Carol and Peter Abbot from Australia made a literally last-minute call for a birding tour with Greece Bird Tours in Athens.
This time
of the year is, one can say, a transitional period as the wintering birds have already started moving north and the migrants are still a few days before their arrival.
Our first
stop was at Hymettus mountain; Kesariani monastery and the Robin was the
first bird we saw singing its beautiful song. Other species we saw around the
monastery were Coal Tit, Short-toed Treecreeper, Blackcap and some other common
ones. Even though it was early March we headed towards the top of the mountain to
check for any spring arrivals. Unfortunately we didn't see any, but we had good
views of Chukar, Sparrowhawk, Common Buzzard and Blue Rock Thrush.
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| Chukar in Athens |
Next stop
was Vravrona wetland. This beautiful place combines a very beautiful ancient
temple of Artemis with a nice birding area. Some of the species we saw were
Mute Swans, a flock of House Martins that had just arrived, Meadow and Water Pipits,
White and Grey Wagtails, Reed, Cirl and Corn Buntings.
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| House Martin |
Our final
destination was Schinias National Park but before that we also visited Loutsa Lagoon and . the small estuary of Megalo Rema stream in the port of Rafina. Some of the species we saw were, Yelkouan Shearwater,
Shoveler, Teal, Mallard etc.
At Schinias NP, the highlight was an overwintering Black-winged Stilt and some
Red-crested Pochards (both male and female). Other species seen include the Little Grebe, the Stonechat, the Song Thrush, the Serin, the Crested Lark, the Skylark, the Sardinian Warbler etc. A
Water Rail was calling all the time but it never showed up.
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| Red-crested Pochards |
Our total
species of a nice birding day was 55 birds seen and 1 heard.
TRIP CHECKLIST (H = Hymettus, V = Vravrona, L = Loutsa, R = Rafina, S = Schinias)
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