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Birding in Turkey

Winter 2006 - 2007 Newsletter

To go birdwatching in Turkey seemed like a wonderful idea to us. We had traveled with our binoculars, and the staff of our small, charming hotel in Bodrum, Turkey, had put us in touch with Brian Stoneman, a local birder. We knew we wouldn’t know all the birds – but we expected to identify species and to enjoy the countryside, places we would not otherwise have a way to visit.

So one lovely October morning, we met Brian at 7 a.m. His accent (Cockney British) told us immediately that he was an ex-pat; his car was a Toyota Land Rover, and his first comment was, “we are visiting an IBA.” There went our birding cool. We didn’t know what he was talking about.

What is an IBA? It means Important Bird Area. The west side of the country is on the Europe-African migration route, and Brian keeps careful records for the state birding organization.

In our ten hour day of birding, we visited several important places and saw flocks of Greater Flamingoes, Dalmatian Pelicans, one Hoopoe and one Chiffchaff, and a Black Stork (partial list). We also saw and hiked a beautiful canyon with impressive cliffs and caves, wetlands, and dried-out stream beds.

Unfortunately, Brian is also a “suspicious” person to the Turkish government because one IBA is a wetland, what is left of extensive wetlands after the public airport and NATO airbase were built on landfill. He is known to hang out around there with binoculars.

After he sells his house, he is moving to Bulgaria, a country he feels has wide open spaces and no environmental battles to fight (yet). It was worth every Turkish lira it cost to spend the day with Brian.

—Joan and Dick Harmet