Champions of the Flyway - Helping Birds in Greece

At midnight tonight 16 teams of birdwatchers are competing in a bird race in southern Israel to see who can see the largest number of species in 24 hours.  Why does this matter? Well it is a sponsored event and the money raised is being given to the Hellenic Ornithological Society to help,them tackle illegal hunting and bird trapping in Greece. See this link for details of the problems and how the money will be used:

http://www.champions-of-the-flyway.com/cause/

Illegal bird hunting is not confined to the Greek Islands, here on the Mani peninsula there is a long standing tradition of hunting Turtle Doves during the Spring migration. This hunting is illegal in Greece.

The population of Turtle Doves is in steep decline across Europe. Now is the time to act.

You can help by sponsoring one of the Champions of the Flyway teams and sponsoring them. It's easy see here:

http://www.champions-of-the-flyway.com/meet-the-2016-cotf-race-teams/

ACT NOW !! 

Lovely weather and a few new birds for the year

Some great birding this morning, it was almost calm early on however the wind picked up during the day and by mid-afternoon it was hard to find any sheltered habitat, so finished a little earlier than usual.

A pre-dawn shower had clearly helped drop a few migrants in to the bushes and on pipit plateau, however it appeared that that by lunchtime numbers had thinned presumably as birds moved north off the headland.

There were several 'firsts for the year today' including 3 each of Savi's and Great Reed Warblers, 2 Tree Pipits and a male Pied Flycatcher; all these were along the first part of the road from beehive pass to the Point. Totals for the main migrants were 6 Quail, 2 Wryneck, 4 Hoopoe, 4 Woodchat Shrike, 18 Blackcap, 17 Nightingale, 10 Northern Wheatear, 2 Whinchat, 9 Redstart, 2 Black Redstart, 9 Willow Warbler,  8 Subalpine Warbler and singles of Sedge Warbler and Chiffchaff. 

Somewhat more surprising was the appearance of a new group of Black-winged Stilts in Porto Sternes (yesterday's birds appeared to have left before lunchtime). These birds were quite approachable compared to the flighty ones yesterday.

Visible (as opposed to grounded) migrants included 67 Swallow, 12 Red-rumped Swallow, 8 House Martin, 4 Common Swift, 2 Greenfinch, 16 Linnet and 5 Goldfinch. 

Raptor migration was limited to a single male Marsh Harrier and 2 Kestrels.

Weather - calm and largely clear early on, wind freshening from WNW after 9am and by mid-afternoon  it was NW 6-7. Cloud increased during the day but remained patchy. Visibility excellent, Antikythira in sight all day.

Black-winged Stilts in Porto Sternes (the sixth bird was on an adjacent rock)

A female Woodchat Shriike at Kokinoghia. This bird still appears to be showing traces of juvenile plumage.

A Black Redstart ar Paliros

A view of Porto Kagio from the north.

A small arrival

The wind has finally dropped so the birding was a lot easier today and it was sunny as well until mid-afternoon. The wind went round to east-north-east for a while in the morning but was back in the west by the end of the afternoon.

While there was only a small arrival there was a good variety and several species were recorded for the first time this year. Totals for the day included 5 Quail, 1 Short-toed Eagle, 7 Hoopoe, 4 Wryneck, 4 Woodchat Shrike, 11 Willow Warbler, 9 Subalpine Warbler, 4 Whitethroat, 22 Blackcap, 7 Redstart, 4 Black Redstart, 1 Robin, 2 Whinchat and 3 Isabelline Wheatear.

Other birds of interest were a flock of 3 restless Black-winged Stilts in Porto Sternes during the morning and a Hen Harrier feeding over the hillside above Koureli late on.

This very obliging Isabelline Wheatear was watched eating a huge caterpillar, having rubbed and banged it against the road for five minutes, presumably to remove any hairs, it then managed to swallow it whole ! 

Black-winged Stiltsin Porto Sternes

The first two Whinchats were seen today this one was at Porto Kagio

Hoopoes are always a treat !

Larks, Pipits and Wagtails

The wind was a little less strong today though still stuck in the west for much of the day; there were also two heavy showers in the early afternoon. Plenty of sunshine meant that it felt a lot warmer today. 

There appeared to have been a distinct arrival of pipits and larks overnight with the main concentrations along the path out towards the lighthouse. Totals for the day were 56 Short-toed Lark, 30 Tawny Pipits and 11 Meadow Pipits. Flava wagtails appeared to arrive following the showers and a total of 65 had been logged by the end of the afternoon. 

Other conspicuous migrants today were 10 Hoopoe, 6 Quail and 10 Common Redstart. There were also 3 Wrynecks however none of these gave good views.

In addition to 49 Swallows there were 12 House Martin, 4 Red-rumped Swallow, 3 Sand Martins and a single Crag Martin. The other notable visible migrants were a party of 21 Grey Herons that flew north high up off the east coast.

A flava wagtail - Cape Tenaro 25th March 2016

Looking north to the olive groves at Koureli from the road to Kokinoghia

First Afternoon - an early Turtle Dove

We arrived at Cape Tenaro in the early afternoon (yesterday) to be greeted by near gale force westerly winds. There were however a few birds about including an early Turtle Dove, 3 Hoopoe, a single Woodchat Shrike, 7 Quail (all calling), 4 Black Redstart, 3 Common Redstart and small numbers of the commoner warblers.

An early Turtle Dove - Cape Tenaro 24th March 2016

Unexpected were several parties of Common Swift totalling 29 birds. There were also small groups of rather tired looking hirundines with 51 Swallows and 6 Red-rumped Swallows.

Swallows at Porto Kagio

A Red-rumped Swallow at Porto Kagio

The Evrota Delta - Is this Natura 2000 site at risk?

On our way to Cape Tenaro yesterday we spent an enjoyable enough morning at the Evrota Delta, a Natura 2000 site important for its population of migrant Gloosy Ibis and coastal sand dunes. The poor weather the previous night and during the day saw a good concentration of Swallows with over 700 feeding over the wetlands. There were also 5 Great White Egrets, at least 4 Marsh Harrier, a Hen Harrier, 2+ Penduline Tits and plenty of calling Water Rail (10+).

It was a shame however to see various development pressures nibbling away at the edges of this important wetland:

Rubbish dumping in an area once frequented by herons, egrets and waders

A solar panel farm constructed on an area of the wetland regularly used by Glossy Ibis in the past

An orange grove planted on an area of wet grassland formerly used by Glossy Ibis, egrets and herons

This pond was new a year ago however the site now has a caravan and other infrastructure, possibly associated with fish farming, in a previously undeveloped area of the Natura 200 site

Bird news to follow ...........

Just trying to resolve a software glitch with the blogging app ....... Post with bird news to follow later

Cape Tenaro 2016

The season has started ! We arrived yesterday and had time for a few hours birding. Posts on yesterday's observations and anything we see today will follow later.

This year year you can also follow any birding and wildlife highlights on Twitter @capetenaronews