Lebanon In Autumn A Greentours Tour Report 30th November – 4th December 2012 by Ian Green The following report is from a visit I made during early December 2012 and was too late for many of the species of crocus and colchicum we’d hope to see on the tour. Almost all of the species found on the higher parts of Mount Lebanon had flowered some weeks before. So we are sure that the tour is timed to give us the best chance of seeing these species being three weeks earlier than my visit. Birdwatching was decent during my visit but could also be expected to be better during an earlier visit. Day 1 November 30th Hamat & Byblos After a very comfortable night in The Bristol, a typical example of Beirut’s refined French-cum- Middle-Eastern charm and style, I headed north, swiftly negotiating the glitzy streets of the modern city. The place is clearly thriving after years of strife, and the amount of money being invested in the city and in the abundant villas sprouting up all over Lebanon, is quite extraordinary. I stopped near Byblos at a supermarket buying lunch and supplies. This supermarket has a great nut and dried fruit counter so I filled up on snacks of cheesy macademias, roasted almonds and all manner of nice fruit and nuts in the trail mix. The wines are something special. Much of Lebanon’s wine comes from the Bekaa Valley, where various mostly familiar grape types produce some rich and sultry reds. The coastal highway took me northwards and immediately I started noticing flowers. The roadside banks had some great displays of Narcissus tazetta. I had to stop at one, there were so many flowers, and a short walk amongst the coastal phrygana and some small olive groves Greentours Natural History Holidays www.greentours.co.uk 1 revealed plenty of Cyclamen persicum in flower. This species has a wide flowering period starting in the autumn and ending in late spring! Dianthus strictus was scattered throughout. A small crusader castle by a little river was a nice spot for lunch. There were plenty of Stonechats in the grove opposite and Blue Rock Thrush up on the cliffs. The cyclamens here came in a variety of colours with some deep pink forms. I visited a hilltop wedding/restaurant venue where I spent a happy hour or two amongst the surrounding fauna and flora. The rich orange Crocus graveolens was blooming in the lawns, but any thoughts that these were garden plants was soon blown away with a walk up a track behind the property where the delightful sunny goblets were common, favouring the slightly disturbed roadside banks, but also scattered across the fields and through the garrigue. Sardinian Warblers scolded from the spikey Calicotome whilst flocks of mixed Chaffinches, Greenfinches, Linnets and Corn Buntings moved through the walnuts. A female Hen Harrier coursed flew passing very close. The pretty Ipomoea sinensis showered a bank with pink blooms and the cress, Diplotaxis erucoides was in flower too. I took a route over a hill, all white chalky cliffs on the inland side, but seaward sharp valleys dropped down through limestone. It was a beautiful landscape and hardly populated, unusual for coastal Lebanon. A gorge was lined with trees, the rocks splattered with mosses and ferns, I could hear Wrens and Robins through the car window. No time to stop though for I hoped to find Crocus hyemalis down by the sea. In this I was thwarted but only, I think, due to sheer weight of autumn-flowering bulbs on the rocky seaward facing slopes. There was a wonderful mix of the Cylcamen persicum and Narcissus tazetta too. There were also a few flowering Friar’s Cowls, and more of the Dianthus. However perhaps the star plant here was Colchicum stevenii. There were many of the bright pink stars scattered across an area of burn. Graceful Warblers flitted through the shrubs and a female Common Redstart quivered its tail from atop a small oak. A group of birds moved through, there was a variety of species present including single Spectacled Warbler and a Dead Sea Sparrow! There may well have a number of the latter but I got a good look at one. It was almost dark now, so one last stop, where a coastal path wound its way through some stunning scenery. The cliff above the path had yellow flowered Inula crithmoides, an unusual succulent Inula, as well as the widespread coastal Crithmum maritimum. Blue Rock Thrushes enjoyed the vertical landscape and the views down the steep slopes and cliffs to a now very deep blue sea were sublime. The crocuses would have to wait for another visit! I took dinner at Chez Pepe's. Famed as a multi-tasker of the jet-set in Lebanon's heyday, Pepe lives on in the restaurant and street that bears his name by the Byblos's picturesque harbour. There were various shrimp, calamari and lamb dishes on the menu though I stuck to the wonderful mezes that are so good, one doesn’t need a main course – Lebanon’s famed Tabouleh, some excellent hummous, moutabal, a wonderful concoction made from baked eggplant and yoghurt, and kibbeh. The latter is a variable dish made from meat and bulgur Greentours Natural History Holidays www.greentours.co.uk 2 mixed together to form a shell and inside is placed a filling, often choice pieces of meat etc and then the whole is deep-fried – wow! Day 2 December 1st Laqlouq The breakfast at the Ahiram was much appreciated especially taken on a terrace overlooking a blue sea. I packed up and headed inland. All along coastal Lebanon the roads that go inland head steeply uphill, for the great bulwark of Mount Lebanon is really very close to coast. Here was no exception and within a few miles I was able to look down on the coast far below. There were crocuses aplenty along the road. I made several stops where they were particularly abundant or formed photogenic clumps. At one of these stops I realised that there were not one but two species involved, both orange-yellow, but distinctly different shades from each other. There were some of the Crocus graveloens that I’d seen the day before but much more Crocus vitellinus, in places making a fine show. The latter had a richer dark orange-yellow colour, and with slightly more star-shaped flowers, graveloens tending towards the typical goblet shape of many crocuses. Vitellinus also had short styles, these only as long as the rather large anthers, and noticeably less in the way of dark markings on the underside of the tepals, indeed virtually none on most that I saw. Sardinian Warblers continued to chunter in the bushes and Robins seemed everywhere. I continued up into the valleys below Laqlouq, into a land of quite lovely scenery. The autumnal tints of the trees and shrubs up here were gorgeous, green junipers and orange and yellow acers, oaks and the like, all set against white rocks and a blue sky. I walked a couple of areas, drawing a blank on new bulbs but seeing more of the crocuses and plenty of Friar’s Cowl. Chaffinches and Blackbirds were common. Up by Laqlouq I stopped for my picnic in a shadey spot, the sun was really quite strong up here. Coal, Blue and Sombre Tits went through the bushes and there were Western Rock Nuthatches about. A Long-legged Buzzard went over. A narrow road took me into a line of highland valleys of the most exquisite scenery, really superb autumn colours, the slopes lined with natural open woodland, with bluffs of limestone emerging, these forming impressive cliffs in some areas. In the bottom of each valley was a little farm with olive groves and apple orchards where flocks of finches foraged. The only surprise was that there were no flowers! After a look on the high ground above Laqlouq it was time to head over to the Qadisha Valley. A back road takes one through some sublime countryside, little populated except for several small villages. Along one flat area I spotted the day’s third crocus, the lovely lilac form of Crocus cancellatus subspecies damascenus – superb! Dusk was fast approaching – it is early at this season in Lebanon of course, being pretty much dark by just before 5pm – and so I had to make tracks for Bcharre and the Cedars high on the side of the main Mount Lebanon ridge. Greentours Natural History Holidays www.greentours.co.uk 3 Day 3 December 2nd Mount Lebanon It was a clear morning but cold. The views all around were impressive for The Cedars sits in a bowl with high mountain ridges, bare and pale in the sharp morning light, on three sides. There was a band of snow across the top. The breakfast at Le Cedrus Hotel was excellent as usual and well-fortified I was soon on my way. Up the road was a small group of stalls selling various cedarwood products, apparently all from dead wood, and just a little beyond there I spotted a luminous yellow bloom on the slopes. This was a superb double headed Sternbergia clusiana. The flowers are maybe 8cm across and a similar depth and are a most striking sight as they emerge from the bare red terra rosa soil stemless and without leaves. A quick search revealed just a very few more. The nearby ancient cedar grove, the 'Cedars of God' was visited. Nuthatch, Coal Tit and Blue Tit were seen.