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.

Varanger 21st - 24th June

We left Ivalo at around 10:00 in hard driving rain with a cold N wind and a temperature of 3℃, it was still raining when we stopped at Neljan Tuulan for a coffee. At least 4 male and 4 female or immature Pine Grosbeak were at the feeder and a Siberian Tit, which was ringed, also paid a visit. Pam was impressed with the Grosbeak but even more so with the Red Squirrel on the feeders. Plenty of Redpoll but all Mealy. As we crossed the higher ground towards Utsjoki the rain turned to sleet. We passed a Red-throated Diver on a roadside pool and a distant Rough-legged Buzzard hovering over the wooded hillside and a Merlin dashed across the road. 

Rough-legged Buzzard

Utsjoki was a row of wooden properties with a small well stocked supermarket just before the river crossing into Norway.
We followed the River Tana with clusters of fishermen on the shore where the river narrowed forming rapids and stopped at Tana Bru. Norway is even more expensive than Finland so we made do with a Pizza to share at the equivalent of 14€ which, when delivered was plenty for two anyway. Fuel was about 150€/litre but fortunately we had filled up in Inari at 129€/litre.
We quickly arrived at Varangerbotn and our first sighting of the Arctic Ocean. The rain had just about stopped but it was still cold. Pam spotted the first White-tailed Eagle on the shore and we saw four more as we drove towards Nesseby.

White-tailed Eagle

Flocks of birds on the water were mainly Goosander but we had one group of 50 Velvet Scoter which was impressive and there were groups of Eider strung along the shoreline.
At Nesseby there were 3 summer plumaged Little Stint feeding on the shoreline and several Arctic Skua and a single adult Long-tailed past along the coast. 

Little Stint - summer plumage

I met a dutch birder travelling back down the coast towards Pasvik and we exchanged sightings. He had seen King and single Steller's Eider at Vardo and more King Eider near Hemningsberg which was promising.
We stopped overnight at JV Camping at Vestre Jakobselv. There were bird feeders by the reception with more Redpoll but again all Mealy. The occasional Willow Tit made a visit but otherwise it was House Sparrows and Greenfinch. Around the harbour we had Temminck's and Little Stint, more Goosander and small parties of Long-tailed Duck.
We stopped at Vadso and had a good look around Vadsoya Island. The Mountain Hares were the highlight, the birding was difficult in the cold N wind but again there were Wheatear and Meadow Pipits and 8 Red-necked Phalarope on the pool.

Mountain Hare

Moving up the coast we visited Ekkeroy which was worth the stop just to witness the clouds of Kittiwake nesting on the cliffs. 

Kittiwake on Ekkeroy

I walked all over the island looking at the Pipits and managed several Meadow and a couple of Rock there were also Wheatear here and nice views of Arctic Skua stood.

Arctic Skua

We drove on to Vardo with a few stops on the way. The tunnel lights were out so we had to wait for a convey shuttle that was leading cars through the 3km tunnel and we parked up for the night at the Tourist Information in the North Bay. There were Black Guillemot, Eider and plenty of Kittiwake which were nesting on the buildings close to the Tourist Information. I checked South Bay for the King and Steller's Eider but if they were there they were to far away to distinguish without a telescope. I hadn't brought mine and this was one of several times when I regretted that decision. We ate in the Pokora Restaurant which was surprisingly good, a meal for two for about 40€.
It was another cold night, I got up around 06:00 and did another check of the harbour but the tide was out now and the birds were even further away.
The cold, rain and dark sky was getting a bit oppressive but we pressed on. My spirits were lifted when at Pam's suggestion we stopped on the first decent bog area north of Vardo and had several Lapland Bunting. 

Lapland Bunting

The males looked fantastic in their breeding plumage, quite different to the dull winter attire in which we usually see them in the UK. 
The drive around the coast towards Hamnigsberg is spectacular. We saw several groups of Reindeer feeding by the roadside and large groups of Goosander offshore at Persfjord there were some closer eider. The first ones I looked at, a group of half a dozen, looked like King I scanned for more Eider for comparison and came across a group of about 100 but scanning through these they looked the same as the first group then I saw a fine male King Eider. 

King Eider - male

They were all King Eider, a group of about 150 moulting males and females. I scrambled around on the seaweed covered rocks and eventually got some photos although there were never going to be close. There were a couple of males in the group that were still in more or less adult summer plumage but the rest were dark with various pale areas. 

King Eider - part of flock

The females looked to be in typical plumage.
There were gulls on the rocks at Sandfjord and included ad adult Iceland, first for the trip.

Iceland Gull -adult

As we neared Hamningberg a Red Fox crossed the road, still in its thick winter coat, it stopped and turned to look at us just as the sun was starting to brighten the sky and it looked amazing before slowly walking away along the edge of a pool.

Red Fox

We parked in the large car park and I went across to look for pipits in the heather clad area. Almost immediately a pipit flew up and called overhead, a cheeping call, I followed it until it landed. Red-throated Pipit at last and a fine male. It flew around landing about 50m away and was joined by another Red-throated Pipit, in all there were at least four Red-throated Pipits in quite a small area.

Red-throated Pipit

I watched them feeding and the Red-throated chased off another slightly larger buffy coloured pipit. It didn't fly far and when I got on it I was amazed to see that it was a Tawny Pipit. I took photos and managed some reasonable record shots. What was the chance of finding a Tawny Pipit here at 70°North! I sent the record through to Finnmark Birding and Tormod confirmed that it was only the second record for the Varanger area, with the first at Ekkeroy in 1999!

Tawny Pipit

We had a walk around the deserted village and a male Snow Bunting made a brief appearance. 

Snow Bunting

With the weather still poor we drove back to Vestre Jakobselv and stopped again at JV Camping. In the morning my walk around the village produced the first owl of the trip, Short-eared, a first summer Glaucous Gull and another Mountain Hare. Back at the feeders I bumped in to a birder from Norway Birding who was leading an American lady around the area. He had no additional news but surprisingly had already heard of my Tawny Pipit, the power of social media! 
With the weather forecast still poor we decided to head back towards Finland, as we drove between Tana Bru and Utsoki we saw a Rough-legged Buzzard hovering over the hillside then Pam called out Moose and sure enough there it was stood in a field by the roadside, starring at us. It looked like a young male with horns starting to appear on its head. It starred at us for perhaps 5 minutes before slowly walking back in to the forest. 

Moose or Elk as they are sometimes called

As we were about to make the turn to cross the river to Utsjoki another young Moose appeared by the roadside a great end to our short visit to Norway.

From here we are travelling south towards home and plan to work our way down the Swedish coast.
I'll add some scenic shots when I get chance.

Ronda to Motril

I left Ronda with the temperature at 3 degrees and arrived at the Charca de Suarez reserve near Motril at 24 degrees and a howling gale. On the way I stopped a couple of times in the mountains at Sierra de les Nieves for Southern Grey Shrike and a beautiful black-throated form of the hispanica race of Black-eared Wheatear, I had more Thekla Larks at the same spot.

Southern Grey Shrike

Black-eared Wheatear - dark throated form of Spanish race

Arriving at Charca de Suarez at mid-day I found the reserve closed, with some help from the local camping site I established that it opened at 17:30 for guided tours, it's otherwise closed on week days during March to May. Undeterred I decided to visit the Las Norias pools, which were about 70Km to the north. I could barely stand up with the wind and pulled on to some rough ground when I arrived only to find my parking spot was shared with a pair of Little Stint, Little Ringed Plover and a dozen Meadow Pipit. It looked like a wet area on the dried ground had dried up recently.

Little Stints - still in mainly winter plumage

The pools themselves didn't add much; a dozen Great-crested Grebe, several Red-crested Pochard and Shoveler and a few Black-headed Gulls - still no 'marsh' terns in sight.
I retuned to Charco  de Suarez. My primary reason for visiting this small reserve was to see Crested Coot, I had not found them at Huelva or La Rocio so this was my last chance. I was fairly confident of at least seeing them. In 2012 300 birds were released at various locations in Andalusia to support a dwindling population, 2 pairs were released at Charco and they had faired reasonably well raising young in the subsequent years.

Arriving at 17:30 I was joined by an enthusiastic Spaniard from the Basque country to the north a dutch pair, a couple from the UK and a mixed German/British pair. Only the UK couple appeared to be specifically interested in birds. Our guide was a local council official but fortunately, after a few minutes of background information on the reserve, we were released to explore as we pleased until 19:00. I dashed off for the hide which I thought had the best chance of Crested Coot, saw they could be seen closer from another hide and dashed round there. The other visitors were looking a bit bemused as they started there leisurely exploration of the reserve.
Never the less my luck was in. I saw three birds sporting fine neck collars indicating they were part of the release programme, another bird that did not which was presumably an off spring of the collared birds and two fluffy youngsters from this years brood. Can I count the un-collared bird as wild? Not too fussed, they gave great views and looked in fine condition.

Crested Coot

Whilst watching one bird I saw a Night Heron catch a large frog which it took about 10 minutes to finally swallow. 

Night Heron with frog

Nearby a Purple Gallinule was preening on the edge of the reeds and as it neared 19:00 several parties of Purple Heron, totalling about 30 birds dropped in to the reedbed, what a great little reserve this is. 

Purple Gallinule

Purple Heron - amazing markings!

If it had been open the following morning I would have been tempted to stay, since it wasn't I will be making a long drive up to the River Ebro delta south of Barcelona - home to around 70% of the World's Audouin's Gulls!