I called my wife tonight and told her it had been raining for most of the day.............she just burst into laughter? What is that all about?
Yes its true not everyday is terrific with wall to wall sunshine! We had rain from 10am until, well, its still raining now at 9:30pm as I write this.
We left the hotel at 8:15 after an early breakfast and set off for the pine woods at Achladeri, it was dull overcast and cold. At the woods we spent a while looking for Kruper's Nuthatch at a traditional nest site but no birds were seen, we then walked up the track deeper into the woods and discovered a pair of Short-toed Treecreepers feeding young, very nice. We then searched the woods for an hour or so before discovering a pair of Kruper's Nuthatches tapping out a hole for a new nest, a great find we saw them very well.
Some of the group walking through the pines in the rain
Next we drove along the southern shore of the Gulf of Kalloni to the Polinichtos Salt Pans where we found several waders, flamingo's and egrets. It was raining by then so we didn't venture out of the bus very much.
A poor picture of the Treecreeper at the nest - you can just make out the chick with its mouth agape.
At Vatera we drove along the west river looking from the bus, we found Common and Wood Sandpipers and not much else. The headland at Aghios Fokas provides an excellent outpost from where you can sea-watch. We saw over 1000 Yelkouan Shearwaters sitting out in the bay along with sevral Scopoli's Shearwater and a Shag. On the land we found lots of Pied and Spotted Flycatchers, Tree Pipit, Sardinian Warbler and Whinchats.
The weather in the afternoon gradually got worse, we drove back to the Kalloni area stopping at a beach site where we found Great crested Grebes out in the bay and a Curlew on the beach. At Kalloni Salt Pans all the usual sightings were there and a nice influx of White-winged Terns was good to see. We got back at the hotel, wet, tired and hungry at 6pm.
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