A small mixed fall

Some news on the commoner migrants today.

Weather - Wind, almost calm after sunrise but soon NE 5-6 to late afternoon then becoming SSE 6. Mostly clear with occasional broken cloud in morning.

A wider variety of species were on the move today and although none were in exceptional numbers there was at least a good variety on show. Totals for the day for grounded species showing an increase were 10 Hoopoe, 15 Wryneck, 6 Woodchat Shrike, 9 Wood Warbler, 30 Whitethroat, 17 Subalpine Warbler, 45 Nightingale, 2 Collared Flycatcher, 4 Pied Flycatcher and 6 Redstart. The first Spotted Flycatcher and Cuckoo of the year were also noted.

Among the daytime migrants while Swallows were down Red-rumped Swallows were up with 18 logged and the first 'ball' of 70 north bound Spanish Sparrows went over Paliros at about 12.30.

There was also a mini raptor passage with 1 Marsh Harrier and 7 Kestrels north, an unidentified white-rumped harrier glimpsed briefly on the mountain and another harrier heading east c.1km off-shore from the lighthouse in to the headwind - and making slow progress.

 

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Blue-cheeked Bee-eater here for a second day

Well to our surprise the Blue-cheeked Bee-eater was here for a second day. It had relocated to where the road ends at Kokinoghia. Initially it was on wires leading to the isolated house east of the Point car park but a couple of hours later it had moved to the upper part of the village and joined 4 European Bee-eaters. Our last sighting was about 11.00 and we didn't get a chance to look again at the end of the day to see if it was still there.

More on today's other birds later.

Two sorts of Bee-eaters at Kokinoghia 5 April 2013

 

 

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Of Wheatears and Bee-eaters

A quick summary of today's passage:

Weather - Wind WNW 6-7 in morning, decreasing 6 later. Mostly overcast early on but clearing by midday and then clear.

The wind once again made finding birds hard however it was not quite as difficult as yesterday and it was obvious by late morning that there had been a small arrival overnight. In the afternoon more Wheatears suddenly appeared along the roads to the Point and Mianes seemingly indicating birds arriving during the day, this was confirmed as we drove north from the headland at the end of the day with small groups of Wheatears present on the road (c35 in total).

Totals for the day for those species showing a marked increase were: 7 Hoopoe, 18 Willow Warbler, 27 Whitethroat, 15 Subalpine Warbler, 13 Whinchat, 37 Northern Wheatear, 17 Black-eared Wheatear ans. single White Wagtail.

In addition to the Blue-cheeked Bee-eater mentioned in the previous post there were also 7+ Bee-eaters in 3 parties.

At dusk there were further indications that things are improving when 46 Little Egrets and 18 Grey Herons flew north at Gerolimenas.

Fingers crossed for a good day tomorrow !

 

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A Wheatear Fall and a Bee-eater Bonus

Well hopes for today were relatively low with the WNW wind still blowing force 6 to 7; up until lunchtime it had continued to feel like hard work although we had picked up a bigger variety of species than yesterday. After lunch we decided to walk up to Mianes as the flattish fields there are often good for Wheatears, as we walked up the road we spotted a Bee-eater on the wires ahead and to both our surprise and delight it turned out to be a BlueCheeked !!!

After a while watching this and getting some passable pics we carried on up to the plateau where we saw a good number of Wheatears, but more of that later as beer and food are the next priority !

The Bee-eater was still present as we left Mianes and was sat on the first powerlines as you approach the village.

 

 

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Oh how the wind blows .... and blows ......

Well despite some signs of early promise when 3 Marsh Harriers went north in half an hour (c.08.00hrs) and the Bee-eaters mentioned in the last post the rest of the day proved hard work. The wind was WNW pretty much all day Force 6 increasing 7 with gusts of 8 and so finding anywhere sheltered on the headland where a migrant bird might show itself proved a challenge. As a result nearly all species were down in numbers; perhaps surprisingly though the species total was similar to yesterday though we did only manage a single individual of 13 species.

There were however a few signs of movement, a Tawny Pipit came in-off at the lighthouse, the 5 Bee-eaters were clearly new, there were single Pied and Collared Flycatchers, the total of 161 Swallows was easily the best yet and 6 Redstarts was two up on yesterday and probably represented a genuine increase. While Wrynecks were down to 7 all of these were in or close to the southern most village (Kokinoghia) on the headland where we only had 1 or 2 yesterday so were probably also new in. Despite this it felt like really hard work and the forecast suggests it will only be a little bit easier tomorrow.

Wryneck near Kokinoghia

 

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The first grounded Bee-eater of the year

We heard 2 groups go over 2 days ago however today we actually got to see some. There were 4 this morning hawking with Swallows in the shelter of the lighthouse ridge while this afternoon this bird was feeding over the gardens at Porto Kaghio.

Bee-eater at Porto Kaghio

 

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Wrynecks and Nightingales

Well no sooner had I said the Wryneck passage was nothing special this year then we get a decent arrival. Today's total amounted to 18 birds seen, mostly in the gardens and olive groves of the northern half of the headland. Several of them out sunbathing on prominent perches and so performing very well. Our previous best counts were of 10 birds in a day on 24th April 2005 and 8th April 2008.

Along with the Wrynecks there was a small fall of other species, none especially abundant, totals for the day for species showing a noticeable increase included: 27 Nightingale, 9 Quail, 6 Woodchat Shrike, 14 Whitethroat and 17 Subalpine Warbler.

Other notable highlights today were 2 female Peregrines having a noisy stand-off over the lighthouse and a Black Redstart with only one leg at Paliros that seemed to be doing remarkably well in the windy weather. Late in the day there were two Spanish Sparrows near Marmari the first we've seen this year.

Departures and arrivals ........

The fairly strong force 6 to 7 north-westerly winds did not offer that much promise and as expected there were no significant arrivals however, perhaps surprisingly, some new birds did make it in while others had departed. At the lighthouse several flava wagtails were seen coming in and small groups of Swallows also moved north.

Species showing a noticeable increase were: 11 Willow Warbler, 4 Ruppell's Warbler, 14 Northern Wheatear, 12 Black-eared Wheatear, 12 Whinchat and 23 Tawny Pipit. There was also a build up of hirundines feeding on the sheltered east side of the mountain in the afternoon and totals for the day were 115 Swallows and 8 Red-rumped Swallows. Other signs of in coming migrants included single Lesser Kestrel and Marsh Harrier both of which went north.

The surprise bird of the day was the first, and seemingly early, Wood Warbler of the year at 'Windy Gap' (Paliros).

Counts for species that had clearly declined over night were: 1 Sedge Warbler, 12 Subalpine Warbler, 5 Blackcap and 13 Nightingale.

It is interesting that Antikythira has been reporting higher than usual numbers of both Wryneck and Hoopoe over the last week. Numbers of Wryneck at Cape Tenaro are lower this year compared to previous years, while the Hoopoe numbers are good but similar to other years. There are also some marked differences in species diversity with no Lesser Whitethroat or Semi-collared Flycatcher seen here yet this year and only one Balkan Warbler. Such differences may reflect ringing over observations as a way of assessing migrant abundance or diversity or perhaps there are real differences even given the relative closeness of the two sites (90km).