Day 13 : 5th May :
A day spent up at the north end of the
island was a little challenging with the increasing wind but it had its
rewarding moments. I deviated on the way up to the ancient Roman bridge at
Kremastis. Red-rumped Swallows were flying around and Turtle Doves were purring
but some gentle nudging was required to leave through a flock of sheep making
their own way down the road towards their farm. A pink fronted Lesser Grey
Shrike watched from the wires and the usual trio of Corn and Black-headed
Buntings and Crested Larks adorned other wires as we re-reached the main road
up to Napi.
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| Kremastis Roman Bridge |
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| Kremastis Roman Bridge |
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| Typical taffic jam... |
Once on the coast I headed west before dropping down into Skala Sykaminias
where ice-cream was consumed. Unfortunately the normally bustling harbourside
cafes were deserted and there were no tourists around at all.
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| Deserted |
A chat with
another birder about Audouin's Gulls resulted in a near adult bird appearing as
if by magic just offshore affording my best views ever of this species on the
island.
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| Audouin's Gull |
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| The congested, refugee detritus strewn beach... oh... hang on a minute |
From here we made our way along the rough coast track to Eftalou,
initially passing a makeshift camp of refugee helpers and two subsequent
official arrival processing sites but there was no sign of anybody at all and
although the relief effort is still there there seems to be no one to actually
help. The tide line had been cleared of migrant debris with piles of life
jackets and shredded inflatables awaiting collection. There were a couple of
beached boats but the coastguard / military were patrolling the strait and
there was not a single small vessel in sight. I fear that the damage to the
economy of the island may have already be done by the biased media coverage...
Bird wise it was actually very quiet although a strutting Chukar on the road
was making enough noise to ensure that everything knew we were coming!
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| Immature Mediterranean Shag |
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| Mad Chukar |
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| Wild Hollyhock |
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| Corn Marigold and friend |
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| Trifolium angustifolium |
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| A view from the North track looking northeast |
Lunch
was taken with Alison Matea
at their lovely Omega cafe in Anaxos before heading on the Filia route back to
base with one short stop to watch a nice Black Kite glide along the ridge line
in the wind.
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| Cannot find a name for the village but know we were looking east towards Ampelia |
The pans were visited once again in the early evening but it was so windy that
keeping an eye on anything was tricky. The Red-necked Phalarope was still in
the south west corner and Little Stints tottered almost at touching distance.
The Bushchat sang for me but stayed mobile but it was the monumental
cloudscapes that stole the afternoon... ever changing shapes and colours.
A final drive down the west side of the Tsiknias to look for a Great Snipe
reported earlier drew a blank but two Squacco and a pair of superb Little
Bitterns entertained in the vivid green grass and two adult Night Herons came
out of the willows and filled in that missing spot on my trip list. With the
temperature dropping and fairly blue legs by that stage I called it a night and
we headed back for dinner...
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