18th April 2026 - Day 2 Northern Greece for Bird's Wildlife & Naturel

The Golden Jackals opposite Villa Belles were howling before dawn and a Long-eared Owl joined the Scops Owls, Cuckoos, Blackbirds and Nightingales to get the day going. We headed down the road to Vironia for a walk through some damp woodland with pools just north of the Strymonos River.  It was Woodpecker central and within a short while we had seen Great Spotted, Syrian, Grey-headed and Green Woodpeckers to some degree or another.  It was a grey, damp morning and the small birds were not playing ball but we eventually got excellent views of one of the singing Penduline Tits as well as hearing Golden Orioles and Hoopoes.  A male Collared Flycatcher stayed well hidden but could be heard calling.  The rain strengthened so we headed back for breakfast but pleased with the first session of the day.

mmm - one of the Dog Vomit Slime Moulds!

Turkish Snail - Helix lucorum

Penduline Tit

Euphorbia seguieriana

CRP did not work on Santa's Little Helper

After breakfast we made our way back to Veronia and up into the hill behind the village.  We explored a damp dell full of Plane trees and found all three black and white Flycatchers there.  Only the Semi-Collared stays to breed.  There were Robins, Wrens, Chiffchaffs and Tits and a Sombre Tit came up and showed for a short while before disappearing back into cover.  Turtle Doves purred and Hoopoes sang.  It was all very pleasant.

Blue Bugle  - Ajuga genevensis

Blue Hound's Tongue - Cynoglossum creticum

Common Stork's-bill - Erodium cicutarium

Dragon Lily - Dracunculus vulgaris

Euphorbia helioscopia

Hairy Pink - Petrorhagia dubia

Italian Catchfly - Silene italica

Paper Mulberry - Broussonetia papyrifera

Scorpion Senna - Hippocrepis emerus.  Most was not in leaf or flower but this seems to make up quite a lot of the scrubby areas around here

Tongue-leaved bellflower - Campanula lingulata

Wild Pansy - Viola tricolor

White Asphodel - Asphodelus albus

Added to this was the wealth of insect life on this steadily warming morning with Queen of Spain Fritillaries, Nettle-tree, Holly Blues, Sooty Coppers and Green Hairstreaks.  A male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker obliged around the chapel and a Green Woodpecker was yaffling nearby.  A bounding Syrian (the call ‘chip’ not ‘chick’) have better flight views. 

Sooty Copper

Nettle-tree (I have yet to knowingly see the food tree namesake)

Sooty Copper

Brown Argus

Small Copper

Clouded Yellow

Holly Blue

Common Blue

We followed the track up to the quarry where Crag Martins swooped and the expected assortment of ‘rocky’ birds were found with Eastern Black-eared Wheatears, Western Rock Nuthatches, Blue Rock Thrushes and Black Redstarts.  Cirl Buntings trilled and Eastern Subalpine and Eastern Orphean Warblers were giving it large in the bushes around us. 

Golden Eagle was on the cards here and did not disappoint with a pair over the highest point where they drifted in and out of the clouds but our sky scanning also gave us Short-toed Eagles, Common Buzzards, Black Kite, Eurasian Sparrowhawk and a female Levant Sparrowhawk too which Dancho, Smiffy and I saw.

The skies darkened and the heavens opened but a bandstand was within dashing distance and we all stood and waited for the worst of it to pass while Kotschy’s Geckos grumbled from within the roof.

Pisaua mirabilis or similar

Eristalis arbustorum

Violet Carpenter Bee

Tachina fera or similar

Firebug - Pyrrhocoris apterus

Synema globosum - a funky Crab Spider

Synema globosum -  They come in yellow too

It was a damp walk back but we were happy with our efforts before heading to lunch at an old railway station  where Smiffy got to trip down memory lane with some of the old stock sitting in the sidings.

Down on the Strymonos there were Sand Martins and House Martins zipping around and Green and Common Sandpipers and Little Ringed Plovers were seen on the sandbanks.  Our first Spoonbill of the trip flew over us too.

It was looking a little threatening

From here we made our way through the village of Megalachori where Rollers were on the wires, Spanish and House Sparrows filled every Stork nest and a Little Owl watched us suspiciously from a ruining cottage before joining the eastern levee and following it out to view the marshes and lake itself.

Roller

Little Owl 

White Stork 

Snaky Purple Herons came up out of the edges where Squaccos lurked and our first Copyu tail slapped as they dived when they looked very Otter like.  It must be over 20 years since I last saw one of these mega rodents.  At the end of the finger of lagoon there was a Water Buffalo grazed area strewn with great drifts of water borne timber and amongst the debris we found a pair of Spur-winged Lapwings while the edges held flocks of Ruff and Wood Sandpipers, Curlew Sandpipers, Greenshank and even nine Marsh Sandpipers.

Copyu

Copyu

Purple Heron

Purple Heron

Water Buffalo 

Water Buffalo in the rain

Spur-winged Lapwings

Further on it got far marshier and our scans gave us six Garganey, a single Ruddy and Common Shelducks, Greylags Geese and plenty of Heron action with Greys and Purples, Squaccos, Little and Great Egrets, Spoonbills and a couple of Glossy Ibises.  The best find though was a rather special looking Grey Heron x Purple Heron hybrid with a proper mix of both its parents.

Spoonbills

White Stork trying to dry out

Grey Heron x Purple Heron hybrid 

Pygmy Cormorants dotted the view, often on prominent snags but it was the thousands of Great Cormorants in a massive feeding frenzy with the Pelicans that took most of our attention.

Most were the Great Whites which were in the full breeding finery with rich salmon pink flushes and in the case of the male a large orangey bump above the eye on the bills which I certainly had never seen before.  They would surge after the Cormorants, all plunging in unison and I could not really work out who was actually following who. Suddenly some of the flock would disperse and fly to another spot and the whole lumbering process would start all over again.  There were some Dalmatian Pelicans in there too and I was surprised to see that most of them were actually bigger than the Great Whites.  It was not just a visual experience but the sound of all the Cormorants grunting and fighting and the rhythmic splashing created its own element to the frenzy. 

A sensible and calm Dalmatian Pelican

A Lesser Spotted Eagle got tagged by a Marsh Harrier and a male Montagu’s Harrier powered over high up with no intention of stopping and back in the trees Grey-headed Woodpeckers were calling and we got a brief view of one in flight.

Montagu’s Harrier

Villa Belles

Balkan Marsh Frogs were making a din and I could hear the rhythmic chirping of Green Toads too while Lesser Emperors and Blue-tailed Damselflies were noted.  

Blue-tailed Damselfly

The rain had returned so we aborted and headed back to the hotel for a short while before driving the short way down to the Mandraki Harbour jetty where in a break in the weather we enjoyed fantastically close Great Reed Warblers and Squaccos as well as our first two Night Herons trying to hide in a living stump.

Squacco

Pygmies and a Great Cormorant, Spoonbill and a Night Heron

A pair of Ferruginous Ducks flew across the view with a male Shoveler and there were some Whiskered and Black Terns with the noisy Common Terns but only the latter came close.  Great Crested Grebes were everywhere and a Dalmatian Pelican paddled around the harbour where Little Grebes were also seen.

A couple of Eastern Green Lizards were on the edge of the path and a couple out herping showed us a young Dice Snake that they had found.  I was impressed by his seriously thick gloves as he turned over rocks and poked in holes.  Euro Pond Terrapins lounged on logs.

Honey Bees having a drink

Euro Pond Terrapins

 Dice Snake

 Eastern Green Lizard - female

Two Eagles were picked up at the same time but excitingly both were not the same and we actually had immatures of both Lesser Spotted and Eastern Imperial at the same time.  Dancho was very pleased too.

Lesser Spotted Eagle

Lesser Spotted Eagle

From here we continued around the lake and through Kerkini village itself passing a male Goshawk and male Sparrowhawk on the way before stopping at a fabulous flat marshy area alongside the road where a cacophony of Frogs and Great Reed Warblers stretched your ability to hear anything else!  An adult Lesser Spotted Eagle had obviously been down frogging and perched up nicely for us and a Black Kite was lazily patrolling while Squaccos dotted the actual lake edge like orange ovoids.

Closer views of Copyu

Lesser Spotted Eagle

Our destination was the Chimarros quarry, famous for its Eagle Owls, if you can find them and we got lucky and got excellent views of an adult that was trying to roost on an Oak limb but was getting some serious grief from the local Jays (which look just like ours and not the Black-capped ones in Lesvos).

Eagle Owl

Woodchat Shrike - this one posed for us on the way in

It was getting late and the Nightingales were back in full song mode and were being joined by the local Blackbirds.  Two Hawfinches called as them came up from drinking in the river and the male even perched long enough to scope.

Antlion pits

Yellow-bellied and Green Toad began their respective evening chorus and although we stayed till after dark it was just a little too early in the season for Nightjar.  It was a late dinner and an even later return to Belles where we were greeted by a huge Common Toad in the car park and the soft pooping of the Scops Owls and manic distant Tree Frogs once again.

Common Toad