Palmyra – a spot of history

We felt obliged to do a spot of culture. The ruins here are on a par with those at Efesus in Turkey. Columns and pillars mark out millennia of history.

One of the main stories is about Zenobia (that’s were one of the ibis names comes from), a Queen of Palmyra, and beautiful woman, who fought the Romans. Her army defeated them then moved onto take what is now Saudi Arabia. They were beaten back to Palmyra, where the Queen tried to flee to Persia on a camel, but was caught and taken to Rome, where she was paraded in gold chains.

Talila Reserve

This is where all the reintroductions happen. A project that has been guided by the Italians (especially a chap called Gianlucca Sierra). This shows how positive conservation can be. Habitat looks great and shed loads of larks and pipits about. In turn these attracted raptors including two Imperial and one Great Spotted Eagle. Stars bird wise though must have been the 5 Pallid Harriers that were continually hawking over the plains giving stunning views. Another must visit site if in Syria.

A cracking red spotted male Bluethroat followed us around by the gate at the Talila reserve following a fall of migrants (from a rain shower). PHAW!!!

Bluethroat

Also Rock and Blue Rock Thrush, both Black eared, Pied and Cyprus Pied Wheatear, Wrynecks, Desert Finch, Tree Pipit, Menetries and Sedge Warbler, Tawny pipit, Eastern Redstart and hundreds of chiffchaffs caught up in the fall. Fantastic birding.

Rock Thrush

Pied wheatear

Cypress Pied Wheatear

Wryneck

Desert finch

One hundred and fifty Arabian Oryx have also been reintroduced onto the reserve at Talila near Palmyra, along with now 600 Sand Gazelle. Cool to watch them wander about from the jeep. Very safari like. The difference in grazing each side of the fence was amazing. The sheep have grazed the steppe to buggery, but the Oryx graze differently and you get good flushes of wildflowers etc. One to be learned in certain parts of Scotland.

Arabian Oryx

Sand Gazelle

Bald Ibis

One of the rarest birds in the world. Some birds still reside in Morocco but the only ones in the east are these birds and some in captivity in turkey. There are just 5 birds this year inc two ringed birds. More excitedly there are two unringed sub-adults reported, which means that they have appeared from an as yet undiscovered source. What a find that would be. These birds have been wintering in Ethiopia and migrating north. Tragically three were recently poisoned in Jordan.

Bald Ibis

We watched two birds, Sultan and Zenobia. You could see the satellite pack in the field. A real privilege. They are under threat from hunters, predators and starvation. Fingers crossed. Thanks to all the Ibis team who greatly helped us out and we hope our advise and comments were of use. These guys have the eyes of the world on them.

Temmincks, Bimaculated and Lesser Short toed Larks were good, as were Rock Sparrow, Chough and a trio of Egyptian Vultures. Just a shame about the rain!

End of Sociables

John and Graham fly back to Scotland in a couple of days, the Sociable Lapwing side of things now complete. Myself and Hywell are around for a while yet with weeks each based in the Jebel ab Al Aziz, a desert mountain range in the north east, and Latakia in the NW near the coast. Both projects are to undertake surveys of woodland areas for the associated government ministry.

In summary the Lapwing work went well, but we perhaps didn’t connect with as many birds as hoped. It was something of a needle in a haystack job with difficult logistics and security. Sites, habitat and numbers were logged and data passed onto the authorities. Hunters were apprehended at one site and moved on from another (hunting is illegal in Syria) and the profile raising and education side has gone very well.


It looks like the steppe areas were slow to green up this year, due to dryer than normal conditions, which meant many historically good locations weren’t up to scratch when the Sociables moved through. Word is now reaching us that birds are in Iran and Turkmenistan, so they are heading north east and have now passed Syria.

Troy

Got some tissues today. They were branded Troy, so here is Troy in English and Troy in Arabic. You’re famous son!

Out and about: In the desert

Desert flowers

Lizard

Fox

Scarab Beetle

Syrian gerbil

Digiscoping

Both John and I are doing a spot of digiscoping – they are the photos you will see on the blog. Hywell has a proper DSLR Canon camera set-up, but we are unable to send the pics out from Syria (technology). By the end of the trip Graham might have figured out how to switch his on!

White cheeked Bulbul outside of the Ziad hotel in Der er Zor

Digiscoping involves attaching a normal ‘family’ digital camera to your telescope. As we both have Swarovski scopes the results have been excellent. Any poor pics will be down to us or the heat/dust haze. The optical gear we use is top notch, and combined with the bright light gives good results. We are both using Swarovski HD scopes with zoom lenses. My camera is a Sony W300, while John in using a Panasonic Lumix.

White-tailed Plover

I have been digiscoping for years, with various set-ups. The first images I really remember taking were of an American Robin that was at Inverbervie, south of Aberdeen on Christmas Day 1988. In those days it was a Kodak Brownie held against a Napoleon naval draw tube scope. How times have changed. John is just starting up digiscoping but it picking it up fast.

Spanish Sparrow

Steppe Buzzard

Hoopoe Lark