no sign of aucheri's cousin the desert grey shrike elegans.

The lake is teeming with fish and the lesser crested tern and little tern make good use of this. This is also the place I have seen my first yellow legged gull since arriving in Cyrenaica three weeks ago. Though I only saw three. The lake is popular with barn swallow too.

However the big attraction for me is the large breeding colony of cattle egret. Their colony is in the tall reeds closest to the main road. Clearly the noise of traffic doesn't disturb them. My guess why they chose this corner is because the reed banks are widest here.

a glimpse through the reeds at the cattle egret colony- Buduzeera - mid June

At a conservative estimate there are 80 breeding adults at the colony. Not bad for a bird which doesn't even feature on the maps as being in Libya. A couple of recent commentators have said this bird is rapidly expanding in Libya and I wouldn't disagree.

Apparently the city's big waste dump near Ganfonda (15 kilometres south of the city and at least 20 kilometres from this colony)is a big draw for them. I have yet to visit there. I prefer to visit the more attractive sights first!

I had forgotten how how much adult cattle egret change in the breeding season. Several adults had almost red beaks and orange tops to their head (see below).

breeding cattle egret -Buduzeera - mid June

By contrast the nestlings can't even muster a yellow beak. But I was pleased to see so many there!

cattle egret nestling- Buduzeera- mid June

In some ways I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't see some other birds. Given the number of fish in the lake, it looked like a good spot for Herons but prehaps the reed beds are just not private enough for them or maybe the park keepers don't want such sucessful fish eaters. I could also not detect any reed warblers or any warbler for that matter. My thoughts here are that the place just isn't wild enough. Or prehap it was just too hot and I didn't look hard enough. This is yet another place on my list for a visit on a cooler day if we get one! This summer has been hotter than usual so far.