Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

Looking out to sea saw large swooping on the horizon it turned out to be a flock of white birds way out to sea towards Esentepe
A few minutes later they were half a mile out to sea at the back of the Cratos we are in Ozankoy and the Cratos is over a mile away
Any idea what they were

All white - probably Great white egrets.

GrouchoThanks for that they were large to be visible at that distance and a big flock

Could they have been flamingos? From a distance they look white,saw some on Monday near Cratos but only 3.

There was a flock of egrets perched on the rocks at Alagadi 3 a few days ago.

The nearest they got was 1 1/2 miles away there seemed a big flock swooping far out at sea
So Egrets seem to have it if they were out Aligadi way

They are as Groucho says white egrets, the salt lakes in the south are all dry so no flamingos.
We had a lot of white egrets and storks living on the river by our appartment in Gazipasa.

If the birds are flying with the necks stretched out in front in a straight-ish line then they could be flamingos if there is a crook in the neck as they fly then they are almost certainly members of the heron family including the egrets - little egrets, great white egrets, cattle egrets etc.

http://www.sakertour.com/hide_gallery_c ... hp?hide=14

Might be cranes going south for the winter& trying to gain height to get over the mountains.

Enchanted wrote:Might be cranes going south for the winter& trying to gain height to get over the mountains.

That sounds interesting!

Would they really expend the energy to gain height a mile or so out to sea, or would they just use the thermals to get over the mountain range 'for free'?

Keithcaley wrote:

Enchanted wrote:Might be cranes going south for the winter& trying to gain height to get over the mountains.

That sounds interesting!

Would they really expend the energy to gain height a mile or so out to sea, or would they just use the thermals to get over the mountain range 'for free'?

You would know if it's cranes - when they fly they honk incessantly to each other to hold formation....

"Left hand down a bit"

"Up a bit"

The mind boggles!

wanderer wrote:Looking out to sea saw large swooping on the horizon it turned out to be a flock of white birds way out to sea towards Esentepe
A few minutes later they were half a mile out to sea at the back of the Cratos we are in Ozankoy and the Cratos is over a mile away
Any idea what they were

Personally I would favour them being Little Egret by far the commonest Autumn migrant on the north coast matching that description.
Cheers!
Colin.

effonine wrote:

wanderer wrote:Looking out to sea saw large swooping on the horizon it turned out to be a flock of white birds way out to sea towards Esentepe
A few minutes later they were half a mile out to sea at the back of the Cratos we are in Ozankoy and the Cratos is over a mile away
Any idea what they were

Personally I would favour them being Little Egret by far the commonest Autumn migrant on the north coast matching that description.
Cheers!
Colin.

You may well be right Colin but I was only going by the original description of "big birds".... at times we do get flocks of Great white egrets flying east-west in the autumn. If he thought they were big I guess it depends on ones idea of what constitutes big... Best not go there! Ha ha ha