A grey and lazy start after bread buying and then out east
and around The Bay. I checked Kalami
Marsh and Pool first and was surprised that there were not any duck and just a
few Coots, Moorhens and Little Grebes.
Two Water Rails ‘kipped’ and three Zitting Cisticolas bounded around and
a single Reed Bunting dropped in flashing white tail sides. Cetti’sWarblers were in song and Robins and
Sardinian Warblers scolded my passing.
There were Flamingos, Great and Little Egrets on the Mesa (not very) wetlands and pools and a flock of 30 Meadow Pipits contained seven Skylarks and two Woodlarks. There were seven Red-breasted Mergansers, 25 Great Crested Grebes and six Black-necked Grebes just off shore and there were two Slavonian Grebes feeding close in too.Five Med Gulls came up off the beach with 15 Yellow-legged Gulls.I have been struck by the paucity of big gulls with very few YLGs and I had been hoping to be scanning through flocks looking for something different.
On to the Turtle Bridge where a short walk inland suddenly
became very birdy with dozens of Green and Chaffinches feeding on the path sides
along with many Great and Blue Tits.The
large single Pines were home to Coal and Medium-tailed Tits and at least four Goldcrests
and best of all three Krüper's Nuthatches that were poking around the pine
cones. This certainly used to be a regular spot so it was good to see them here
so readily.
Krüper's Nuthatch - barely even Essence of...
Achladeri was quiet and the cloud had rolled in but there
were still Krüper's to be found along with Mistle Thrushes,Short-toed Treecreepers, Medium-tailed
Tits and Middle Spotted Woodpeckers although I do not actually think that I saw
a single bird while I was in there.I
did however discover that January is no deterrent to the local hardy Mosquitos
that were still quite happily and hungrily on the wing!
Spurge coming into flower
Down onto the beach, which after a little investigation on
foot, I decided was perfectly passable albeit a bit soft in places where the
storms had moved the beach up across the road. Just before the little chapel
was reached a huge raft of birds could be seen out in the Bay and a fine counting
spell began which ended up with a tally of 840 Great Crested Grebes, 1000
Cormorants and a single Dalmatian Pelican in a frantic feeding frenzy that
moved back and forth across the Bay.They were continually on the move and soon they were hazy dots before
suddenly surging back into focus.
There were eight more Red-breasted Mergansers on the mill pond surface and several more Black-necked Grebes and then as if by magic three Black-throated Divers surfaced closer in.I saw a couple on my early March visit but after the first day it was so windy that the Bay was not watchable.
Black-throated Divers with the frenzy behind
They drifted closer into the beach and we pulled off to have
lunch at which point three Black-throated Divers became six.They spent their time slowly swimming along
with heads under the clear water before sucking in their feathers and slipping
effortlessly under.Seeing one would
have made me happy but six was just spell binding and one of those memorable
encounters.
An immature Shag leapt of out the water in an attempt to up stage the Divers and three close Black-necked Grebes tried to do the same by looking exceptionally fluffy.
Shag
Black-necked Grebe
Black-necked Grebe
Black-necked Grebes
Skiminoudi Pool had some Mingos and there were 14 Sandwich Terns off the beach but it was the perfect reflections of the Tamarisks that caught my eye.
Down through the Olive Groves which only gave me a few Chaffinches, Serins and Robins but many of the now green carpets under the trees were dotted with the multihued heads of countless Crowned Anemones.
Sprinkling of Anemones
The Poli Pans were grey and I counted 145 Flamingos and 12 of 18 Dalmatian Pelicans headed back out into the Bay to go fishing. There were a few Greenshank, Redshank and Curlew but little else so I looped back through the town and came back towards Skala Kallonis passing five Spoonbills at Mesa on the way.
Dalmatian Pelicans
Greater Flamingo
Greater Flamingos
Greater Flamingo
Spoonbills
I pulled off at Hide 1 at the KSP and got it into my head to count the Flamingos from the lofty position. I know I would have missed a few but I got to 1725. There were 108 Teal on the closest pan with 35 Avocets and a flock of calidrids were wheeling around but never settled close enough.
Avocets
A pop back for a coffee at the digs and then back down to the same spot but this time I drove slowly all the way to the end and spent until dark watching the settling down of the massed Flamingos and Cormorants and the arrivals and stirrings of the 12 Pelicans present.
Greater Flamingos, Cormorants and a sneaky Black Stork
Greater Flamingos - just look at the colour of this male!
The Dance
The cloud cover meant that the light was good and from this side I could see many more waders and took the Avocet total up to 270 along with 28 Curlew, 240 Dunlin, 30 Little Stint, 23 Ringed Plover and 40 Kentish Plover. I could not see the Sheepfield Pools and so most of the duck were missing but there were 22 Pintail on the main pan with the Flamingos.
Dalmatian Pelicans
A few Meadow Pipits bimbled around and a Water Pipit dropped into the saltmarsh of the main channel but what I was really after was the raptors and they did not disappoint with two Buzzards, six Marsh Harriers, two Kestrels and a male Sparrowhawk. The stars of the show were an adult male Merlin that perched up on a lone tree before hurtling off high towards Mesa; this was not the brown male I saw last night and four Hen Harriers with three different ringtails and the almost adult male that was on the sheepfields last night. The Harriers were all out hunting to start with before slowly following the Olive trees to their roost in the large sedge beds. All four had very full crops and had obviously had a good day hunting. A fluffy Red Fox lolloped across the track before it was time to head back to the main road.
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