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.

SW Spain & Portugal & Separating adult Pallid Swift from Common Swift

I've just returned from a short trip based in El Rompido, near Huelva in South-West Spain. I had no particular target birds but was quite keen to see White-rumped Swift which would be a new bird for me and is not that easy to see in a typical early Spring trip due to its late arrival date.
Rather than do a full write up of the trip I've just focused on some of the more interesting observations starting with Pallid Swift.
Separating adult Pallid Swift from Common Swift
The comments below relate to adults in Spring and compare nominate apus Common Swift with the European brehmorum race of Pallid. I find that the separation of Pallid from Common Swift is not easy unless you have good light and viewing conditions. I have watched groups of swifts at distance against a pale sky when they all tend to look dark and have struggled to decide if they are Pallid and Common Swift. Whilst Common Swifts always look dark Pallid's can too unless they are seen in decent light. 

Pallid (left) with Common Swift

In the coastal villages in SW Spain, in Huelva, El Portil and El Rompido all the swifts seen were Pallid but a little inland at Cartaya there were both Pallid and Common and whilst they appeared to be in separate groups most of the time they were also seen together which allowed direct comparisons to be made.

Pallid Swift (left) and Common Swift

Although the wing length is similar in both species Pallid looks larger with its broader body, outer wing and head giving it a bulkier appearance. On measurements the two out tail feather (T4 & T5) are a similar length in Pallid whereas the outermost tail feather tends to be longest in Common but I've not found this of any use in the field as the relative lengths vary with the extent the tail is spread.

Common Swift (left) and Pallid Swift

Pallid Swift in good light is a pale sandy brown whereas the body of Common Swift in similar light always looks blackish. The underwing of Common Swift can look pale, sometimes silvery, particularly if it is not in shadow there is then significant contrast between the underwing and body which is not seen in Pallid which looks rather uniform from below. From above, and less obviously from below, Pallid shows a darker leading edge to the wing and darker outer primaries which contrast with the paler inner wing where Common looks much more uniform.

Pallid Swifts, the right hand bird has a feather in its bill

How apparent this is depends on the viewing angle and the light.
Pallid has a more extensive pale throat which extends more on to the forehead giving it a very pale faced appearance, particularly when seen head on.

Pallid Swift

The feathers of the body are pale fringed when fresh in both species but this is much more apparent in Pallid giving a much scalier appearance to the breast.
In summary, given decent views in good light, the separation of Pallid from Common Swift should be fairly straight forward but faced with a lone bird in less than ideal viewing conditions detailed notes should be taken to confirm the identification.
White-Rumped and Little Swift
I have been to both Spain and Portugal several times in the early Spring but have generally been too early for White-rumped Swift which tends to arrive in Europe in late May. Visiting SW Spain in mid-June was therefore an ideal time to look for it.

Mertola

I visited both Mertola and Minas de Sao Domingo in Portugal. The former town, around the castle at least, didn't look like particularly good habitat for White-rumped Swift to me although there were plenty of Pallid Swifts. There may be suitable cliff faces along the river or the bridge leading to the town but I didn't explore these but instead moved on to Minas de Sao Domingo which is only about a 20 minute drive back towards the Spanish border.

the old open cast copper mine of Minas de Sao Domingo

The old open cast copper mine has left rock faces that provide nesting habitat for large numbers of House Martins and Red-rumped Swallows whilst the Pallid Swifts appear to prefer the nesting habitat in the nearby town.
Both White-rumped and Little Swifts associate with the House Martin flock in the old mine. There is a boardwalk on two sides of the lake and I was able to get excellent views of both species from here without disturbing the birds. I counted at least 6 White-rumped Swift but only saw 1 Little although there may well have been more. The Little appeared to have a House Martin in close attendance and they came together as if mating on one occasion which was unusual. It took time to get reasonable photos as the light was very harsh, it was also over 35 centigrade in the quarry 

White-Rumped Swift

Little Swift

Birding around Thessalonika

Whilst based at Kerkini we made a few trips to the coast, twice to Angelochori near Peraia, which is salt pans and a lagoon and once to Kalochori.
Angelochori didn't have much on the saltpans, around 20 Mediterranean Gulls and a handful of Avocet and Black-winged Stilt with a single Sanderling and a few Kentish Plover. There were Fan-tailed Warblers calling which for some reason don't appear to be at Kerkini.

Mediterranean Gull

Around the lagoon there were both Calandra and Short-toed Larks and the former gave very good views as they displayed over the heathy area. 

Calandra Lark

This area was also good for birds of prey, primarily Kestrel but I also had my first male Red-footed Falcon and Honey Buzzard of the trip and a single Hobby.

Red-footed Falcon - male

There were a lot of Pallid Swifts which appeared to be moving inland from the coast, in a strong wind this provided a good opportunity to get some photos of these fast flyers and with the sunshine the pale feather edgings to the body showed up a treat.

Pallid Swift

Kalochori also had a plenty of Mediterranean Gulls, around 100, and a few Slender-billed (20) but there were also more waders here with a mixed flock of around 70 Curlew Sandpiper and Ruff.

Curlew Sandpiper and Ruff with Black-headed Gulls

We also saw several Stone Curlew here and got good views of one bird. These are the first I have seen since Spain so it was good to see them reasonably close.

Stone Curlew

I'm writing this in Thessalonika Airport, dropping Pam off for her return flight to the UK. From here I am going East towards Porto Lago and the Evros Delta.

Trujillo and Caceres

Pam and I joined the now familiar A66 and headed south from Plasencia and, as had been the pattern in recent days, the sky was overcast and threatening rain.
We left the A66 and headed towards the plains around Hinojal, luckily we encountered a pair of Great Spotted Cuckoo before the rain started and persisted for most of the morning.

Great Spotted Cuckoo

Still there were birds to be seen, amongst the Crested Larks, Calandra's started to appear in numbers and some decent flocks of Spanish Sparrow.

Spanish Sparrow

 We saw several Hoopoe but no sign of any Montagu's Harriers yet around Monroy but with a slightly brighter afternoon we did find a party of 10 Great Bustards and a distant party of sandgrouse that were too far away to name. 

Calandra Lark

A superb Short-toed Eagle was our first of the trip as we arrived in Trujillo.

Short-toed Eagle

 This morning we explored the castle with around 50 Pallid Swifts, 20 Crag Martin and a dozen Red-rumped Swallow as well as Barn Swallow and House Martin. It was difficult to be certain of the swifts identity in the early morning light but as it brightened the paler body with pale fringes to the feathers, giving a scaly appearance, and large pale throat became visible.
Lesser Kestrels were visible from the main square but larger numbers could be seen around the Bull Ring. 

Pallid Swift

Crag Martin

At mid-day we set off again, heading for Huelva on the Atlantic Coast.

Our route so far