Greece Again

Why bother to go on holiday? I asked the question on Wednesday evening after viewing the overgrown garden, the pile of letters and junk mail waiting to be sorted, never mind the dozens of emails. 

And then I downloaded the pictures from two weeks in Skiathos to reveal the answer to my question. The island of Skiathos may be just 46 sq km, but many people choose to return for their holidays year after year for the simple fact that it has amongst the best beaches of the Greek islands, a large variety of tavernas, places to stay and the fact that it has a spectacular coastline that begs to be explored. The day before we left for home we too felt the pull of the island and left a deposit to secure our room for 2017. 

There aren’t many bird pictures in this posting as the weather was mostly too clear and sunny for large scale migration, but there are lots of photos of the island and the places we visited. Several locals told us how there had been a lack of rain for the previous three months, a fact that became all too obvious once we began to explore in our go-anywhere Jimny and viewed the tinder dry landscape.

Don't forget to 'click the pics' for a close-up of Skiathos.

The plane’s approach took us close to the sister island of Skopelos with Skiathos Town on the right, just before the pilot turned right towards the rapid and heavily braked landing on the short, but recently extended runway. 

Skiathos Town

 

The Bourtzi, Skiathos Town

Around The Bourtzi, Skiathos

The Old Port, Skiathos Town 

Next stop Skopelos

Skiathos Town from the Airport

Arrival - Skiathos

Our host Makis Mathinou met us at the airport and just twenty minutes later we settled down in our favourite room at the idyllic, stunning and totally soothing Hotel Ostria. I am reluctant to mention this hotel on the Internet for fear of the place becoming too well known. Some secrets are best kept that way. But word does seem to have got around via the dreaded Trip Advisor, and quite deservedly, anyone wishing to stay at The Ostria must be quick off the mark to reserve a room.

The hotel has resident Hooded Crows and plays host to Scop’s Owl, Little Owl, Spotted Flycatcher, Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Red-backed Shrike. It also offers free drinks from the swimming pool to Barn Swallows and Red-rumped Swallows and on occasion, Bee Eaters which join the swifts and swallows overhead in the hunt for flying insects. We had one sighting of Bee Eaters this year when a party of eight or ten flew around before heading off towards the nearby shore. 

The Ostria, Agia Paraskevi

Hooded Crow

We had a super two weeks and even though the weather turned a little dodgy in week two with a couple of mornings of heavy rain to disrupt migration, the birds never arrived in any numbers. Even after downpours the landscape remained dry and parched with a lack of standing water where migrants might normally be found.

On a number of days we called in at Aselinos and the tomato farm near Xanemos beach and found Yellow Wagtail, Whinchat, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, House Sparrow and Red-backed Shrikes, together with Barn Swallows, Swifts and Red-rumped Swallows, plus the ubiquitous Hooded Crows. The cliffs at the tomato/pepper farm are a good spot to watch for gulls and Eleonora’s Falcon as it’s not far from the falcon’s stronghold of Kastro just along the coast. Yellow-legged Gull is the neighbourhood gull of Skiathos but unlike our closely related UK Herring Gull, the Yellow-legged Gull of Skiathos remains wary of human contact and wouldn’t dream of snatching a sandwich. 

Aselinos, Skiathos

Red-backed Shrike

 Yellow Wagtail

A dodgy morning near Xanemos

Eleonora's Falcon

 Yellow-legged Gull

On other days we explored the unmade roads and tracks of the wild north coast to the beaches of Kanapitsa, Kechria, Ligaries and Agistros where we came across more shrikes, flycatchers and Whinchats but this time with Common Whitethroat, Blackcap and Lesser Whitethroat amongst the Chiffchaffs. There are one or two pairs of Ravens on the island, birds which alerted us to the presence of on high Honey Buzzards, a Kestrel and more Eleonora’s.

On our journeys we we found similarly minded people, not birding, but simply exploring and enjoying the landscape, mostly in the obligatory Jimny.  Anyone thinking of driving in Skiathos, dont worry. The only things to be be wary of are taxi drivers on flight days, tourists strolling along the narrow streets of town, or helmetless locals riding motorcycles. Sticking to rules is not something the Greeks enjoy. 

Which Way? - Skiathos

 

Skiathos goat

Agistros - Skiathos

Whinchat

Jimnys- Skiathos

Kechria - Skiathos

Spotted Flycatcher

Looking for warblers- Skiathos

Kanapitsa - Skiathos

Skopelos and Tsougria viewed from Kanapitsa - Skiathos

Skiathos is a captivating island that has great charm, a fascinating history, wonderful beaches, a friendly and civilised population and one that boasts an amazing array of tavernas in which to spend an evening. I heartily recommend it to readers. In fact, I’ll drink to that. Cheers everyone! 

Dish Of the Mum - Skiathos

Tourists - Skiathos

Back soon with more to enjoy.

Linking today to Anni's Birding and Eileen's Blog.

A Little Fluke And Greek Delight

I managed an hour two exploring Fluke Hall today. Whooper Swans are back from Iceland with four adults and a single juvenile below the sea wall. There was a Green Sandpiper along the landward ditch, a single Snipe, a couple of hunting Kestrels plus 2 Little Egrets and a Grey Heron.

Best I could find around the woodland turned out to be 45+ Woodpigeon, 3 Stock Dove and a Nuthatch.

Whooper Swans

That snippet of local news rather short changes regular readers so for the rest of this post there are some final pictures from our Skiathos holiday of 16th to 30th September.

We chose a sunny day to make the annual pilgrimage to the ancient abandoned fortress of Kastro where we could watch the exploits of the island’s Eleonora’s Falcons. For a more detailed insight into both Kastro and its Eleonora's Falcons, see my post of last year Fantastic Falcon.

The colony of breeding Eleonora’s live on a rocky outcrop in the far north of the island, the opposite coast to both our hotel and to Skiathos Town. Luckily we made the tortuous overland journey before the historic storms of 22/23rd September as otherwise I think the route via secondary roads and rough tracks would have been blocked by rivers of mud and rocks. 

Kastro, Skiathos

Kastro, Skiathos

The parking spot leaves a foot-slog over rocky paths towards the Greek flag with chance to see Yellow-legged Gulls, Blue Rock Thrush, Kestrel, Alpine Swifts, Common Swifts and swallows of both the common and red-rumped variety. In the vegetation skulked Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs, Sardinian Warblers and Blackcaps. 

Yellow-legged Gull

The falcons live below the flag along the furthermost point of the rocky promontory where they remain fairly distant until one or two fly directly over. The Eleonora’s performed to their usual incredible and spectacular level, hurtling through the skies at breakneck speed to the rocks and the sea below. With approximately 20 birds present, both adults and youngsters, it was obvious there was lots of family interplay to get through before they fly to Africa for the coming winter. 

Eleonora's Falcon

Eleonora's Falcon

Eleonora's Falcon

Eleonora's Falcon

On a couple of occasion we drove to Koukounaries to visit the famous beach and the lake of Strofilia which lies between a line of pine trees and the road to Koukounaries. 

Strofilia

Strofilia, Skiathos

Strofilia from above, Skiathos

A couple of leisurely walks around the lake taking in the mix of habitats produced a good selection of species with Yellow Wagtails and Whinchats in abundance, on one day in particular 50+ Yellow Wagtails and 20+ Whinchats.

There was also Garden Warbler, Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Hoopoe, Red-backed Shrike, Hobby, Grey Heron, Honey Buzzard, Spotted Flycatcher, Wryneck, Kingfisher, Little Egret, Kestrel and Sardinian Warbler. That’s a worthy list by any standards, especially considering that by mid to late September many species are absent having set off for Africa. 

Spotted Flycatcher

Hoopoe

A Hoopoe is a striking bird but they can be difficult to spot when they choose to stay quiet and sit motionless in a tree. 

Hoopoe

Red-backed Shrike

Yellow Wagtail

Hooded Crow

Yellow Wagtail

I hope blog readers enjoyed the recent posts from Skiathos, Greece. It’s a peaceful, stress-free place for a holiday and there's always a spot of leisurely birding available for those who choose not to sun bathe. 

Skiathos

Stay tuned to Another Bird Blog for more birds and more pictures very soon.

Linking this post to Run-a-roundranch blog and  World Bird Wednesday.

A Birding Day Skiathos Style

I’m not back in the local routine just yet, so here are some new pictures from Skiathos 2015. 

Skiathos is not the sort of place where we map out the day ahead; it’s more “jump in the Jimny” to see where it takes you. 

Apart from a number of minor roads in pretty poor condition and countless unmade tracks there’s one “major” road which heads across the island in an east/west direction. So we found ourselves heading through Skiathos Town, past the airport en route to Xanemos Beach, the first coffee stop of the day. 

Skiathos

Right next to the airport is the lake of Aghios Georgios where herons can sometimes be found. In our case this was Grey Heron, Little Egret and Great White Egret. A bonus was at least 4 Common Kingfishers, a species we would also see later in the week at Strofilia Lake, Koukounaries. As Skiathos is entirely dry during the summer months I could only think the Kingfishers were migrants here to take advantage of the abundant fish in the clear blue waters of this the Aegean Sea. 

Aghios Giordios Lake

 

Great White Egret

Little Egret

Skiathos

The roadside is a plane-spotters delight as a series of aircraft arrive and leave throughout most days during the summer months. The island reverts to quiet mode from October to May when many islanders return to the Greek mainland. 

Skiathos Airport

We took a leisurely drive alongside the airport runway abutted by small holdings and agricultural land, much of it devoted to growing fruit and vegetables. The Red-backed Shrike seems commonplace, even abundant on Skiathos in September with between 20 and 30 individuals seen in a typical day of laid back birding. I suspect that many are migrant birds whereby they are invariably found in garden and smallholding situations with often two or more sat along a single perimeter fences or line of vegetation. 

 Red-backed Shrike

Whinchats were equally abundant along the roadside, indeed almost everywhere we visited throughout our two week stay. The Whinchats are migrant birds only, Skiathos a stop-off on their journey from Northern Europe to Africa. We stopped at a tomato farm to find good numbers of Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs and unseen but ever chattering Sardinian Warblers. 

Whinchat

The beach café was deserted, we the first to arrive. I spotted 6 Eleonora’s Falcons playing over the headland to the right but first we had a date with a reviving drink out of the already blistering heat. In Spain it’s difficult to get a bad cup of coffee. In Skiathos it is the direct opposite - hence the fizzy but thankfully ice-cold lemonade. 

Xanemos Beach

Look Out!

Coffee Time - Skiathos

The first planes of the morning began to arrive, speeding in and landing what seemed like just yards behind the café. Yet others motored slowly along the runway, turned the circle and then paused before a mighty blast of jet engines sent them hurtling back down the runway and out over Skiathos Town. In the café the roof and walls shook but luckily the tables were fastened to the floor. Meanwhile the muddy coffee turned darker still following the addition of a dose of sand, grit and unspent jet fuel. 

Beach Landing

Take Off - Skiathos

The effect of the first few planes upon the playful Eleonoras seemed quite dramatic. I climbed the hill to get a closer look at the falcons and disturbed a Blue Rock Thrush from I knew not where. The falcons had gone to be replaced by a single Kestrel and several Hooded Crows. It’s just a mile or two from here up the coast to Kastro where the Eleonora’s Falcons have their major, and in September, still active breeding colony. We would see them later in the week. 

Eleonora's Falcon

Blue Rock thrush

We drove back through Skiathos Town, Suzuki City as some call it. 

Suzuki City

It was lunch time at the Bourtzi and then back to the ranch for a swim and a soak in the sun. But not before we’d stopped to watch a Yellow-legged Gull finishing off an octopus and a European Shag fishing for lunch. 

The Bourtzi- Skiathos

European Shag

Yellow-legged Gull

It’s a hard life being a birder in Skiathos. Log in soon for back to normal birding or more from Skiathos.

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday Blog.