Lots of sunshine ........ but only a few birds

Today was much quieter, with no substantive arrival though there was a good mix of species. Not really surprising given the clear weather and the light westerly winds.

There were still 41 Subalpine Warblers, presumably largely a hangover from yesterday's arrival. Other species were also present in reduced numbers: 4 Quail, 8 Hoopoe, 3 Wryneck, 7 Blackcap, 3 Willow Warbler, 13 Nightingale, 3 Black Redstart and 5 Redstart. Good numbers of Tawny Pipit were still present, with 18 today, these were one of the few species that appeared to have arrived overnight.

Raptors - 3 Marsh Harriers went north and there was also a single Kestrel.

Odds and Ends - what was presumably the same Common Starling as 2 days ago was present at beehive pass first thing, 2 Hooded Crow had wandered down from the north and were calling over Kokinoghia and the only Sombre Tit we have seen on the headland this year also appeared at Kokinoghia.

Weather - wind W 2-3 early on increasing W4-5 in afternoon. Clear skies but hazy. Visibility moderate, Kithira island just about visible throughout the day.

North bound Marsh Harrier over 'pipit plateau'

A Hoopoe at 'beehive pass' this morning

A Tawny Pipit near 'swallow hollow'

Lots of Subalpine Warblers ......... and a few other things as well

Today started off not looking that promising, clear skies and almost no wind. There was a smattering of migrants present early on, but nothing exceptional in the way of numbers and the variety seemed relatively limited. We headed out to the lighthouse without any great expectations however as we approached it we started picking up small numbers of Subalpine Warblers heading north, including one 'flock' of 4 birds. We even saw 2 birds move off the point rocks and pass the lighthouse itself. This proved to be the start of a substantial mid-morning arrival seemingly dominated by Subalpine Warblers; the only other obvious species that was part of the influx was Willow Warbler. Interestingly on Antikythira today while they also recorded a large arrival of Subalpine Warblers they ringed more Chiffchaffs than Willow Warblers (and yes we do know the difference between the two !).

Final totals for selected species were: 10 Quail, 7 Hoopoe, 4 Wryneck, 25 Willow Warbler, 3 Chiffchaff, 191 Subalpine Warbler, 21 Blackcap, 18 Northern Wheatear, 5 Redstart and 18 Nightingale.

Hirundines and Finches - very few swallows or martins today. Small numbers of finches were on the move with 27 Linnet, 6 Goldfinch and 3 Serin (the latter species is surprisingly uncommon here but that may simply reflect us being too late for their main migration). 

Raptors - 1 Marsh Harrier flew north. We also disturbed one of the local Peregrines at the lighthouse that flew off with a freshly caught Quail. 

Oddities - a female Rock Thrush just north of Beehive Pass, 2 Collared Doves at Kokinoghia and 2 Isabelline  Wheatear ('Pipit Plateau' and near Paliros).

Weather - clear skies with a W 1-2 wind early on, then calm for much of the morning wind then increasing WSW 4 by mid afternoon. Little cloud cover for most of the day, however hazy with comparatively limited visibility (Kythira island just about visible).

A Subalpine Warbler at Porto Kagio today. The main concentrations were very patchy, being almost entirely on the east side of the mountain (we could only find 5 at Marmari), and even then birds were present in some areas but not others (there were over 60 at Paliros but only 3 at Koureli)

A Red-throated Pipit at 'swallow hollow'

The gardiens at Porto Kagio

Hoopoes and Northern Wheatear

,,Today started slowly with seemingly few grounded migrants, a walk to the lighthouse and back also revealed relatively little the highlights being 29 Short-toed Larks, 27 Tawny Pipits and our first Peregrine. However by midday there were clearly more birds present along the main headland road than first thing, a loose group of 10 Northern Wheatear and 3 Woodchat Shrikes near the 'lonesome' pine being the best example. After lunch there were also 1 or 2 Hoopoes to be found pretty much anywhere we stopped.

Notable totals for the day were: 6 Quail, 20 Hoopoe, 8 Woodchat Shrike, 19 Blackcap, 21 Subalpine Warbler, 15 Nightingale, 6 Redstart and 44 Northern Wheatear, the latter being a new peak count for Cape Tenaro. 

Scarcer migrants were represented by 4 Collared Dove, a Common Starling (at Mianes), a new male Rock Thrush (on the terraces around 'Magic Bush') and a Sparrowhawk.

Hirundines were in short supply all day and the only other obvious visible migrants were small numbers of Linnet and Goldfinch visibly heading north.

Migrant Raptors - 2 Marsh Harrier and 2 Kestrel

Weather - wind WNW for most of the day, 5-6 early on then dropping briefly before freshening later in the afternoon. Mostly clear skies. No rain. Visibility again good with Antikythira visible for most of the day.

Common Starling at Mianes - the fourth spring record for the headland

A male Blue Rock Thrush on the terraces around Magic Bush

Northern Wheatear - at least 44 were seen today

A Nightingale at Porto Kagio - 29th March 2016

A view of the Cape Tenaro headland from the north, looking across the narrow neck. Porto Kagio is the village in th bay on the left

Harriers, a Rock Thrush and a Bunting

Today delivered another really enjoyable day's birding. It was almost flat calm this morning, combined with warm sunshine allowed for some great birding in the main valley early on. Grounded migrants were rather unevenly spread across the headland and no where in great numbers however there was a good variety and the interest was sustained until the end of the day.

There were several more 'firsts' today including Ruppell's Warbler (2), Pallid Harrier (2), White Wagtail, Rock Thrush and Cretzschmar's Bunting.

There was also a small but distinct fall, the main species involved were: Wryneck (6), Hoopoe (10), Whitethroat (8), Subalpine Warbler (16), Nightingale (14), Black-eared Wheatear (19), Northern Wheatear (12) and Black Redstart (11).

Ornithologically the most interesting event of the day was the presence of a large number of Alpine Swifts from mid-morning. This species is regular at Cape Tenaro in spring and normally appears in small numbers (up to 40) when there is bad weather further north on the Mani peninsula. Today there was great weather yet large numbers of Apline Swifts, we reckoned there were in excess of 220 birds present (and possibly more), across much of the headland until mid-afternoon. The birds were also feeding very low down racing across the hillsides in small packs. Very spectacular !

Raptors - 2 Marsh Harrier, 2 Pallid Harrier and 2 Kestrel.

Weather - Calm early on, the wind the freshened from the north-east for a time before switching to the west. It the calmed off for a period before strengthening from the NW, being NW 6 by the end of the afternoon. Clear and sunny all day. Visibility outstanding with Crete (about 150km away) being visible during the afternoon.

The first Cretzschmar's Bunting of the year appeared at Marmari late afternoon

A distant view of the second of two Pallid Harriers that moved north today

A male Rock Thrush on wires above Kokinoghia 

An Alpine Swift feeding low over the mountain

Alpine Swifts were unusually present for much of the day today

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