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.

Huelva to Malaga

We stayed a day longer than I had planned in the Huelva area and Pam had a flight back to the UK from Malaga on 26th March so on the 25th we started out on the sea-front at El Rompido with a couple of nice Whimbrel and my first Turnstone of the trip then set off for Malaga.

Whimbrel

We took the route via Seville rather than down the coast past Cadiz as I had planned to save time.
On the way we stopped at El Rocio and viewed the floods from the village. There were plenty of Glossy Ibis and Flamingo and my first Collared Pratincole of the trip with around 70 dispersed over the raised islands in the lake, but no sign of any 'Marsh' Terns yet.

Collared Pratincole

We had a look at the pool to the west and added Purple Gallinule to the trip list with at least 3 individuals in different areas of the reed bed, but all distant. A flock of 40 Spoonbill was nice and there were plenty of Cattle Egret in the area.
We moved on to an overnight stop just outside Malaga and the following morning after dropping Pam at the airport I went to the nearby Guadalhorce reserve. It was busy, especially so, with it being Easter, but there were still some nice birds. I was particularly interested in White-headed Ducks and saw at least 12 of these amazing looking duck, with a similar number of Pochard and Shoveler plus a pair of Black-necked Grebe, a couple of Avocet and a Woodchat Shrike.

White-headed Duck, male upper female below

On the beach I added Kentish Plover which is the first I have seen for a while.

Kentish Plover - female

I then head off for Gibraltar, for my first visit and staying at the Observatory.