Friday 6 September
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| Jvari Monastery |
A Uber-type taxi this morning to 25km north-west of Tbilisi at the
Monatery of Jvari on top of a hill on the opposite bank of the river Mtkvari to the (very) old capital of Georgia at
Mtskheta. Amazing to think that it cost us all of 4.50 Euros! Tourists were already in mass attendance as the early morning rain had long since departed and the promise that the cloudy skies would become very warm by mid-afternoon. But after a tour of this amazing building, having already recorded the local
Hooded Crow, we left the public behind and set off to the relatively nearby lake in search of our birds for the day. But, before departing, we were able to look down on the rove and record the many
Yellow-legged Gulls, a couple of
Grey Heron and at least a handful of
Little Egret. Above and below us a couple of small parties of calling
Bee-eaters made their presence known and Marieke even recorded the few
Common Swifts, I was to see them later in the day.
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| Juvenile Red-backed Shrike Lanius collurio |
Once sorted on our way we stopped to see a couple of very close
Isabelline Wheatear and making our way down to the now dried up small lake we had close views of juvenile
Red-backed Shrike. Also lurking in the low, thick gorse bushes was a small brown bird which was only identified in our returns a
Nightingale. Overhead we had our first raptors with the appearance, we're pretty sure, of a pair of
Bonelli's Eagles.
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| Isabelline Wheatear Oenanthe isabllina |
Truth be told, it was all very quiet which we much appreciated with more regular sightings of
Red-backed Shrikes. A
Jay flashed through the nearby woods and much time was pent trying to identify what was obviously a family trio of buzzards. A mixture of calling, sighting and eventual look at the distant shots taken on the Sony RX10 convinced us that we were looking at resident
Long-legged Buzzards.
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Long-legged Buzzard Buteo refines
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And that was probably it till we arrived back at the car park to the monastery where we , as above, eventually identified the smallish brown bird as a
Nightingale and had more views of the
Isabelline Wheatear. The
Long-legged Buzzards were still up in the air and then, immediately below us, first a moulting
White Wagtail followed by a pair of
Hoopoe.
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| In a hurry Nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos |
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| Hoopoe Upupa epopee |
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| A rather scruffy White Wagtail Motacilla alba alba |
Birds seen:
Little Egret, Grey Heron, Bonelli's Eagle, Long-legged Buzzard, Yellow-legged Gull, Common Swift, Bee-eater, Hoopoe, White Wagtail, Nightingale, Isabelle Wheatear, Red-backed Shrike, Jay, Hooded Crow
Check out the accompanying website at http://www.birdingaxarquia.weebly.com for the latest sightings, photographs and additional information
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