On June 25 of this year we were on a Viking Cruise that stopped in Kusadasi, Turkey with the primary tourist activity a visit to ancient Ephesus which the Apostle Paul visited. We were on a cruise with Judy's siblings and their spouses and Judy and I had visited Ephesus in 2010, so I felt no need to visit Ephesus again. We were originally scheduled for a trip to Uganda in July, but the War in Iran put that trip into danger as our flight to and from Uganda was routed through Dubai, spending a night there on each leg, as we were flying on Emirates. We cancelled our Uganda trip after the Ebola outbreak in DRC, near the Uganda border, erupted and we watched the U.S. reaction which first required all visitors to Uganda to route through Dulles Airport on the way home, for a medical check, then was enlarged to allow medical checks in Atlanta or Dallas/Fort Worth, then was shortly thereafter severely restricted so that any symptomatic U.S. visitors to Uganda had to visit a new medical facility being constructed in Kenya and would have to have their hospitalization in that country instead of the U.S. That was the last straw. We delayed our visit to Uganda for another year. Judy contacted Viking about signing up for the cruise with her four siblings and their spouses, but it was full, so I began planning a trip to Costa Rica and Panama. Then before signing up for it, Judy got a call from Viking stating that a cancellation had opened up a berth, which she had to immediately take, or lose it, about three weeks before the trip was to embark. I was disappointed because Uganda, Costa Rica and Panama all have amazing birding, but Judy said that I could do some birding trips in Turkey and Greece so I set about trying to line up a few of them. It was not easy as Turkey and Greece will never be in the league of the aforementioned for birding. I had one birding trip I tried to sign up for out of Kusadasi and I got a reply saying they would get back and never did, despite my reaching out several times. Next I tried lining up a trip with an independent driver that was not a birder, but who would take me around to some areas with birds, but he came back with price of $720 and I said it was way too much, I would give him $425. He responded that he could get me a non-English speaking driver for that much and I declined and decided to take my chance on hiring a cab at the port.
I was one of the first people off the boat as we landed in Kusadasi and there was a cab company at the entrance to the port. I told the manager that I wanted to hire a driver to go to areas with birds and to stay with me for the morning. I said I wanted to go to Dilek Peninsula National Park where they have flamingos. He called over one of his drivers, Hassan, who spoke English said he could help me for $145.00, but there are no flamingos in the National Park. I needed to go to Pamucak Wetlands which was much closer and had flamingos. I said fine, and headed out with Hassan. Hassan was very friendly and had pretty good English. We drove about 14 kms or so to Pamucak Beach, on the Aegean coast and drove well past the resort hotel and to a very long beach that got more wild the farther you drove past the hotel. Hassan parked on the beach and we started walking in the long native grass off the beach further up the coastline toward the Kucuk Menderes River, or Little Meander River, which enters the Aegean about 5 miles from ancient Ephesus, which is near Selcuk, and which was an important port on the river. Hassan walked with me and eventually took of his shirt. We walked quite a ways and I eventually walked a little more inland while Hassan stayed closer to the beach. I found a muddy area with a little bit of standing water and two black and white birds that were going crazy, flying aerials around each other, zigging and zagging and squawking incessantly. I wasn't sure what the birds were, but they were fascinating and I took lots of photos. Many of the photos were horrible, but I've provided the best of them below. These photos are cropped and lightened in Lightroom and show much more than what I was visually seeing with my eyes.
I was really intrigued by these birds. Their aerial show was very entertaining. I eventually reached the Little Meander River where it empties into the Aegean at Pamucak Beach. I got another photo of what turned out to be a spur-winged lapwing standing near the river mouth, although I don't think I realized it was the same species I had been watching do aerials.
Later, after I'd spent more time wandering up the vegetation-choked side of the Little Meander, I walked back toward the beach and reconnected to Hassan who was hollering for me. We walked perhaps a mile and a half back to the taxi and Hassan decided to drive me a little inland. As he did so we came into a wonderful flooded area off the Little Meander that was full of birds, including some beautiful greater flamingos (a story for another post) and some of what turned out to be more spur-winged lapwings and I think that was when I tied them together with the earlier observations. I share a few more photos, but this was where I actually got my best views of them.
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| Illustration from Birds of the World. |
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| Range from Birds of the World. Note the very sporadic breeding range in Turkey. |
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