Dalyan

Tours that take the strain out of enjoying Europe’s flora and fauna! Based in just single good quality hotel, with direct flights, and these at kind times of day. Most importantly, field trips will be kept to a maximum of six or so hours, giving you plenty of time to relax before and after. Direct flights are available from some regional airports.

Colourful cliffs beset with spectacular Lycian Rock Tombs dominate the pleasant little town of Dalyan, nestled against a bend in the Dalyan (ancient Calbys) River. Dalyan could hardly have more diverse habitats. Within a few kilometres are reedbeds, lakes, beaches, limestone maquis, pine forests, globally important Liquidambar Forests, mountains and cliffs. Not surprising then that Dalyan is so rich in wildlife. A gentle walk takes us through the ruins of the Carian Port at Kaunos where Rock Nuthatches shout from ancient arches and you’re sure to see numerous Agama Lizards and even the odd Balkan Green Lizard sunning themselves. A rich flora includes many bellflowers, campions, boraginaceae and orchids such as Holy Orchid and various Tongue Orchids. White-breasted Kingfishers can be sometimes be seen from the river front of our hotel, though we’ll more certainly encounter them in Hamitköy marshes at the other end of the lake and close by our hotel in Köyceğiz. Masses of tall egg-yolk yellow Iris xanthospuria dominate the meadows here in a spectacular show with the tall fluffy paler wands of Thalictrum flavum for company. This is migrant bird heaven with an unimaginable variety of warblers, as well as Collared, Pied and even Semi-collared Flycatchers, Wryneck, and lots of Shrikes – Woodchat, Red-backed and Masked. Bee-eaters and Hoopoes will now be passing through and we’ll enjoy the various forms of Yellow Wagtail, especially the local Black-headed one.

We’ll use one of these boats to explore the river system and Lake Köyceğiz, a wonderfully relaxing trip, and with plenty of birds; Herons and Egrets, Terns and Harriers. Lesser Emperor Dragonflies and Slender and Epaulet Skimmers race by, or perch on the boat’s rails. Long-legged Buzzard and Short-toed Eagles drift overhead as we visit Dalyan’s four-kilometre long beach. Loggerhead Turtles will already have begin their nesting season, but in daylight hours one is still allowed there and we can usually see them hanging around just offshore. Marshy pools and reedbeds next to the Liquidamabar woods are home to the gorgeous Indigo Dropwing, Eastern Willow Spreadwing and the rare Turkish Red Damsel Ceriagrion georgifreyi, whilst Southern Swallowtails and Southern White Admirals course up and down the shady tracks.

Middle-spotted Woodpeckers, Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, Hawfinches and Golden Orioles are among the birds that make these emerald-green woodlands their home. Spurred Helleborines and the lovely deep red-pink ‘rubra’ form of Violet Limodores are common. Further up into the mountains we’ll pass through mixed pine and plane woodlands, where we can see Green Woodpeckers, Short-toed Treecreepers and maybe even White-backed Woodpeckers. Up onto the highest, almost alpine areas of Sandros Mountain and we’ll look for Black Woodpecker, Goshawk and Kruper’s Nuthatch around a small lake where snow may still be lying and Colchicums, Crocuses and Gageas are in bloom.