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| Trust me, there are Armenian Gulls in that group! |
Our last full day in Turkey and a quick tick before we left the town of Birecek for the day - there were some Armenian gulls on the mud flats of the Euphrates near the hotel - it seemed churlish not to pop over and take a look. There were several juveniles, but a couple were in adult plumage and one in particular showed the distinctive bill colouring with the yellow/black/red combination.
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| Little Owl |
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| Blue-cheeked Bee-Eaters |
Then we were off to the blue-cheeked bee-eater colony. On the way we had a couple of stops to make as we drove west towards the Kurdish area of Turkey, an area of barren-looking scrub, no trees and lots of rocky outcrops ideal for birds to shelter in. We didn't have to wait long for our first species, Finch's Wheatear were everywhere,
kestrels, long-legged and common buzzard, a montague's harrier, several chukar, little owl, common and pale rock sparrow, short-toed and lesser short-toed lark, short-toed eagle, marsh harrier, hoopoe, magpie, starling and hooded crow were all seen during the morning but the stars of the show were the bee-eaters with european appearing everywhere and blue-cheeked at their usual nest area - a small bank behind a settlement of several mud covered houses. The birds gave us a tremendous show. A little owl perched in a nearby tree watching us with fascination as we tried to get close enough to the bee-eaters to photograph them without disturbance.
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| Diesel Delivery |
After our picnic lunch we move off to a new site north of Birecek but as our fuel was low we intended to call in at the first service station. After a short while our car indicated that fuel was low but Mitko explained we had 50 kilometres left in the tank. Unfortunately the car knew otherwise and after around 20 kms (and before we got to a service area with petrol) an alarm went off and the engine immediately cut out! Trevor guided the car as far into the side as he could, but that still left
us half in the slip road and half on the carriageway with lorries bearing down on us. I radioed for emergency fuel to be brought to us (luckily we were only a couple of minutes from the service station by now) and we decided to push the car as far as we could off the road, and then bird watch from behind the crash barriers until Mitko arrived with fuel. Unfortunately this meant that I ended up at the back of the car, with my derriere facing the oncoming lorry drivers which hooted in derision as they saw a pair of pale female legs pushing a car down the motorway - hazard lights flashing on either side of course - not sure that the Turkish drivers were quite expecting such a shocking display.
Within minutes, the minibus came into view - coming the wrong way down the slip road!! Mitko had a water bottle with fuel to get us to the garage. After a quick pit stop and a celebratory ice cream we were soon on our way again.
We got back to the hotel and several of us sat on the roof terrace overlooking the Euphrates, drinking beer and mulling over a great trip. As we enjoyed the sunset over the Euphrates river we laughed about the day, and our luck in excellent timing - if you have to break down anywhere, with a service station and Trevor and Mitko on hand is the best way to do it!
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| Mitko and Team to the Rescue! |
