HarzBirder: CABS Spring Camp in Farmagusta, Cyprus. April 2018

All birders will appreciate the moment when a bird they have wanted to see half their lives, comes into view. Hours spent browsing Field Guides, dreaming of foreign and warmer climes imagining the radiance and exoticness of bird species only occasionally viewed at home, usually vagrant and lost. So it was that a Male Pallid Harrier drifted into view, gliding effortlessly across the Cyprus scrub and rock, passing 10 - 15 meters to my front across the UN Buffer Zone and north towards Turkey and its breeding grounds.

Farmagusta Region of Cyprus in which CABS work concentrated in Spring 2018.

Adult Male Pallid Harrier - UN Buffer Zone near Paralimni.

Turkish Check Point UN Buffer Zone near Paralimni.

I was once again back in Cyprus volunteering for the Committee Against Birds Slaughter (CABS) combatting the scourge of illegal bird trapping. Spring is never as bad as Autumn and last Sep and Oct had been quieter than past years thanks to effective co-ordinated action by several environmental and law enforcement agencies. Would this Spring see a continuation of this trend?

Hoopoe taken with my iPhone through my binoculars.

Second CY Male Pallid Harrier - Achna Dam.

Red-throated Pipit - Paralimni Lake.

By early April, migration is in full flow on Cyprus. That said, movement seems to come in pulses probably aligned to weather conditions. In the first week alone, we saw several Hoopoes a day as well as all 5 harrier species - most Pallid. Smaller passerines were less evident and were represented by large numbers of Lesser-whitethroats and Northern Wheatears.

Bird watching on Paralimni Lake

Jeanine from Germany with 18 old Lime Sticks.

Black-eared Wheatear.

Our search patterns for trapping sites continued working sometimes through the night and parts of the day. Most trappers recognise the danger (to them) of using bird song decoys as they attract activists and the police, therefore our work was harder. We searched gardens and orchards concentrating on ripe fruit tress like the Loquat or Mulberry but found nothing in the way of lime sticks. By night we located two decoys, one in west Cape Pyla and the second north of Ayios Nikolias - both in the British Sovereign Base Area. Thanks to effective work by the police, both these sites were shut down and the nets and other paraphernalia confiscated.

A hard day's night. 4 trapping nets, a decoy and other paraphernalia confiscated by the SBA police.

Spectacled Warbler - cheap as chips.

Blunt-nosed or Levant Viper coiled and ready to strike at any bird or animal alighting to drink.

A second week's searching also proved fruitless in the sense that we didn't find anything. Whilst this is clearly a positive development, the absence of rescue or the prevention of trapping, made our work more monotonous and therefore harder. Fortunately, I had the birds to comfort me giving impressions that for me will last a lifetime.

Masked Shrike - UN Buffer Zone.

Purple Heron - Achna Dam.

Kentish Plover - Paralimni Lake.

Its probably dangerous to temp fate, but trapping on Cyprus seems to be in decline. This must be thanks to several agencies including CABS, RSPB, BirdLife and many others, as well as a far more effective approach taken by the SBA police and the threat of a €8,ooo fine. Time will tell, but eyes are now being turned towards the Lebanon where migrating birds are massacred by so-called hunters in their thousands.