Svante and Elisabeth are a lovely couple from Sweden. They came to Athens for a short holiday, along with their 5-year old son, Oscar. Despite his age, Oscar has joined his parents on birding trips several times and this trip was no exception. Of course, the trip was adjusted to cover a toddler's needs as well and the pace was more relaxed but by no means not focused on seeing as many birds as possible.
Starting from the hotel at 08.00 and headed to Schinias National Park, looking for the site's specialities of the season like the Pygmy Cormorant, the Ferruginous Duck, the Red-crested Pochard and the Moustached Warbler. We saw them all at the Olympic Rowing Center quite effortlessly. A very nice Eared Grebe was lookin for food quite close and there were also a lot of other waterbirds (Coots, Cormorants, Gray Herons etc).
We left the rowing center and searched the central marsh for raptors. We had good views of Marsh Harriers, Common Buzzards, Kestrels and Sparrowhawks but no sign of the Great Spotted Eagle. Lots of passerines, however, made our search very productive and kept as quite busy.
Starting from the hotel at 08.00 and headed to Schinias National Park, looking for the site's specialities of the season like the Pygmy Cormorant, the Ferruginous Duck, the Red-crested Pochard and the Moustached Warbler. We saw them all at the Olympic Rowing Center quite effortlessly. A very nice Eared Grebe was lookin for food quite close and there were also a lot of other waterbirds (Coots, Cormorants, Gray Herons etc).
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| Red-crested Pochards |
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| Eared (aka Black-necked) Grebe |
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| Svante, Elizabeth and Oscar at the rowing center |
We left the rowing center and searched the central marsh for raptors. We had good views of Marsh Harriers, Common Buzzards, Kestrels and Sparrowhawks but no sign of the Great Spotted Eagle. Lots of passerines, however, made our search very productive and kept as quite busy.
As the Rock Bunting was another target species, we headed south and reached Vravrona Wetland. It was late noon and time was running out but we managed to find 3 Rock Buntings!
The trip was over and we managed to find 50 species, a great number for an easy-going trip.
TRIP CHECKLIST
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