Kos - 8th to 15th May

I returned from Portugal on Saturday 5th May and just had time to unpack and wash my clothes before repacking and departing for the Greek island of Kos the following Tuesday. I've been to a few of the Greek islands before; Crete, Cyprus, Rhodes and Santorini but this would be my first visit to Kos. It had some wetland areas which are missing on Rhodes and Santorini which would hopefully prove to be something of a magnet for migrant birds.
We arrived in the early hours of Wednesday the 9th having lost two hours to the change in time zones. We were staying at the Kosta Palace, overlooking the harbour in Kos town. The first morning we explored some of the vegetated areas in the town. I was surprised to see that almost all the swifts around the hotel area were all Common but I was soon watching Pallids which were nesting in decent numbers around the Police building close to the old castle. Having both species in such close proximity during our stay gave a good opportunity to compare the two species in a range of different light conditions. I have previously produced comparative photos of Pallid and Common Swift so won't repeat them here but one thing that struck me this time was how pale-headed Pallid Swift looks when flying towards you.

Pallid Swift

Having heard, but struggled to see, Western Olivaceous Warbler the previous week in Spain I was keen to renew my acquaintance with its eastern cousin and it wasn't long before I had multiple birds singing, what to my ears at least, sounded like the same song in Kos. 

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler

The upperparts are the colour of milky tea, lacking any of the olive tones of Icterine or Melodious.

One of the birds I was keen to see in Kos was Eleonora's Falcon. As far as I am aware they don't nest on Kos but there is a colony on nearby Nisyros which can be visited by boat but I was hoping for blogging or passage birds around Alikis lake. I wasn't disappointed as I saw birds every day, even over the hotel on several occasions but these birds were high. Better views were of up to 8 or 9 birds feeding on aerial insects just inland of Alikis lake. Most birds were pale morphs but I had decent views of one dark bird.

Eleonora's Falcon - female 2 upper with blue eye ring and cere and male below with yellow

Alikis lake, close to the village of Tigaki was by far and away the best area for numbers of birds.

Alikis Lake

 The week before I arrived it had Spur-winged Plover and Marsh Sandpiper but I only saw the commoner waders; Curlew Sandpiper, Little and Temminck's Stint and single Kentish Plover and superb summer plumaged Spotted Redshank. 

Curlew Sandpiper

A track follows the edge of the lake at the south-west giving great opportunities for photography from the car.

Spotted Redshank

Little Stint

Temminck's Stint

The island is small, only 40km end to end so its easy to explore and make multiple visits to the better areas. I made three visits to the mountains around Old Pyli and Zia.

upland area around Old Pyli

This produced a few common woodland species; Coal and Great Tits, Serin and groups of Alpine Swift plus several Eastern Subalpine Warblers and Cretzschmar's Bunting plus a single female Black-eared Wheatear but few raptors. I'd hoped for Bonelli's Eagle and Long-legged Buzzard in the mountains but didn't see either.

Cretzschmar's Bunting - male

Eastern Subalpine Warbler - male

Black-eared Wheatear - female

Back in the lowlands near Tigaki I came across a pair of Roller which were present in the same area for several days. One of the birds spent most of its time sat on an old street light which wasn't the best background for a photo.

Roller

 Other birds around the wetland included Squacco and Night Herons, Zitting Cisticola, and around 20 Greater Flamingo plus Yellow-legged Gulls but the only terns I saw were a couple of Sandwich. Ruddy Shelduck were much in evidence at the western end of Alikis lake with about 20 birds present early morning which then moved on to stubble fields to feed. From their behaviour it appeared them at least some were probably breeding there.

Ruddy Shelduck

Towards the end of our week we drove around the coast from Kos town to Tigaki, we saw at least 5 Lesser Kestrel hunting over the fields and a single female Red-footed Falcon.

Red-footed Falcon -female

I visited the Psalidi Wetlands just east of Kos town but apart from a few Wood Sandpiper there were few birds here.

My impression during the week was that the birds didn't change much although Bee-eaters appeared to be moving through.

Aside from the birds we saw Swallowtail and Scarce Swallowtail butterflies and what looked like Small Fiery Copper, Starred Agama, Snake-eyed Skink and Spur-thighed Tortoise

Lesser Fiery Copper

Starred Agama

Spur-thighed Tortoise

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed Kos for a weeks birding with a good variety of habitats and range of species. I'm sure if you were lucky with the weather systems you could see more migrants than I encountered.

Lake Kerkini - Part 2

The weather changed on the 22nd April, after 5 days of clear blue skies it became overcast and we had some heavy rain overnight.
Returning from the airport with Pam we stopped at Mandraki Harbour where a party of 52 Glossy Ibis were busy washing, preening and wing flapping which indicates that they are probably recently arrived migrants.

Glossy Ibis

On the 23rd we took a boat trip out on to the lake which provided great views of the pelicans, although to avoid disturbing the breeding birds the boats keep a sensible distance away from the nesting areas. The water has been rising steadily for the past 3 or 4 days. This is controlled rise to fill the lake in order to provide water for crop irrigation through the summer but it does enable better boat access in to some of the areas where the cormorants, egrets, and herons sit during the day. 

Pelicans - White in the foreground and Dalmatian at the rear

Whilst on the boat we had a party of a dozen Whiskered Terns, which are my first for the area.
It rained again in the night and the following morning I did an early morning walk around where we are staying at Korifoudi. It was immediately apparent that there were new birds around, the number of Golden Oriole calling had risen dramatically, I estimated at least 20 in the immediate area. 

Golden Oriole - male

Birds noted on the walk were as follows;
Red-backed Shrike 4 males - new for the trip
Masked Shrike 1 male
Lesser Grey Shrike 2 - had my first of the trip yesterday
Lesser Whitethroat 1
Golden Oriole 20
Eastern Olivaceous Warbler 6
Turtle Dove 22
Black-headed Wagtail 2
Nightingale 15+ these have been around for some time.
Black Stork 1 giving superb views

Lesser Grey Shrike

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler

Red-backed Shrike - male

Black Stork

Not bad for a couple of hours walking around Korifoudi!
Driving around the lake we had several more Red-backed Shrikes and good numbers of Bee-eaters along with the usual pelicans, cormorants and herons.
I had hoped that by spending some time at Kerkini I would witness the arrival of migrants from the south and I had experienced just that.
I'll be exploring some of the other birding sites on the coast around Thessalonika over the next few days to see what they have to offer.