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.

Observations on Eleonora's Falcons in autumn

The world population of Eleonora's Falcon breeds almost exclusively around the Mediterranean and is estimated at around 20,000 individuals. It's a long distance migrant, wintering in Madagascar and neighbouring East Africa.

First recorded in Britain in 1977 there have been a handful of records since.

In common with many birdwatchers I have seen Eleonora's Falcons many times in spring and early autumn in the Balearics and Greek islands but have only seen birds in juvenile plumage twice; once in Israel in November and Rhodes in late October.

Juvenile

Photo 1 Eleonora's Falcon juvenile Rhodes October

Photo 2 Eleonora's Falcon juvenile Rhodes October

Juvenile Eleonora's falcon is noticeably shorter in the tail and wings than adult birds, at least in early autumn, when birds have recently fledged. The profile is closer therefore to male Peregrine but should not cause confusion for anyone reasonably familiar with that species.

Photo 3 Peregrine recently fledged juvenile June (© K Smith)

Photo 4 Peregrine 1 cy April

Eleonora's is still a significantly slimmer longer winged and tailed falcon. If any doubt remains the dark underwing coverts contrast with the pale base to the remiges whereas juvenile Peregrine (Photo 3 and 4) has a very uniform underwing at this age. 

This pale wing flash may also be visible on the upper wing on some birds. Peregrine also has barred undertail coverts which are plan in Eleonora's.

Size is intermediate between Hobby and Peregrine and Eleonora's is noticeably larger than both Hobby and Red-footed Falcon. The pattern of the underwing described above with broad dark trailing edge to the wing should help to separate from the two smaller falcons when size is difficult to judge. 

In addition Eleonora's has a single moustachial streak, lacking the second streak below the ear coverts shown by both juvenile Hobby and Red-footed Falcons.

The eye ring is blue or bluish grey in Eleonora's whereas Hobby and Red-footed Falcon have yellow eye rings. The eye ring of juvenile Peregrine is greenish blue but turns yellow within a few weeks of fledging.

Adult - pale morph

Photo 5 Eleonora's Falcon adult female Rhodes October

Photo 6 Eleonora's Falcon adult male Rhodes October

Eleonora's Falcons can be aged in their second calendar year and sometimes in the third by examination of the extent of moult and feather wear. 

The birds in Photos 4 and 5 are both pale morph adults. The female in Photo 4 was noticeably larger than the male and looked a generally heavier bird. Adults can be sexed by the colour of the orbital ring and cere, this is blue in females and yellow in males.

The combination of blackish underwing coverts and plain slightly paler remiges with heavily dark streaked buff underparts turning orangey on the belayed inertial coverts should rule out any other European falcon.

Behaviour

Although the literature reports that migrant passerines are a key food in the autumn, of the dozen or so birds I observed any hunting was for aerial insects Some birds were observed hawking for insects for the whole time they were in view. Eleonora's is a very agile and graceful hunter and looked to have a high success rate using the feet to grab the insects.

Photo 6 Eleonora's Falcon male catching insects