Turkey 20120624-0708
In the spring of 2012 I was suggested by my cousin Erik Hirschfeld to go on a trip to Antalya, Turkey to see the newly discovered Brown Fish Owl. I contacted my friend Per Anders Bertilsson, Malmö who was also interested in such a trip. Since we had a few remaining species to see in the country, we planned to make a tour of our own a little more expanded and also more to the east, than suggested. Except for the Brown Fish Owl the main targets of the trip were Iraq Babbler in Birecik, Pale Rock Bunting, Olive Tree Warbler, and Mongolian Finch at the lava fields east of Van. We were also trying to see as many dragonflies, butterflies and reptiles as possible. As we both are keen photographers lot of time was spent taking pictures.
We flew with SAS from Copenhagen (6:20) to Antalya (11:50 local time) where we picked up a pre-booked car (900 TL) – a diesel with a quite strong engine, good in mountainous areas.
For the first time we travelled completely without an ordinary map. Instead we used a portable gps navigator and also a backup navigator in IPhone. All localities were pinpointed with coordinates in the navigator prior to the trip. Even hotels and other places of interest were put in beforehand. This worked out very well and spared us lots of time finding localities. All visited localities in this report are presented with GPS coordinates (decimal degrees). We mainly planned to stay at rather low price hotels and most were checked up on the internet and in different trip reports before the trip. The prices presented in this report are for two persons and for the whole stay, if not stated otherwise.
Card for toll roads was a bit hard to find but was eventually bought at a Shell petrol station for 50 TL, which was enough for the whole trip. It looked like these cards were easier to find the closer we get to the area where these toll roads start – near Gaziantep. In total we drove 4740 km. We brought with us 1250 TL which is about 560 € each, and was enough for the whole trip.
In all 183 species of birds were recorded, 42 of butterflies and 14 species of dragonflies.
Invaluable help with identification of butterflies from Vildan Bozaci, Turkey www.kelebek-turk.com, with dragonflies from Magnus Billqvist, Sweden, with bumblebees from Göran Holmström, Sweden and with Diptera and other Hymenoptera Sven Hellqvist, Sweden.
We flew with SAS from Copenhagen (6:20) to Antalya (11:50 local time) where we picked up a pre-booked car (900 TL) – a diesel with a quite strong engine, good in mountainous areas.
For the first time we travelled completely without an ordinary map. Instead we used a portable gps navigator and also a backup navigator in IPhone. All localities were pinpointed with coordinates in the navigator prior to the trip. Even hotels and other places of interest were put in beforehand. This worked out very well and spared us lots of time finding localities. All visited localities in this report are presented with GPS coordinates (decimal degrees). We mainly planned to stay at rather low price hotels and most were checked up on the internet and in different trip reports before the trip. The prices presented in this report are for two persons and for the whole stay, if not stated otherwise.
Card for toll roads was a bit hard to find but was eventually bought at a Shell petrol station for 50 TL, which was enough for the whole trip. It looked like these cards were easier to find the closer we get to the area where these toll roads start – near Gaziantep. In total we drove 4740 km. We brought with us 1250 TL which is about 560 € each, and was enough for the whole trip.
In all 183 species of birds were recorded, 42 of butterflies and 14 species of dragonflies.
Invaluable help with identification of butterflies from Vildan Bozaci, Turkey www.kelebek-turk.com, with dragonflies from Magnus Billqvist, Sweden, with bumblebees from Göran Holmström, Sweden and with Diptera and other Hymenoptera Sven Hellqvist, Sweden.
Trip Gallery