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“The estuary and the delta of the River Kalamas form the most important wetland of northwest Greece”, so the “ Birding in Greece ” guidebook claims for the area where I am heading, a bit late since I overslept this morning. I am checking the grass for any flash of white and soon my suspicion is confirmed: Cattle Egrets (cover photo)!
Lake Kerkini National Park in the north of Greece is the very best birding area in the Balkan Peninsula and definitely among the top ten hotspots of Europe. We also observed nests of Pygmy Cormorants , Dalmatian Pelicans , Little Egrets , Cattle Egret (with a chick), Squacco Heron , and Spoonbills.
I was driving along the legendary eastern levee of the Kerkini Lake in northern Greece ( Google Map ) and, listening to the first Golden Oriole flute, was slowly getting closer to a wooded Mt. Out of some 4000 buffaloes still being kept in Greece, about 3000 are at this lake. I’m in Greece, after all. mi) above the lake.
Like many of you, I had plans for this year’s spring migration: to bird the very best tour of the Balkans, heading for northeastern Greece. First, 800 km of driving from Belgrade through Bulgaria to very NE corner of Greece and the Dadia Forest National Park with its 36 species of diurnal raptors, out of Europe’s 38.
Located in Thessaly province in central Greece, what is now left of the lake where the god Apollo was married and where the Argonauts built their kingdom is officially called the reservoirs of the former Lake Karla. A few Lesser Kestrels by the dyke wall, then a Black-eared Wheatear at some cattle fencing.
It’s a reservoir, not a natural lake, and was formed by damming the Striminos river, which flows into Greece from neighboring Bulgaria (unfortunately bringing with it huge amounts of plastic rubbish, creating problems for the National Park.) It gives comprehensive coverage of Lake Kerkini. The post Kerkini: Europe’s Best Bird Lake?
That was not all, a few days later, by one village rubbish dump, not far from Ahmedabad, we had more than 100 Egyptian Vultures (above); plus 20 more at the dead cattle dumping site at the outskirts of the city. Finally, when our SUV broke down in Gujarat, India, some three years ago, my first two Egyptians were flying above the road!
Our two newest contributors have shared from Mexico and China, bringing the countries birded this month (also including; Costa Rica, Greece, Serbia, USA, UK, India, UAE and New Zealand) to 10. Cattle Egret – Bubulcus ibis. beats have still managed to share 82 checklists and accounted for 737 species. Laguna Lagarto Lodge.
Storks, Ibises and Spoonbills goes on to give greater detail of the former nesting sites in Europe: it could once be found “in southern Germany and Austria, in the valleys of the upper Rhine and Danube Rivers, and in the Alps of Switzerland, Italy and Germany, and perhaps in Hungary and Greece”. Here they were easy to overlook.
These are the numbers acheived by 10 (we have a new contributor, Paul, from Mexico) beats during May; We visited 8 countries (Costa Rica, USA, UK, Australia, Serbia, Greece, Kuwait and Mexico) and noted 776 birds from 160 checklists. Cattle Tyrant – Machetornis rixosa. Cattle Egret – Bubulcus ibis. 15 Jan 2019.
9 beats, birded 9 countries this month; Belize , Guatamala , Costa Rica, UK, Iran, USA, Greece, Australia and Mexico. Cattle Egret – Bubulcus ibis. Cattle Tyrant – Machetornis rixosa. They submitted 144 checklists, noting 628 species adding 72 to the year’s running total bringing it to 1890. 01 Jan 2017.
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