Yesterday we finished off our impromptu birding week in Dalyan at the place it began –  Eskikoy Rocky Outcrop – albeit in rather less taxing circumstances. Our exhausting day in the mountains the day before had blunted our appetite for another long excursion so instead we decided to stay local – a day by the lake. We began after breakfast by heading to Turtle Beach, checking out the roadside pools and woodlands as we did so. Crag Martin in the hirundine flock high above the peninsular and a Middle Spotted Woodpecker in the Turkey Oaks ensured it wasn’t going to be a ‘dot day’. Returning to Dalyan we then headed for Koycez, doing an anti-clockwise circuit of the lake, before crossing the Dalyan river on the small ferry back to our hotel for an afternoon siesta. Before supper, making full use of our three day car hire, we returned to ‘the rock’ for a final session of sunset birding. A mixed flock of Swallow, Sand Martin and Red-rumped Swallow filled the sky, along with a group of migrating Bee-eaters. Marsh Harrier, egrets and Pygmy Cormorant were over the reed-beds whilst a Kingfisher darted along the canal. Red-backed Shrike, Crested Lark and Western Rock Nuthatch on the rocky outcrop itself, all made for a satisfying end to the day – and our week, revisiting a birding location with very happy memories. Today it’s, retuning the car, lunch and then hanging around the hotel for our airport pickup and evening flight home.

Postscript: I forgot to include this photo of the amazing structure of a Western Rock Nuthatch’s nest

Back in the day the only bits ordinary tourists got to see of Turkey were around the resorts like Bodrum, Iztuzu, Marmaris or, if you were posh, Olu Deniz and the connecting coastal strip seen from the airport bus. Tourist excursions to Turtle Beach or further away to Ephesus and Pammukale gave visitors a brief glimpse of the ‘real’ Turkey. From the sixties a few intrepid birders had explored the country and discovered its hidden avian treasures and, on their heals, Dave Gosney – package holiday birding pioneer – produce his booklet ‘Finding Birds in Western Turkey’ (revised in 1996 and 2014). When we first came to Turkey a couple of decades ago we used the Gosney ‘bible’ to uncover a host of hidden locations and their birds. One regular trip was inland from the coast, high up onto the mountain plateaus – a step back in time to ancient landscapes and subsistence farming. Well things have changed! Driven presumably by the burgeoning tourist industry, the desire for economic growth and entry to the EU, the uplands have undergone a massive upheaval. The winding mountain roads have been replaced with dual carriageways, the farmland peppered with poly tunnels and mechanisation and an explosion of housing to service this growth. Yesterday we repeated the long trip but the impact of these changes became quickly apparent. We started at the furthest end of our itinerary looking for the water trough next to the mountain pass road near Cavdir where Gosney had seen a host of exciting species come to drink – ‘magic’ he’d said. The water has stopped flowing and the trough is now isolated by a four lane highway. The story was repeated throughout the day as site after site had been ‘improved’! Don’t get me wrong, we still saw some good birds (not helped by the time of year I’m sure) but the long day and distances involved left us weary and nostalgic for past times.

We finally got our hire car an hour later than promised, but for fifty quid a day what can you expect. It comes complete we ‘no questions asked’ insurance – you don’t ask us about insurance and we won’t tell you there isn’t any… I suspect! For our first reacquaintance with Turkish driving we opted for a gentle ride up into the hills behind Koycegiz, to the farming plateau of Cogenli Yaylasi – another location covered on the Dalyan Birding website. It’s only about 50k from the hotel but it took us well over an hour to reach the remote village nestling amongst the hills. Significantly cooler and with a variety of habitats it proved excellent birding – taking our trip list to over 60. There are some birds that hold a special place in one’s imagination – Kruper’s Nuthatch is one such bird for me. We first tracked them down at the well-known army camp site on Lesbos. A dainty, colourful nuthatch with a big call. Today’s bird, found by Jane, was silent but obliging, as it foraged around the trunks of some mature roadside pine trees. Other notables included: Sombre Tit, Blue Rock Thrush, Western Rock Nuthatch, Montagu’s Harrier (pending final confirmation of id) and Chukar. Now we have wheels we’re off to more distant location – mountains and coastal lakes are on the itinerary for the next couple of days.

Still without wheels we decided on a lazy Sunday morning, catching the row-boat ferry to visit the Kings Tombs on the opposite side of the river to Dalyan. We’d been there before but they are impressive when you get close to the base of the cliffs. What we hadn’t done before was continue on the track that leads away from the houses towards the ancient settlement of Kaunos. Dating back to 10th century BC, there is an impressive array of Greco-Roman architecture, set in a spectacular coastal setting – including an impressive amphitheatre, several temples, church, observatory, entrance gate, etc. Also a few nice birds around, including our first Black-eared Wheatear of the trip. By the time we’d finished mooching around in was lunchtime, which we ate in the family-run riverside pancake house – great food but far too much. The afternoon was spent on a conducted tour of the Dalyan ATM’s until we found one that would give us some money.

It always takes time in an unfamiliar location to work out where the birds are, particularly if you are restricted to early mornings / late afternoons by the heat of the day (<35deg in our case) and you are relying on ‘shanks’s pony’ to get around. There’s a track that runs along an overgrown canal, near to our hotel, which has the makings of a ‘birding hotspot’. So far, along a one kilometre stretch we’ve found eight sorts of warbler, Spotted Flycatcher, two races of Yellow Wag, three different shrikes – Red-backed, Woodchat and Masked, and two different woodpeckers – Syrian and Lesser Spotted. I get the feeling that there’s more to come.