Thursday, 20 February 2025

Thursday, February 20/2025

Maps still show north winds but temperatures far from arctic here, although some flights to Istanbul were cancelled because of snowfall at the Istanbul end. Happened to a flight of ours two years ago. Nothing like Canadian snowfalls obviously. 

Today breezy though sunny, and plenty of whitecaps on a sapphire blue sea below us. 

The mid-winter water bird survey has reported a dramatic decline in flamingos at Akrotiri Salt Lake in the Akrotiri Sovereign Base area. Only thirty were observed this year and the assumption is that this is down to decreases in both quantity and quality of water. In recent years numbers were down to one or two hundred but in the past thousands were recorded. Cyprus is on one of the regular migratory routes, with flamingos usually in residence from November to February, and when we stayed in Larnaca we sometimes went to see them at the salt lake near the airport.