Three Lazy Days – 10,000 Birds

Lake Kerkini Nationwide Park within the north of Greece is the easiest birding space within the Balkan Peninsula and undoubtedly among the many prime ten hotspots of Europe. Surprisingly, regardless of being on the positioning of a former marsh, Kerkini is a man-made reservoir with the aim of irrigation of arable fields. The lake lies at a mere 35 m / 115 ft a.s.l. and is towered by the forested, 2,030 m / 6,660 ft excessive Mt. Kerkini/Belles on its northern aspect, providing an enormous altitudinal vary and a terrific number of habitats. Some 320 species have been recorded right here, and in springtime it’s doable to watch greater than 150 chook species in per week.

That is additionally my favorite birding spot, which I normally go to yearly, however as a result of pandemic disruption I used to be now returning after a 4 years break. We arrived simply earlier than midnight to fulfill our buddy and the Limneo Hotel proprietor Nikos Gallios, with whom we shared a superb pizza topped with recent village produce, mere 100 m / 330 ft from his lodge. What amazed me is that, as a substitute of the standard 6 or 8 slices, this pizza was lower into tiny, bite-size slices!

Booted Eagle by Kostas Papadopoulos

The subsequent morning was a lazy one, a late breakfast and even later tour. It was getting sizzling, so as a substitute of an initially deliberate 6 km intense birding route, I opted for a leisurely 70 km around the lake drive with some en route birding intermingled with a number of cafe and restaurant stops. The southern half of the lake produced White Stork, Spanish Sparrow, Pygmy Cormorant, Nice White Pelican, Squacco Heron, Black-crowned Night time-Heron, Eurasian Spoonbill, Black Kite, European Bee-eater, Crested Lark, Nice Reed Warbler, Pink-rumped Swallow, and simply earlier than the espresso break, a Lesser Noticed Eagle swallowing a snake in mid-air.

Lesser Noticed Eagle and Eurasian Hoopoe by Kostas Papadopoulos

After which we had whipped and iced espresso frappe, which is right now much more widespread in Greece than conventional Greek espresso (with much less political correctness it might be additionally referred to as Turkish espresso, one thing I by no means tried myself) in a deep shade of very dense tree crowns, which is, alas, additionally very a lot appreciated by a neighborhood gang of mosquitoes. But, that was the one time we used insect repellent on your entire journey. The northern half of the lake added Corn Bunting, European Turtle Dove, Dalmatian Pelican, Purple Heron, Eurasian Interest, Eurasian Golden Oriole, Eurasian Inexperienced Woodpecker, and solely the primary of the a number of Masked Shrikes of the tour (cowl photograph by Kostas Papadopoulos).

The subsequent cease was for lunch in a Railway Station Tavern within the Vyronenia Village. Though the trains on the Thessaloniki-Alexandroupolis line appear to be few and much in between, they nonetheless cease at this village station become a restaurant. We sat outside, shaded by previous airplane timber and cooled by a brief bathe falling within the shiny daylight. We have been joined by Nikos and his household, so we ordered a dozen conventional dishes and salads to share, some native buffalo sausages and pork kebabs with yoghurt sauce, bouyiourdi (a Greek appetizer consisting of feta cheese, kasseri, tomatoes, oregano, olive oil and bell peppers), a mushroom pie, after which there was one other salty pie with honey, it’s all combined up in my thoughts by now. The service was quick, the dishes nice, costs reasonable and the corporate priceless. To spherical up the day, in our base-village of Chrisochorafa, we later had one cute Little Owl just some hundred metres from our lodge.

The subsequent day was the one after I awoke early – the one time on this journey. I went to discover the perfect birding space of the nationwide park, the legendary japanese levee, and at the present time began with one other Little Owl within the subsequent village. The levee was bursting with singing Widespread Nightingales, Eurasian Penduline Tits, Japanese Olivaceous Warblers, Cetti’s Warblers (one permitting for the perfect of views), and Cirl Buntings. Then there have been a number of Hawfinches and two younger Black Storks, Little Bittern, Nice White Egret, Shiny Ibis, Widespread Kingfisher, Syrian Woodpecker, Peregrine Falcon, Pink-backed Shrike, Lesser Gray Shrike, Collared Flycatcher and a household of Western Yellow Wagtails. Later within the day, roadside birds included a Booted Eagle and a Levant Sparrowhawk.

Subsequent morning we joined certainly one of Nikos’s Varkada Boat Excursions of the lake, crusing round and thru chook colonies and into the principle in-flow channel of the Strymonas River the place it enters the lake. Attributable to heavy rains many clutches of Nice Crested Grebes had failed, however we noticed each nests with eggs (and left the world instantly) and adults with chicks, a few of them piggy-backing their moms. We additionally noticed nests of Pygmy Cormorants, Dalmatian Pelicans, Little Egrets, Cattle Egret (with a chick), Squacco Heron, and Spoonbills. The final time I used to be right here, the Nationwide Park Director, Dr Theodoros Naziridis, informed me they have been ready for a extremely excessive water degree to tug the floating concrete raft (supposed for breeding of pelicans) additional away so the pile of rocks it was anchored to might develop into a basis for the brand new wood platform. Nevertheless, throughout a storm the chains that stored it anchored broke off and the raft is now stranded on the shore, accessible to stray canines and never used for breeding. The Strymonas Channel was adorned by quite a few Nice White Pelicans, Black-crowned Night time-Herons, Shiny Ibises, additionally Penduline Tits, Widespread Reed Warblers, Cetti’s Warblers and Eurasian Tree Sparrows. Final however not least, there have been three species of shrikes, Pink-backed, Lesser Gray and no less than 2 Masked Shrikes, presumably 2 extra, a whole household (not all have been exhibiting so effectively).

Nice White Pelicans by Kostas Papadopoulos

We devoted the afternoon to the small, deserted and revitalised quarry behind the hamlet of Chimarros. It turned out to be the house of the ultimate of the 4 native shrikes, the Woodchat Shrike (a household, 2 adults and a pair of juveniles) exhibiting effectively, a singing Ortolan Bunting, Turtle Dove, another Masked Shrike, Japanese Olivaceous Warbler, Noticed Flycatcher, Yellowhammer, in addition to 3 grazing Greek tortoise (Testudo graeca).

Versus one earlier Kerkini tour when two intense days got me over 100 species, these three lazy days obtained me 95 species and I’m very pleased with the rating and the best way I obtained there. The subsequent day we went to a different nationwide park, this time a sequence of coastal lagoons, however you’ll learn that story in a fortnight.