aged to locate the once extensive marshland in recent years and the 
specific lack of published records of White-tailed Plover since 1986 
(Telfer unpub.) will have deterred many visitors. 
In addition, the discovery and subsequent exploration of the marshes 
at Eregli, only 50 km to the east, which have proved to be perhaps the 
equal of Hotamis, has provided birders with an easy alternative. 
On 15 June 1990, in the company of D. Ross and M. Roxby, I visited the 
Hotamis area. Unfortunately, we had no access to DHKD's recent 
aerial photographs and instead had to rely on comparatively small- 
scale, and probably outdated maps (especially that published by 
Ravenstein 1985/6), in conjunction with rough sketch maps and 
drawings made by other birders. We were, however, able to explore a 
quite wide area in the Hotamis-Salzipinar region, mostly from the two 
major gravel roads which dissect this area, marked on the map printed 
by the Defence Mapping Agency, Aerospace Centre, St Louis Air Force 
Station, Missouri 1982. We also drove on a number of farmers' tracks 
which run north and west from the road directly south of Hotamis, in 
an effort to find the large lake marked. This search failed, as did similar 
efforts to locate the large reedbed between the villages of Salzipinar 
and By Aslama looked at by Webb et al. in 1986. 
Our usual procedure was to scan the surrounding land at intervals of 
1 km, both from ground level and from the roof of the car, for any areas 
of wetland or other indications (eg lush vegetation or birds normally 
associated with water) that such areas might still exist. In addition, we 
asked a number of local people if they knew of any marshes in the 
surrounding region where we could find and watch birds. This pro- 
duced negative results until, in the first village south of Hotamis 
(about 10 km south), we met a man who directed us to an area of marsh 
just to the south of the village of By Aslama. We got the impression 
(perhaps falsely) that this reedbed was the only sizeable one in the 
locality. However, in total area, the one lagoon we found, and its 
associated reedbed, covered an area of only around 1 km x 1 km. We 
spent approximately three quarters of an hour, during which time we 
recorded species typical of the habitat, such as Squacco Heron Ardeola 
ralloides, Great White Egret Egretta alba, Glossy Ibis Plegadisfalcinellus, 
Spur-winged Plover Hoplopterus spinosus and Whiskered Tern Chlid- 
onias hybndus; as well as a colony of Lesser Kestrels Falco naunianni at 
By Aslama itself. 
In summary, we covered by road the area indicated by Beaman (1986) 
as being the centre of the Hotamis marshes. We drove south from 
Route 80 (linking Konya and Eregli) to Salzipinar and then to By 
Aslama, diverting from the main track westwards for 5 km here. 
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