Have the bee-eaters returned?

I have been waiting for the local bee-eater to return. I thought they had two days ago when a flock of about 20 birds descended on a wood I was visiting at the time. They stopped there all the time I was there. At one time there were 17 birds on a single tree.


However I haven't seen them locally in the 36 hours since and I now wonder if like the previous two flocks they are just passage birds.

bee-eater, Klimentovo near Varna

Near-by I also saw two woodchat shrike. This is an uncommon bird around here. I am surprised that my first summer shrike was woodchat shrike rather than lesser grey shrike or red-backed shrike which are much more common.

female woodchat shrike

Often a female woodchat shrike has a yellower head than the male but not this one. It was equally as orange brown as the male in the pair.

male woodchat shrike

The only easy way I could distinguish between the sexes of these two was that the male has a much stronger black mask over the top of the beck.

spotted flycatcher

I increased my sightings of flycatcher species locally from one to three. In an earlier blog I showed a pied flycatcher on passage. In the last two days I have seen plenty of spotted flycatcher and a couple of semi-collared flycatcher too.  Its a confusing time at the moment with some passage birds mingled in with local breeders. This is true for these flycatchers although I must say the semi-collared flycatchers at least looked very comfortable. 

semi-collared flycatcher

Comparing the semi-collared flycatcher with the pied flycatcher I saw a week or two ago, there is the big white spot above the beck (rather than two small ones) , the collar! and more white on the wing. 

a new shot of a golden oriole

I can confirm the golden oriole which I featured in the last blog are here to stay. They were in pretty much the same place as a few days ago.

One topic I haven't yet give much coverage of locally is bird of prey activity. There is plenty of it. Excluding passage birds, above the skies just south of the village you can see common buzzard, sparrowhawk, and kestrel. I have also seen a pair of eagles. A silhouette of one of them is shown below. I have never pretended to be very good with the ID of eagles. It is my biggest birding weakness. I can manage short toed eagle and bonelli's eagle as I had experience of them in Libya.

 first shot of eagle

Three eagle species visit this area in the summer. My very hesitant guess is that the birds were lesser spotted eagle. I hope they are summer residents and I'll get more chance for a closer and longer look.

second silhouette of an eagle

Of course my village is on a major passage route too but these birds weren't in any hurry to travel north. One passage bird I did have seen in the past two days over-head was osprey. You have to remember we are only 4 kilometres from the coast as the crow flies.

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White storks and other birds at Al Marj

white stork feeding in a field near Al Marj, early June

On Friday June 4th, I ventured out of Benghazi for the first time since moving to Cyrenaica. The main target area was Al Marj - 80 kilometres out of the city. The Al Marj plain is on a flat plateau at roughly 300 metres. It is north east of Benghazi and is half way from Benghazi towards the Jebel Akhdar (green mountain). It shares some of the characteristics of both places. Its higher, wetter and greener than Benghazi but not as high, wet and green as Jebel Akhdar. It is a little further inland from the mediterranean sea than Jebel Akhdar but even here the coastal plain below the Al Marj plain is barely 6 kilometres wide.

There are records of a sizeable white stork colony at Al Marj though once again its presence fails to make the distribution maps of major recent guides. We (my new teaching colleague Wendy and my older colleague Martin who has been on several trips with me in Tripolitania) didn't find it difficult to confirm the white stork presence. Eagle eyed Martin spotted seven or eight in a single field just east of the town.

two white stork in a field near Al Marj, early June

It was a blistering hot day though thankfully not as hot as in Benghazi. But beggars can't be choosers. If I am going to chronicle all Libya's birds in the two year period of my teaching placement here then I have to make full use of the summers.

Not far from the field of storks, we found a beautiful shaded cypress avenue of trees down one of the side roads out of town. Near-by was a good mix of other vegetation including olive trees. This mixed habitat was clearly a draw for a good cross section of birds who seemed to be taking some sanctuary in the shade. In the cypress trees were not only house sparrow but also chaffinch. Once again on this trip I failed to see any spanish sparrow but house sparrow were plentiful (the reverse of Tripolitania). I saw more chaffinch in this one spot in one hour than in eight months in Tripolitania. It is rare there (only around wadi Kaam) but my suspicion it is is much more common in north east Libya especially once I get to see Jebel Akhdar.

The chaffinch were all africana with the males having a beautiful green back. Sadly, I failed to get a good picture but I am sure there will be more chances.


In the same area we also saw woodchat shrike, laughing dove and turtle dove. The latter bird is missing from the immediate Benghazi area but is relatively common north and east of there. Great great shrike was also present.

We moved on through old Marj. This formerly very attractive ex-Italian town was destroyed by an earthquake in the early 1960s.We went through it trying to find a way up to some higher hills which form the south western edge of the Jebel Akhdar. We didn't succeed. Nevertheless we managed to find some shade for lunch under an olive tree. Near-by in a small cluster of cypress trees I spotted a flock which turned out to be totally made up of juvenile goldfinch.

juvenile goldfinch, near old Marj -early June

There is something surreal in me running round trees in boiling weather at midday trying to photograph a mobile flock when most sensible people would be having a siesta.

I didn't find identification easy. I am still no good with juveniles. It was more a case of guessing and looking it up in the collins guide I always carry with me as a comfort.

After lunch we made our way down to the coast which was a little bit cooler. On the slopes on the way down towards Tulmaythah (Ptolemis), a common raven was spotted.

The coast itself also held one or two surprises. The first surprise was a sighting of two bee-eater. I think they were juveniles since there colours were so washed out. This fact and the late time of year suggests to me that there is probably a small breeding population of bee-eater in Cyrenaica.

bee-eater near Tulmaythah, early June

There were more sightings of great grey shrike. Many of them do not look like desert grey shrike elegans. Many are a darker bird which looks to me like great grey shrike aucheri. My current view is that both birds co-exist in Cyrenaica just as they do in southern Israel and in Sinai. I know that top orinthologists are currently looking hard at this issue.

great grey shrike - near Tokrah, early June

Apart from the odd pigeon near settlements there were three other new birds (for the day) seen along the coast. Crested lark was relatively common.

But two birds of prey were seen. One was kestrel. The other was much more exciting. It was a short-toed eagle. This was a lifer for me.

short toed eagle, near Tokrah, early June

Once again I lack confidence with birds of prey. It is thanks to correspondence in Surf Forum that I identified this bird.

One advantage of summer birding is that it is improving my identification skills with birds of prey.

The passage in Tripoli

Bee-eater, Seraj, Tripoli. early April

Hot on the heals of seeing many bee-eater in Jadu, plenty have started to arrive in metropolitan Tripoli at least in the semi-rural areas. Some will stay in the country but many will fly on to Europe. As previously blogged, tree pipit is another wave of migrant which has been very noticeable. They started to arrive around April 1st, peaked at April 7th but there seem to be only a few left now.

Tree pipit, Janzour, Tripoli. Early April.

But the nightingale is still very much in evidence. It started to arrive earlier than tree pipit but has stayed much longer. The nightingale I photographed nearly two weeks ago is still easily seen (once you know where to look!) under the same bush, morning after morning. I am beginning to wonder whether some of them actually breed here in the most irrigated orchards. There is no previous record of this though.

Woodchat shrike. Seraj, Tripoli. Early April

Another similarity with Jadu is that there have been sightings of woodchat shrike though not in the numbers seen there. Some of these will stay locally but like with bee-eater most move on to Europe.

Great Reed Warbler. Janzour, Tripoli. Early April

One of luckiest sighting of a migrant was of a great reed warbler. One early morning, I was walking down the railway line when I noticed a cat taking an unhealthy interest in a hedge. Two nightingales fled but up popped a great reed warbler (see photographs above) which stood its ground making a great noise with some harsh sounds. This time the cat backed off.

Part of a stone curlew gathering. Seraj, Tripoli, early April

I thought I had seen the last of the gatherings of migrant stone curlew but two days ago I walked to Seraj and saw another one. This group was 5 kilometres from the place where I had seen the other gatherings.

The last week in Tripoli has not all been about passage migrants. I was surprised to see greenfinch as late as April 6th west of Janzour. This bird is documented as a winter visitor. The location where I saw it is a bit special. One farmer (or his family through the years) has kept a pristine cypress wood with about 200 hundred trees. The wood is probably many tens of years old. As far as I know this is the largest native woodland left in Tripolitania. It is cool and shaded. I suspect it will be the last place from which winter woodland visitors leave. It is the same place by the way that I had seen my only blackbird since coming to Libya. It's a long shot but it just possible greenfinch may stay.

pristine cypress woodland west of Janzour, Tripoli

Greenfinch on the edge of pristine cypress woodland, near Janzour. early April

Meanwhile the resident birds have been getting on with life. There are many young desert grey shrike screaming for food. It is a bit disconcerting to see adults carrying off young (live) sparrows to their young. However I have seen this twice in the last two days.

Young and adult desert grey shrike, Janzour. Early April

The turtle dove population is settled and the sardinian warbler is breeding.

local turtle dove and sardinian warbler. Janzour, Tripoli. Early April

Another local bird strongly in evidence and in breeding plumage now is cattle egret. This bird is not even acknowledged as present in Libya according to some recent guides. They forgot to tell the birds! The serious issue is that there is undoubtably underreporting of many bird species in Libya.

For several birds, I now look at the distribution in south east Tunisia and use that as my working assumption.

A group of cattle egret, Janzour, Tripoli. Early April

Barn swallow is very numerous this year too.

Barn swallow. Janzour, Tripoli. Early April

And the barbary partridge are still running away from me!

Barbary partridge. Janzour, Tripoli. Early April

Passage time at Jadu

Jadu Springs, Jebel Nafusa

On Friday I took a long trip to the Jadu area of the Jebel Nafusa. This is further west than most of my day trips from Tripoli. I made this trip to try to find some of the rarer larks such as dupont's lark and to see more mahreb wheatears which are restricted in Libya to the west of the Jebel Nafusa.

The temperatures were ideal for bird watching. It was very cool for this time of year so the birds were active all day.

However the day was mostly stolen by passage birds. Perhaps the reasons were obvious. It's peak time for migration. And the wind had been northerly for two or three days (which is why the weather was cool) which may well have caused a backing -up of migrants.

Sam and Jane, Ibrahim and I travelled on the plains road to Shasluk. We made a couple of short walks into the plain just north of Shasluk. We were not rewarded richly. Fulvous babbler were in the thorn bushes and crested lark in the the fields. A few kilometres further on we sighted several red rumped wheatear and northern wheatear. The latter were on passage. I was surprised that they were still around since I had seen the first ones in Tripolitania on February 19th.

Finally, we took the road up onto the Jebel Nafusa plateau through Shasluk which is part way up the mountain side. Here we saw spanish sparrow, house bunting and black wheatear. The latter birds are only found on the Jebel Nafusa.

When we reached the top at the edge of Jadu town we soon saw several woodchat shrike. A few of these breed in the coastal strip of the country but the vast majority of them are passage birds. In many places during the day near Jadu we saw large numbers.

Woodchat shrike (female) left and (male) right near Jadu

The brief stop at the edge of the town also revealed turtle dove and hoopoe. Although these birds are summer breeders and residents respectively closer to the coast, the ones seen were almost certainly migrants.

Next, we headed straight to Jadu springs (see main photo at the top of the blog). This is a large natural permenant spring with a shaded and wooded valley. Although it was busy with people, it is undoubtably a migrant trap and has its fair share of resident birds too.

house bunting, Jadu springs - April

Residents include house bunting (see photo below), crested lark, thekla lark, rock dove, laughing dove, spanish sparrow, black wheatear and cattle egret!

collared flycatcher on passage in April at Jadu Spring

The passage migrants which were seen on Friday were: common whitethroat, nightingale, willow warbler in the trees and shrubs, house martin, common swift in the air, and a collared flycatcher right next to the path seemingly unconcerned about all the people passing by.

Having had lunch in the shaded valley, we headed about 6 kilometres south west of Jadu Spring. This was the furthest west that we went and our best chance of seeing mahreb wheatear. Unfortunately we saw none. However the fields had an excellent mix of passage migrants and local residents. First we noticed there were many eurasian bee-eater about in the fields and on the wires.

Eurasian bee-eater. South West of Jadu in April

In this area we saw a big surprise - a male montagu's harrier. The bird is documented to fly through Tunisia but not 100 kilometres inside Libya. It was in no hurry to leave as it was hunting locally at its leisure. This bird was not an exception. We saw a male and female pair 20 kilometres further east an hour later.

male montagu's harrier southwest of Jadu. April (above and below)

In this area there was one stony field with several different species. There were two stone curlew who judging by their behaviour were resident. There was also large flocks of trumpeter finch and spanish sparrow, a single yellow wagtail and two willow warbler. Near-by in different fields were a cream coloured courser,little owl, crested lark and more woodchat shrike.

trumpeter finch and little owl seen south west of Jadu. April

We finally turned back towards Tripoli but stopped after only about 20 minutes just east of Jadu. Off the main road we saw local brown necked raven, another cream coloured courser, black wheatear and a kestrel and more passage bee-eater, woodchat shrike and a single sub alpine warbler.

One final stop in the Jadu area was just west of Zintan. We visited a place which I had visited before in February looking for rare larks but had found none. This time we were luckier. I saw my first temminck's lark in Libya. So although I didn't see a dupont's lark, at least I added to my list of Libyan resident species seen.

This area had been full of various types of wheatear then but now we could only see passage northern wheatear. Perhaps the local birds were taking a siesta? The northern wheatear (see picture below) looked very buff all down its front. It might be Oenanthe oenanthe leucorhoa the sub species from Greenland.

temminck's lark (left) and northern wheatear (right) east of Jadu

This is the place we where wev saw the second (and third) montagu's harrier mentioned earlier . Other migrants were a yellow wagtail, a pied flycatcher (see picture below) and yet more woodchat shrike and eurasian bee-eater. The resident birds seen were crested lark, kestrel and desert grey shrike.

Pied flycatcher. April. Just west of Zintan

Finally we zoomed back towards Tripoli as the light was fading, seeing a long legged buzzard and many hoopoe betweeen Ifran and Gharyan.

We arrived back in the dark after 13 hours of intense birding.