No super early start for the first
morning but after breakfast it was back out into Lotzaria. Bee-eaters were
heard and seen in the first poplars before the Tsiknias and down at the river
mouth there were singles of Curlew, Kentish Plover, Grey Plover, Dunlin and Greenshank and
seven Slender-billed Gulls. The immaculate juvenile Long-legged Buzzard appeared overhead and was quite strikingly Rough-legged like is plumage pattern and shape.
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Spot the cryptic Bee-eater |
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Long-legged Buzzard |
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Long-legged Buzzard |
We headed up river towards the Ford where a Great
White Egret lurked and two Common Swifts came through with some Red-rumped
Swallows. Turning left at the Ford junction brought me back through the middle
towards Papiana.
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More Terrapin heads - ACV |
There were a few more Shrikes and Spotted Flycatchers and
Bee-eaters were on the wires but there was no sign of Pia's juvenile Roller. A
splendid Short-toed Eagle perched up and both adult Long-legged Buzzards. Up above three Black Storks circled.
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Black Stork |
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Short-toed Eagle |
Rough Cocklebur was fruiting well and there
were patches of Thorn Apple too but the white trumpets had already closed
up. There were a few Blues flitting
around the Brambles and Chaste Trees and most fence tops had the Bindweed-like
leaved Cynanchum acutum scrambling along it.
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Cynanchum acutum |
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Rough Cocklebur - Xanthium strumarium |
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Chaste Tree - Vitex agnus-castus - in white or lilac |
A pop back to the Pela for a coffee and then off to Parakila
to check the Turpentine trees on the way to the little harbour. Not much fruit
this year but still a few Lesser and Common Whitethroats and at least six
Eastern Black-eared Wheatears and ten Northerns. The males of both species were
looking superb in their fresh autumn plumages.
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Eastern Black-eared Wheatear |
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Northern Wheatear |
Middle Spotted Woodpeckers were
vocal from the Olives and there were a few Shrikes and distant calling Rock
Nuthatches. There were 12 Med Gulls down
at the harbour and a Black Stork dropped into the marsh.
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Spotted Flycatcher |
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Starred Agama - one of only three all trip! |
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Black Stork and a Hooded Crow |
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Four Med and three Black-headed Gulls |
From here it was back to Metochi for a circuit. The channels
were bone dry but the lake was still mostly water and had Common Sandpiper and
Greenshank and one Black Stork with four Grey Herons.
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Marsh Harrier |
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Common Sandpiper |
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Grey Heron |
|
Metochi |
The fields were alive
with flava Wagtails and a couple of Tree Pipits and an immature female Marsh
Harrier was persistently quartering the same meadows and causing havoc. Juvenile Masked and Woodchats were seen with
the former preferring to site just under the lowest olive canopy.
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Marsh Harrier |
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Corvid 19 - like last year the opportunity was not to be passed up |
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Masked Shrike |
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Heliotropium europaeum - the butterflies like this |
Lunch was
taken in the shade with Bee-eaters for company and Black Storks, Long-legged
Buzzards, Ravens and Short-toed Eagles circled in the blue.
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Short-toed Eagle |
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Black Stork |
|
Bee-eater |
It was getting too
hot so there was one more stop before a return to the Pela. Kerami Reservoir up
Potamia held Pelicans last year but today I was just as happy with 16 Little
Grebe, 14 Coot and Mallard, nine Teal and three Garganey. Violet Dropwings and
Red-veined Darters were around the edges and two Hoopoe performed in the groves
along with Chaffinches and Cirl Buntings.
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Kerami Reservoir |
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Violet Dropwing |
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Violet Dropwing |
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Violet Dropwing |
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Violet Dropwing |
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Hoopoe |
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Okra in flower |
Back at the hotel a Quail sang briefly in the field behind
and I could hear Japanese Quails and see the Crowned Crane in its enclosure to the left and the Peacocks were making
their weird bellowing that goes on all night. A few Spanish Sparrows were poking around in the Palms.
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Spanish Sparrows |
A quick check of the brambles on the road produced Long-tailed Blues and Small Whites along with a cracking Potter Wasp with yellow eyes and a Anthidium type Bee that I have seen here before but as yet have not identified.
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Cicada exuvia |
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Anthidium type Bee |
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Potter Wasp sp - any help appreciated as with the bee above |
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Potter Wasp sp |
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A small pink flowered Bramble |
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Milk Thistle heads |
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Sea Daffodil - Pancratium maritimum in Thekla's Pela garden |
A pre-dinner bounce back down through Lotzaria added another
Hoopoe, two Ortolans (almost where I had them last year), two Grey Wagtails in
the sewage works, four Turtle Doves, the usual Shrikes, Chats and Wagtails and
an elegant juvenile Montagu's Harrier near the Alykes Wetlands (which are of
course dry).
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Whinchat |
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Stonechat |
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Tawny Pipit |
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Northern Wheatear |
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Northern Wheatear |
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Woodchat |
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Hoopoe |
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Hoopoe - ACV |
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Montagu's Harrier |
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Montagu's Harrier - Pia Schrader - she got a little closer than I did!
|
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Short-toed Eagle |
Down at the Racetrack I could see four Curlew along the beach and out on the Eastern Pans the hulking grey shape of a Dalmatian Pelican, 12 Spoonbills and four Black Storks while Little Stint and Ruff were both new to the wader list. A Lesser Grey Shrike was on the wires as I drove back up the channel and it would still be there on the last morning too!
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Little Ringed Plover |
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Yellow-legged and Black-headed Gulls |
Dinner at the Dionysis was followed by a final after dark
loop which added no night birds but resulted in a huge adult Antlion in the
headlights and a rather plump Eastern Hedgehog.
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