A mixed bag of fortune today with some great sightings and some disappointment, but that's birding for you, but what was consistent was the weather, is was lovely all day.
A pre-breakfast sortie was made at 6:30am to the large pasture fields behind the Kalloni Salt Pans, we were looking for Collared Pratincole but none were present, however we did see plenty of other species. The highlight was a pair of Temminck's Stints which fed in a shallow pool with Little Stint, Little Ringed Plover, Kentish Plover, Ruff and Wood Sandpiper. We also had good views of Red-throated Pipit, Short-toed Lark and Yellow Wagtail. From the beach area we could a great distance over the Gulf of Kalloni, it was like a mill pond, we added Great Crested Grebe, Common Tern and some distant Black Terns.
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| he sand bar with Black Storks, Cormorants, Grey Heron and Little Egrets |
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| one of the 5 Black Storks |
Next we stopped at the marsh at Mesa where we stood on an old bridge to view the reed beds and pools. A section of birds were present including a lovely Purple Heron and a pair of Ruddy Shelduck. We took a short walk along a track where a scrub covered hillside ran up to our left, there we saw Black-eared Wheatear and Turtle Dove. From this new vantage point we could see more of the marsh and added Wood Sandpiper, Common Moorhen, Great Egret, another Purple Heron and two Marsh Harriers, a Glossy Ibis dropped in as we walked back, a Water Rail called and a Squacco Heron sat on the track eating a huge grub. We found two species of orchids, Holy Orchid and Tongue Orchid along the track.
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| Holy Orchid |
The pine woods at Achladeri have been the best' ace to see Kruper's Nuthatch for many a year and this was our next target species. However the Nuthatch had other intentions and failed to show for all of us after extensive searching, Nevertheless we did see Cirl Bunting, Short-toed Tree-creeper, Serin and lots of Chaffinches.
We ate our picnic lunch along the beach on the south side of the Gulf of Kalloni, the water was flat-calm and lunch was nice. We watched Yellow Wagtails in a grassy field with a Red-throated Pipit, a couple of the grow wandered off and found a Sedge Warbler.
We drove to the Polinichos Salt Pans where a fair number of birds were present, we saw lots of Ruff, Avocet and Greater Flamingos and our first Eurasian Curlew, a couple of Gull-billed Terns flew over us just before we left.
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| Yellow Wagtails at lunchtime |
Finally we arrived at Vatera and the Aghios Fokas peninsular, a couple stops produced the target bird the Sardinian Warbler and out at sea we scanned the area for shearwaters. A few Yelkouan Shearwaters flew passed but it was very disappointing, we also added European Shag to our list.
On the return journey we stopped off at the pine woods for another crack at the Nuthatch without success, one of the group saw a Middle Spotted Woodpecker.
As we returned to the Kalloni area we intended to visit the salt pans and along the main road we stopped where a small crowd of borders were looking into some small pools of water on a waste land.
Its a good job we stopped because a Spur-winged Plover was sitting there, wow this was a great species for our list, what a stunning looking bird. We also found a couple of Stone Curlew there.
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| only a record shot of the Spur-winged Plover |
Moving into the pans we stopped to view a large group of waders which grew as size as more birds dropped in. We added Curlew Sandpiper and a Dunlin to our list and counted over 50 Little Stints..
Our final destination of the day was where we started early this morning, in the pastures called Alykes Wetlands, we had heard of the presence of a flock of Collared Pratincole but alas they had gone by the time we got there.
So we had had a very busy day with lots of highs and lows but still very enjoyable nonetheless.
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