With 2015 over this post looks back over the year at some of the places we have been, birds we have seen, music we have heard and people we have met.
Of course, much more detailed accounts can be found clicking on the relevant month from the list on the left of the screen (or sometimes the month after if the post was uploaded a while after the event).
The year started with the traditional New Year’s Day bird boat, kindly arranged by Mark and Mo Constantine for Dorset birders. These Purple Sandpipers were photographed on the Sandbanks side of the chain ferry on 1/1/15 . Also in early January I took part in the annual winter bird race, recording an amazing 126 species in Dorset in 12 hours.
The first foreign trip was to NE Brazil which lasted more than three weeks but resulted in me seeing over 70 life birds – by far the most of any trip of the year. There were many highlights, one being cracking views of the wonderful Lear’s Macaw in a very dramatic setting.
Here I photographed the nearby town through a rainbow whilst staying at the lovely and very birdy Serra Bonita reserve.
As well as travelling we both have a keen interest in music – be it old favourites from my past like Rick Wakeman, whose keyboard skills in the band Yes were much appreciated in my youth ….
…. to more modern acts like Paloma Faith. We saw Rick Wakeman in February and Paloma about a month later in Poole and Bournemouth respectively.
In early March we took advantage of a charter flight to Tromso in arctic Norway where we boarded the Hutigruten coastal steamer and journeyed around North Cape at the top of Norway in the hope of seeing the Aurora Borealis ….
…. which indeed we did on four nights out of five. We were lucky as some do this trip yet come away disappointed, but if we had gone about 10 days later we might have had a truly spectacular display as the aurora was seen as far south as Norfolk.
We booked on the Birdquest tour to Colorado that started on April 1st but we spent the last week of March on our own touring Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming. The main reason for this visit was to see the incredible gathering of hundreds of thousands of Sandhill Cranes on Nebraska’s Platte River. We also visited the Badlands of South Dakota ….
…. saw the Presidents heads at Mount Rushmore, the Devil’s Tower in Wyoming and even drove into Montana to look for the ‘dental floss bushes’.
For one reason or another I never got round to editing all my photos of Colorado nor did I post any on the blog but it was a superb trip and one of the highlights was finding these almost invisible White-tailed Ptarmigan at 12500 ft in the Rockies. Perhaps I can find time this year to sort out the Colorado pics.
Early May saw us taking a fortnight in the Alps and southern France, seeing such wonders as the Matterhorn (above), Mont Blanc and the Eiger. I also saw what was probably the last regularly occurring European bird that I needed, the elusive Rock Partridge.
The whole trip was a prelude to attending Margaret’s nephew’s Mark’s wedding to Elizabeth in Donbirn in western Austria. The only downside to the trip was that I found out whilst there that my next tour, a cruise in far North-east Russia had been cancelled as the necessary permit hadn’t been issued by the Russians.
Late spring brought some great birds to the Poole Harbour area, such as the Red-footed Falcon that hung around the Wareham water meadows or this White-winged Tern at Swineham gravel pits.
In June Margaret had the privilege of being invited to a garden party at Buckingham Palace. It was the centenary of the WI and each one of the 8000 or so WI groups across the UK was invited to send one representative.
Back to music again: we went to a very entertaining concert by the Moody Blues in June. Some great old songs with a great visual effects, the three founder members and four new ones all performed very well.
During the summer our group was asked to undertake an intensive radio tracking study on Eurasian Nightjars on one of the local heaths. The data is still being analysed but the initial results seem very interesting.
At the end of the spring term our granddaughter Kara (R) left school to attend a sixth form college. During the summer she and a friend visited relatives in the Caribbean. Her sister Amber (L) left Dorset to study and work in Cornwall.
Staying on the subject of family; during late June and early July Margaret and I visited her daughter in Essex and my brother in Derby. We also visited several sets of friends including Jennie, a friend from university days, seen here with Margaret at Wicken Fen reserve in Suffolk.
We continued on to Leeds where we spent time with Nigel, another friend from school and university days.
Much of July and August (and indeed the rest of the autumn) was spent in our ongoing ornithological research at Lytchett Bay and Durlston. We were able to start ringing at a new and highly productive site at the north end of Lytchett Bay where this photo was taken soon after dawn.
One issue that featured heavily during the summer was the campaign to save England’s remaining Hen Harriers. Although this has highlighted before on the blog it deserves repeating. All the evidence points to a systematic, ruthless and totally illegal program of raptor extermination in Britain’s uplands by a small number of people in an attempt to raise grouse stocks to hugely inflated numbers. The loss of these beautiful raptors is a national disgrace and the campaign for their protection will continue unabated in 2016.
We met many old friends at the Bird Fair in Augustand attended a number of talks. Without doubt the most inspiring was vetran birder Ian Wallace’s account of his best ever day’s birding. His contribution to ornithology and birding is immense. Here he is seen talking to another birding legend, Killian Mullarney fro Ireland.
Ringing continued on a regular basis throughout the autumn producing many interesting recoveries and useful data. The most unusual aspect was the enormous influx of Goldcrests in late October and November, but I suppose the individual bird that gave me the most pleasure was this Wryneck that I trapped at Durlston in September.
It’s always good to stay in contact with old friends and it was good to see Guy Dutson in early September, back for a short visit from Australia with his daughter Lila.
In late September/early October I went on a tour to Paraguay. The birding was excellent and the company good but it was very hot, particularly in the first week and the mammal sightings were disappointing. Compared the mountainous parts of South America, the scenery wasn’t that awe-inspiring, but the mists over Laguna Blanca at dawn were most photogenic.
We saw some wonderful birds, non more so than these two species: White-winged Nightjar ….
…. and Sickle-winged Nightjar. The latter was of particular importance to me as it was the 8000th species I have seen. The bird was trapped by the tour leader as he is taking part in a research program on this threatened species and he wanted to see if it was one of the individuals he had already ringed. In my photo the bird has closed its eyes which looks less appealing so I have used one taken by my friend Jonathon Newman.
The last trip of the year was in late November to Turkey. It was a cultural, rather than a birding trip and we visited some great sites in Istanbul such as the magnificent Hagi Sophia ….
…. and some natural one too like the beautiful calcite formations at Pamukkale.
Also in the latter part of the year we went to a couple more musical performances, veteran folk singer Judy Collins in Wimborne and Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra at the BIC.
And the year ended, as all years should with get togethers with family and friends at Christmas time.
As I said at the start each picture above is taken from a blog post during the year. If you wish to see more photos from that event then cloick on the relevant month on the side bar.
Well, may I take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy 2016, if you are a birder like me, may the year bring you lots of excellent sightings, if you are not perhaps you ought to give it ago, buying a pair of binoculars and a field guide back in 1977 was one of the best decisions I ever made.
This, the third and final post on our trip to Turkey. covers the journey from Laodicea to Anatalya and the Roman ruins at Aspendos.
The last post ended with our visit to the ruins at Laodicea, this possibly was the high point of the trip, but then things took a sharp downturn with our enforced visit to a carpet factory!
There was no doubt that the carpets on show were beautiful and would be greatly valued by some people ….
…. or that the ladies that weave them, (often taking months or even a year to produce one) are highly motivated, highly skilled and highly underpaid (a point that was repeatedly made) but it was the enforced demonstrations and the hard sell that lasted well over an hour that annoyed me. The salesmen simply wouldn’t take no for an answer. We had no intention in paying hundreds or even thousands of pounds for a carpet, but they just wouldn’t listen. This ‘lock in’ was all the more annoying as I would have liked to spend a further hour at the ruins of Laodicea.
Later we crossed the Anatolian plateau as we headed for the Mediterranean. Scenery was lovely, many raptors were seen but of course there was no stopping. This photo was taken from the bus window.
We stayed at a beautiful hotel to the west of Antalya.
A small ‘volcano’ has been built over the site of a hot spring and you can take an outside dip in a steaming hot pool, the temperature of which was just about tolerable.
We were entertained with a belly dancer who insisted on audience participation (both male and female). I hid behind a pillar in case I got selected.
The following morning it was the hard sell again – first a jewelry factory ….
….and then a leather factory where we were obliged to watch a fashion show first. With a salesman shadowing us just three feet behind, Margaret told him that ‘my philosophy in life is not to buy anything I don’t need and I don’t need a leather coat’. He replied ‘the exit is over there madam’
In the afternoon we were free to explore Antalya, although much of the city is tourist development, an ancient centre with its narrow streets and quaint shops still exists.
We were dropped off a square near the old town ….
…. dominated by a huge statue to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern secular state of Turkey in 1923 after the demise of the Ottoman Empire
…. we wandered the quaint streets ….
…. and pretty courtyards ….
…. photographed ancient minarets ….
…. until we came to Hadrian’s Gate built in honour of the Roman emperor.
Retracing our steps ….
…. we headed for the harbour ….
…. with its old ships ….
…. and even older buskers …
…. but the ‘ancient galleon’ with its diesel engines appeared to be of more recent construction.
In a park overlooking the harbour we found several White-spectacled Bulbuls, a common species in parts of the Middle East, here at the extreme western edge of its range.
Along the cliffs were a number of Crag Martins, the only hirundine of the trip.
As the sun set over the distant mountains we headed eastwards to our hotel.
I have already stated that I was very impressed with the standard of hotels on this tour, especially given the cost. The best of all was the Hotel Lykia near Aspendos where we stayed for the last two nights. The dining room (above) was massive with the biggest buffet I have ever seen. You would think you had inspected every dish but still others on your table would come back with food you didn’t know was there.
The view of the swimming pool from our room ….
….and the pool in the daylight.
A late start the following day allowed me to do a bit of birding first but there was nothing on the sea except a few Cormorants.
Our fist stop was at the ruins of a Roman aqueduct, with its attendant souvenir stalls.
But it was the partially restored Roman theatre at Aspendos that was the focus of the day, said to be the best preserved in the world.
As a measure of how multi-national and multi-cultural we have become, we discovered that although all but one of the group lived in the UK they originated from Canada, China, Cyprus, Gambia, Iran, Italy, Kenya, Malta, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania and Trinidad (plus of course the UK) so with our Kurdish guide and Turkish driver there were 16 nationalities represented out of 34 people. We all (with possibly with one exception) got on very well.
After the obligatory lecture about the archaeology we were free to climb to the top if we wished ….
…. to explore ….
…. and photograph the colonnade that surrounds the structure.
Built in AD 155, the theatre was used for artistic performances rather than the gladiatorial combat. In the latter the seats would have been raised above the height of the stage to separate the crowd from wild animals.
We were amazed that 90 year-old Anne made it to the top of the steps, indeed I think she had to help Yin (who must have been a third of her age) get down.
If you have any doubt how high up it was, look at the two of the them in the centre of this photo.
We had our lunch by a restored Roman bridge ….
…. with a beautiful view of the river and the mountains beyond.
We returned in time for a sunset walk around the gardens and on the beach.
With quite a large group and the trip only lasting a week we were just getting to know people as the trip ended. Although from very different backgrounds and with different interests, I think we made some nice friends that week, although it is unlikely our paths will cross again.
As our departure to the airport wasn’t until the late morning there was time for some final birding in the scrub and fields around the hotel. Birds like Common Kingfisher, Wryneck, Stonechat, Cettis and Sardinian Warbler, several races of Chiffchaff, Water Pipit, Serin and Corn Bunting were seen but the best photos were of Crested Lark ….
…. and Wood Lark.
So all that remained was to fly home to Gatwick. Almost all the trips I have done have either been self-drive, self-led tours or commercial birding tours. Apart from one day guided trips around a city, I haven’t done this type of sightseeing tour since the seventies. Was it a success? undoubtedly, with the exception of the retail outlets, all the places we visited were interesting and photogenic, the company good, the hotels excellent and it was very good value. Would I do similar tours again, yes, especially if it was something that Margaret was keen to do. Finally as Margaret’s daughter and her husband are away at Christmas, we headed straight from Gatwick to Maldon in Essex to spend the next four days with them – but that’s a tale for another day.
Turkey for £99 (including flights) the advert proclaimed. I said to Margaret that they couldn’t possibly do it for that price, and of course I was right. Only one departure was at £99 and that was full, then there were additional charges for food and excursions etc, etc. In the end we paid about £600 each, but that still represented incredible value, especially considering the quality of the hotels we stayed at. The tour, based around sightseeing sites of cultural/historical interest, started at Istanbul and went south crossing into Asia at the Dardanelles, on to the historical sites of Troy, Sardis, Laodicea and Aspendos, finishing at Antalya on the Mediterranean coast, a week and 1000 miles later.
I found the trip very enjoyable, my only complaint was the lengthy enforced visits to carpet, leather and jewelry factories where we subjected to the ‘hard sell’, when we could have spent the time more enjoyably at the historical sites we had come to visit.
We arrived at Istanbul late at night on the 25th and it was 0130 before we got to our rooms, so the 0800 departure the following day was a bit of a shock for some but as we are used to getting up at silly o’clock for birding, we took it in our stride. I had visited Istanbul before as part of a birding tour in 1999, but Margaret had never been. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t kind to us but at least most of today’s activities were indoors.
Istanbul is the only city in the world that sits astride two continents. we landed on the Asian (Anatolian) side and crossed by bridge to Europe, where most of the famous tourist sites can be found, most notably the Hagia Sophia (above) and the Blue Mosque, but first we would make a visit to the Topkapi Palace.
I knew all along that this wasn’t going to be a birding tour, however I kept by binoculars with me and was rewarded with a few interesting sightings. Of course I also underwent frustration when interesting birds couldn’t be conclusively identified due to lack of time or because the they were seen from a moving bus. Here in Istanbul we saw several Laughing Doves, a common species in the Middle East that just gets into Europe in European Turkey and extreme eastern Greece and Bulgaria.
The Topkapi Palace was the royal residence of the Ottoman Sultans from 1465–1856, nearly two-thirds of their 600 year reign.
Several of the rooms contain priceless artifacts, gifts to the sultans of jewelry, beautifully worked pieces in precious metals, ivory or ceramics but photography was banned. Other rooms such as this one were closed due to the weather to prevent hundreds of wet feet from spoiling the flooring. That said I got perfectly good photo through the window without the crowds spoiling the view.
A feature of Islamic art is that as representations of the human form are not allowed these wonderful and beautiful geometric patterns are favoured instead.
The Topkapi Palace overlooks the Bosphorus, the narrow channel of water that separates the Black Sea from the Sea of Marmora. The Asian side of the city is on the right, the Bosphorus Bridge over which we crossed the night before can be seen in the mid distance. I was able to see several flocks of Yelkouan Shearwaters from this vantage point, this must be the easiest place in the world to see this east Mediterranean speciality.
Several cities across Europe have feral populations of parakeets like this Rose-ringed Parakeet female photographed at the Topkapi Palace, we also saw the larger Alexandrine Parakeet in the area.
Then it was time to visit the wonderful Hagia Sophia ……
Hagia Sophia (from the Greek ‘Holy Wisdom’) originally a basilica constructed from 537 AD onwards during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian. It served as a Greek Orthodox cathedral and seat of the Patriarch of Constantinople until 1453 (except for 57 years in the 13th century after the 4th Crusade when it became a Roman Catholic cathedral). With the rise of the Ottoman Empire it was converted into a mosque until the secular Turkish State under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk reopened it as a museum in 1935. The view from the balcony is especially awe-inspiring. The original Christian altar can be seen at the far end of the building. I last visited Hagia Sophia in 1999 and was disappointed to see that scaffolding obscured the view. I was even more disappointed to see that scaffolding was still there 16 years later (on the left hand side of this photo) but of course old buildings need renovating if they are to be preserved for future generations.
Continuing building work was carried out during the Ottoman period, the addition of the minarets occurred during the 16th century, whilst during the renovation of 1847 new gigantic circular-framed disks or medallions were hung on the columns. These were inscribed with the names of Allah, Muhammad, the first four caliphs Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali, and the two grandchildren of Muhammad: Hassan and Hussain, by the calligrapher Kazasker Mustafa İzzed Effendi.
Fortunately rather than being destroyed when the basilica was converted to a mosque, the beautiful Christian mosaics were plastered over allowing for many to be later restored to their former glory.
In this beautiful mosaic Mary and the Christ Child are being presented with a model of Hagia Sophia by Emperor Justinian and by a model of the city’s fortifications (then known as Constantinople) by its founder the Emperor Constantine.
Originally lit by candles, it must have taken some effort to remove all the wax from the carpets.
The symmetry and beauty of Islamic art and decoration is breathtaking, from the light fittings ….
…. to the ceiling decorations above.
Exiting Hagia Sophia we headed for the, rather wet, Hippodrome
On our way to our lunch stop we passed the ‘Optimist Hotel’, amused by the name I took a photo. I was later to discover that it once belonged to Margaret’s son-in-law’s cousin’s husband. A strange connection.
We returned to the Hippodrome (horse path in Greek), originally a circus for chariot racing, it has now been renamed Sultanahmet Meydanı (Sultan Ahmet Square). Centre piece is the Obelisk of Thutmose III, brought from Egypt in 390 AD. The Imams from the Blue Mosque were calling to faithful to prayer whilst we were there and it was very loud, but quite evocative.
Also in the Hippodrome is the Serpent Column. The Tripod of Plataea, as it was originally known, was cast to celebrate the victory of the Greeks over the Persians during the Persian Wars in the 5th century BC. Constantine ordered the Tripod to be moved from the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, and set in middle of the Hippodrome. The top was adorned with a golden bowl supported by three serpent heads. The bowl was destroyed or stolen during the Fourth Crusade. The serpent heads were destroyed as late as the end of the 17th Century. The original ground level of the Hippodrome can be seen in this photo.
Then it was time to visit the Sultan Ahmet Mosque, more commonly known as the Blue Mosque. Unlike the Hagia Sophia this is a functioning place of worship and the appropriate dress code must be adhered to. Built from 1609 – 1616 on the site of the former place of the Byzantine emperors, it consists of one main dome, six minarets, and eight secondary domes.
The interior is truly magnificent ….
…. with many suspended chandeliers ….
…. and the wide open carpeted floor where the faithful come to pray.
An Imam speaks to his students and one point explained the basic concepts of Islam in English over the loudspeakers.
After some final photographs of the magnificent dome we left and headed the short distance to the Golden Horn, a six-mile long inlet of the Bosphorus at the very heart of Istanbul.
In the late afternoon we took a boat trip on the Bosphorus and as darkness fell we had great views of the Rumelihisarı castle on the European side of the city, which was built in 1451 by the Ottomans as their base prior to the conquest of Constantinople.
Our boat trip took us out of the Golden Horn, northwards into the Bosphorus as far as the more northerly Fatih Sultan Bridge.
Returning down the Asian side we had great views of the floodlit palaces ….
…. before we approached the Bosphorus bridge ….
…. giving us a wonderful view of one of the great city sky scape.
The computerised LED lighting on both bridges constantly changes colour ….
…. finally we turned into the Golden Horn and with the Hagia Sophia spotlit on the hill we returned to the bus and then to our hotel.
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