21. Dezember 2020
Kostis had to spend a few more rainy days in the protection of the veterinary station before the release could be carried out. Goose vultures observe with their sharp gaze everything that moves around them. Also in nature, griffon vultures find their food only through their sharp eyes, which can distinguish non-moving carcasses from moving carcasses. Contrary to the usual assumptions, griffon vultures cannot perceive a smell of carrion, as the sense of smell is not particularly pronounced in...
13. September 2020
Monitoring of the successful breeding and rearing of the offspring of the griffon vultures in Cyprus. Extract from Wikipedia: Poison baits are still the greatest threat to residual stocks in south and south-eastern Europe. In Cyprus, for example, 80% of stocks died from pesticide poisoning, 36 of them in 1996 alone. The following year, the number of breeding pairs halved from 16 to 8 and has remained virtually unchanged since then. In 2015, the severely decimated population of griffon vultures...
16. August 2020
What happened? Why does the excellent Panasonic GH5 have to go and the Panasonic DC-S1 full-frame camera comes for the video area in my photo bag? Well, this has very special reasons, which has exclusively to do with my camera - field of application nature photography. Of course, the more modern full-frame camera Panasonic DC-S1 also has technical advantages in other areas, full format, 24.2 MB sensor, V-LOG 4:2:2 10bit internal recording, lowlight range up to -6.5 aperture levels, switchable...
02. Juli 2020
The first young bird of the Rollers has left the brood cave at my location in the crumbling building. The second followed a day later. Now they commute from the nearby mulberry tree and their brood cave and also make short trips around the tree. The Adult birds feed the young-birds on the tree, obviously one or more young-birds is to be supplied in the brood-cave. The third boy of the brood-pair 1 has now, two days later, also come to the tree. Family 1 should now be complete.
23. Juni 2020
It goes wildly confused at the brood-bird - main road. In addition to the Roller, the magpies, Collared pigeons and Cyprus Wheatear can be seen, along with large flight troops with Jackdaw, who move with their young birds from the spring through the surroundings. There are no young blue-racks yet to be seen, the alto-birds are on the road with food every 15 minutes. With a small rat as fodder, a blue-crack arrived today at the breeding cave.
16. Juni 2020
On the weekend around 15 June I looked in Androlikou to see if there is a second nest in the Hoopoe brood cave, unfortunately without success. For this purpose, all 5 young birds were present at the Old Walls at the stone owls and provided wonderful situations for the photographer. I was even more surprised by the fact that on the road to the old town hall the air was full of blue-racks, which flew with food to the old, half-decayed buildings.
05. Juni 2020
It is my second visit after 7 days around Ineia and Androlikou to see which of the breeding birds are still to be seen. The Hoopoe pair brooding in the olive tree has completed the first brood, the young and alto-birds have left the brood-cave. Of the 6 brood-caves of the Blauracken only one was occupied with young-bird, the alto-birds were also to entice this young-bird from the brood-cave.
31. Mai 2020
After the lock down I walked 3 months after my last visit the Anarita Park area as far as Nata to see because it is going on in the bird world, especially with the breeding pairs. To my surprise I have uncovered another stone owl brood-pair, so that now 3 pairs at the same time breeds and raise their boys there. I was also able to observe several pairs of blue-racked and a lot of kestrels, in the area near Nata then also red-swallows and dohlen, all there to nest-pairs. I was also able to take...
31. Mai 2020
Since 21 May, the lock down in Cyprus has been loosened far, so that it is now possible to move freely all over the island for bird watching and photography. My first tour last week took me to Ineia and Androlikou to see which bird species and how many birds can be seen there at all. My last visit was 3 months ago. The Hoopoe pair breeds again in the olive tree brood-cave, the boys are already well trained and will surely soon leave the brood-cave. In Androlikou itself I could observe two young...
25. April 2020
End of March - beginning of April is the time of the arriving flycatchers, the beginning made this year the mourning catcher, then came the collared snapper and the half-ring snapper. The Grauschnäpper was the last arrival of this bird species. In addition, the two Hoopoe couples were on the road almost daily in the garden and the surrounding area. The highlight of the Hoopoe were the feeding rituals, which were seen as part of the bridal advertisement under the olive trees in the garden. The...