Wildlife from our place

I am sure most of us are having a little more time to appreciate our immediate surroundings at the moment! Being in the middle of nowhere (OK, about twenty minutes from Kaş) has its advantages as we only have wild land around us and can wander freely, as the local shepherds are of course still doing. So we thought it would be nice to bring you the passage of spring here in Southwest Turkey.

Late March sees the land around us with a profusion of blooms and lots of birds migrating through. This morning there were Cirl Buntings in the oak tree off the verandah and four Hawfinches flew over, a rather odd combination. Noticeable at the moment are large flocks of Siskins roaming the area and feeding off the newly opening pear blooms. One pictured here is on the pear tree in front of the house. The garden is actually mostly natural land, only a tiny bit so far has been gardened, much of it right now is covered in Anthemis blossom, so much that it produces a silvery-white haze over the ground. The mountains viewed to our north are covered in lots of snow at this season, the biggest we can see is the 10’000 foot Ak Dağı which will have snow for months to come. Orchids are good right now. There’s lots in the immediate vicinity, the pictures here taken within two hundred metres of the garden yesterday. Orchis anatolica and Ophrys lyciensis are common everywhere in this region but the Ophrys lyciais rather special, this bee orchid is found only within a few kilometres of here…. more soon. We’d love to see what you are seeing around you at the moment.