Athens bird trip report, April 21st 2024.

Today we run a private birding tour for avid birders from USA: Sebal Sen, a bird enthousiast and photographer and his wife, both originally from India, residing in California for the last 25 years. They had a challenging target species list, so we started right away with Spata fields and the area surrounding Athens International Airport

Bird observatory at Schinias National Park

Surprisingly the first bird of the day was an impressibe Little Owl on the roof of a old building. Fortunately, it gave us the opportunity to take a few shots, under the soft morning light. What a start for the day! Other birds were saw in that particular location were Whinchats, Common Kestrels, Stonechats, Barn Swallows, Common Swifts.

Little Owl at Spata fields

Whinchat

Woodchat Shrike at Spata fields

Driving along the endless wineries, we observed 4 Turtle Doves on a wire and a stunning Woodchat Shrike. Suddenly, a characterictic call was heard: the unique screaming voice of Great Spotted Cuckoos! Indeed, 3 birds were offering us a unforgettable flight show.

Great Spotted Cuckoo

We moved to Artemis Lagoon, a small nearby wetland. At a tiny water pond there were 3 different shorebirds, Curlew Sandpiper, Dunlin and Ruff just a few meters away from us. Other species we recorder were Black-winged Stilts, Zitting Cisticolas, a nice male Garganey and two Little Ringed Plovers.

Curlew Sandpiper and Ruff

Curlew Sandpiper

Our next destination was Ramnous fields, a remote area north of Schinias, which is ideal for raptor migration. A small flock of recently arrived Lesser Kestrels were catching grasshopers and other large insects in the clear sky. Saibal took dozens of flight shots, many of them turned out to be excellent, so here's a small series of them

Lesser Kestrel series of pics

Honey Buzzard

After a traditional birders' lunch, with greek souvlaki, greek salad and local wine, we drove to our last destination for the day, Schinias National Park. At the entrance of the Olympic Rowing Center, the usual friendly dog was there to salute us. Great Reed Warblers were the first birds we heards and fortunately we could achieve some very good views of singing birds. Of cource, breeding Ferruginous Ducks were the protagonists. This striking duck is threatened worldwide, while Schinias in one of the few areas in Greece were this species breeds, with 60-70 pairs recently recorded.