CYPRUS HOUSE PARTY - SPRING MIGRATION SPECIAL

So what is so different about our Cyprus tour you may ask?  Well, we are staying at a private villa on the west coast of Cyprus where we will be catered for without the need of visiting local restaurants and all drinks are included in the tour cost, even beer and wine with your evening meal. This tour is only for a select group of 6 birders maximum staying at our villa for 7 nights. Our primary focus will be on seeing the 3 endemics: Cyprus Pied Wheatear, Cyprus Warbler and Cyprus Scops Owl, as well as exploring all the regular headlands and wetlands in search of a plethora of spring migrants. We will also head up into the Troodos Mountains for a number of endemic subspecies. We might take a break in the middle of the day and take advantage of our swimming  pool and have lunch at the villa before heading out again in the afternoon, or we'll be out birding all day. it depends just how good the migration is.

As well as the 3 main endemics, there's a whole host of mouth-watering possibilities for us to look for and the following list is a 'Who's Who' of eastern Mediterranean specialities such as Black Francolin, Little Bittern, Squacco Heron, Spotted, Baillon's & Little Crakes, Pallid & Montagu's Harriers, Long-legged Buzzard, Bonelli's Eagle, Greater Sandplover, Slender-billed Gull, Whiskered, Black and White-winged Terns, Great Spotted Cuckoo, European Roller, European Bee-eater,  Eurasian Hoopoe, Black-eared Wheatear, Masked, Lesser Grey, Woodchat & Red-backed Shrikes, Collared Flycatcher, Red-throated and Tawny Pipits,  Thrush Nightingale, Eastern Olivaceous, Spectacled, Eastern Bonelli's, Sardinian & Ruppell's Warblers and both Ortolan & Cretzschmar's Bunting amongst many others. Oh and maybe a Cream-coloured Courser,  Caspian Plover or Blue-cheeked Bee-eater will grace us with its presence.

Cyprus has all the elements of a classic birding destination with anything possible: there's flocks of shorebirds moving through, flocks of terns, hirundines, wheatears, shrikes, warblers, pipits and buntings. Add to this great weather, great food and a fantastic private villa. Sounds horrible right? So whether it's your first foray overseas or a repeat visit, then this could be just the ticket. Let's go birding.