Birding enthusiasts are collectively knows as twitchers or birders. Twitchers, as a term, came about in the 1960's in the UK. It describes a birdwatcher who focuses on the maximum number of bird species, often traveling long distances to see rare birds. They may even twitch with excitement at the prospect of seeing a new bird. The birder, on the other hand is more interested in seeing a bird in its natural habitat and possibly getting a photograph to document the sighting. While I have certainly traveled long distances to far flung locations, the birding at these locations was secondary to the exploratory nature of our travel. The exception to that is the side trip to Papua New Guinea. There are a few WhatsApp groups here in Cyprus that report what birds have been sighted and where the sighting occurred. European Golden Plovers have repeatedly been sighted at the Paphos headlands so we headed out there to try our luck. We had already tried to see these beautiful birds at this location without any success. This time we saw a couple, sporting the tell tale binoculars, and we asked them about the plovers. They gave us good advice about the location and the behavior. These birds are almost always seen at the water's edge and they prefer to be facing into the sun. These are behaviors that Leslie and I also emulate. After a half hour of searching we hit the jackpot! A group of golden plovers along with a greater sand plover were spotted and photographed. Leslie's superior eyesight proved invaluable as she spotted even more plovers up in the grassy area, slightly inland. Huzzah! There was excitement, but no perceptible twitching, so perhaps I am just a birder after all.
The terrain is quite rugged
Perfect habitat for a hearty lizard
A black redstart to start the day
Elegant sculptures dot this section of the coastal walkway
The European stonechat is everywhere
These five birds blend into the landscape
A ruddy turnstone
One of the plovers in not facing the sun.....shame!
The greater sand plover is also quite cute
Hark, I see a skylark
A crested lark
In the grass there are more golden plovers
So easily missed off in the distance
Facing the sum makes a beautiful bird sleepy
Speaking of the sun
Another great sunset
With precipitation at the horizon the change for the green flash greatly increases
So I watched from the roof top as it dipped below the horizon
No flash tonight
