Our surly driver turned up late but we finally got going at
about 11.30. Our first stop was some woods by the reservoir at Ananuri in the
hope that a Green Warbler or two might have arrived. Sadly there was nothing
doing. Even in this warm spring they don’t arrive this early so I have to treat
with a little scepticism some claims of birds much earlier than this. All we
had was Blackcap and Willow Warbler.
Our driver then nearly killed us all by missing a cow in the
road by inches (if I hadn’t looked up at just that second and shouted at him we’d
all have been history!)
A stop at Lake Lisi on the western outskirts of Tbilisi wasn’t
a whole lot better – the place was heaving on a sunnt bank holiday Monday which
seriously curtailed birding. The only things of note here were 10+ Great Crested
Grebes, 1 Little Grebe, Marsh Harrier, Corn Bunting, 3 – 4 singing Great Reed
Warblers and 3 European Bee-eaters. Just as we were leaving Jus also picked up
our 2nd Red-necked Phalarope of the trip swimming in the centre of
the lake.
Marsh Harrier, Lake Lisi
And that was just about it saving a 9 hour wait at Tbilisi
airport followed by 4 more at Istanbul!
No comments:
Post a Comment