Loukoumi

The long predicted Thomas Cook debacle finally arrived on 23 September and left Sue and I with a puzzle as to how we might get home near to our original date of 2 October. 

The Lovely Anna drove us to Skiathos airport to catch our promised rescue flight, but with a assurance that should there be further delays, we could return to The Ostria “no problem and no charge“. Such is the typical Skiathan outlook to life. 

Our new flight was listed on the board but this time with Titan Airways; we arrived back in Manchester via Dubrovnik, ten minutes earlier than anticipated. We had been repatriated, with a tee shirt to prove it. 

Repatriated  

The not entirely unexpected turn of events surrounding Thomas Cook proved a slightly worrying time for visitors and locals alike. Happily, and unlike the UK, all tavernas, restaurants and cafes in Skiathos have free Wi-Fi whereby the Civil Aviation Authority web site showed regularly updated information for stranded passengers as they watched Skiathos life unfold. 

The Bourtzi  

Megali Aselinos 

The Pegasus 

The CAA web listed more than 50 worldwide destinations where over 180,000 Thomas Cook travellers were marooned, many of them in Greece and its islands where Thomas Cook had a long-established presence. 

The crash meant that Skiathos alone had lost 2,000 or so visitors due to arrive during late September and early October. That had a knock-on effect to local business people who have to earn their income during the five month summer tourist season – taxis, shops, restaurants, tavernas, cafes, apartments and hotels. Not to mention the sundry businesses and hundreds of people who in turn provide services and employment. Not only did local businesses lose this income, hoteliers and apartment owners working with Thomas Cook lost arrears owed to them, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of Euros. 

The Ostria Hotel at which we always stay is a case in point, a small, independent and family run business that lost a number of “arrivals” in the days following the crash and also repeat bookings for 2020 until alternative flights are found. The family decided to go independent following a similar crash of XL Airways in 2008 when their business received a large financial hit through XL paying suppliers in arrears, as is the practice of all large holiday companies. 

For readers of Another Bird Blog I can wholeheartedly recommend a stay at The Hotel Ostria in Skiathos.

The owners, the Matinhou family of Mom Litsa, Dad Makis plus daughters Anna and Sophia are simply the most hospitable, kind, warm, sincere and generous people you could ever wish to meet. Their working motto seems to be “Arrive as a guest, leave as a friend”. 

Makis 

Anna 

Sue and friend Litsa 

Litsa 

 Dimitris and Angela

The peaceful and very beautiful Ostria is found along a 50 yard paved drive and at the start of the Platanos valley that leads into the pine-clad hills beyond. It is rural Greece with the sight and sounds of sheep, goats and free range turkeys but just 50 yards from Bus Stop 16 and the local bus to lively Skaithos Town. 

The Ostria’s acres of spacious grounds of lawn, fruit trees, vines, palm trees and flowering plants are kept in manicured immaculate condition by tireless and friendly Ben. Angela and her look-alike sister keep the rooms and visitors’ areas spotlessly clean with a cheery wave to each and every guest. 

 The Ostria

The Ostria 

The Ostria

Breakfast is a leisurely affair of fruit, Greek yogurt, glorious local honey, cheese, home-made walnut cake, eggs and toast; and always a mound of Makis’ pastries - cinnamon & apple rolls, spinach & feta rolls or Galaktoboureko. Makis started out in life as a baker and it shows. 

Dimitris and Anouk look after every need during breakfast, daytime lounging or evening with a glass of Mythos, Ouzo or Metaxa. 

The Ostria

A bonus of a stay at The Ostria is the bird life found in the gardens and the surrounding fields - Hooded Crows, Yellow Wagtails, Blackcaps, Red-backed Shrikes, Red-rumped Swallows and Spotted Flycatchers. There are Scops’ Owls, Little Owls and during the summer and at migration time, Bee Eaters.

Red-backed Shrike 

 Spotted Flycatcher

Hooded Crow

There are a number of four and five star hotels in Skiathos but none receive the number of consistent complimentary, recommendations and reviews as the supposedly lower star rated Ostria. We would not dream of staying anywhere else on our next visit to Skiathos.

Loukoumi 

Wherever you are in the world, give The Ostria a try. You will not be disappointed. Here's a tip - don't fly Thomas Cook, but if on your travels you see him please remind him that he owes some good friends of mine large amounts of money.

Back soon with more Greek Delight.

Linking today with Anni's Blog and Eileen's Blogspot.

Spotted Saturday

If August is predictable as warblers and Swallows journey south to Africa, September is less so. 

Just this week saw the first returning Pink-footed Geese when a gaggle of around 200 flew over Pilling and then to the salt marsh beyond; the geese seem to arrive earlier each year. And then the weather turned more autumnal with strong winds and high tides that blew petrels, skuas, manxies, fulmars and gulls closer to shore. 

Manx Shearwater 

Pink-footed Goose

On Saturday came a break in the squalls when a ridge of high pressure built from the North West. With it came a chance of ringing at Oakenclough but with less certainty about what we might catch given the arrival of September. Would it be a morning of finches, warblers, pipits and wagtails, or perhaps a mix with a few of each? 

It was 0600 when Andy and I met at the ringing station to a cold easterly and 9 degrees C. The cold start gave a slow opening to the catch but as the morning warmed more birds arrived, especially the diurnal migrant, Meadow Pipit. Missing from our catch today were Willow Warblers, a regular feature here during June, July and August, but replaced now by Goldcrests, a September species for sure. 

The really noticeable migrant today was Meadow Pipit with a count of 100+ in steady and small arrivals from the north, a number reflected in our catch of 36 birds and 8 species - 14 Meadow Pipit, 6 Goldcrest, 5 Blackcap, 3 Chiffchaff, 2 Spotted Flycatcher, 2 Goldfinch, 2 Robin, 1 Blue Tit, 1 Chaffinch. 

The surprise bird today was Spotted Flycatcher, not one but two individuals, both first years, but caught three hours apart. It’s a species that we catch quite rarely although we suspect that some bred quite close to here this year. 

Spotted Flycatcher 

The Chiffchaff wing shows a shape and formula that is quite different to its close relative the Willow Warbler i.e. the short 2nd primary feather, “rounded” wing shape (3, 4 and 5 of very similar length), and emargination to the 6th primary feather. 

Chiffchaff 

Chiffchaff

Below is the wing of an adult Meadow Pipit that displays uniform olive tones, the squared olive/buff tips to the median coverts without “teeth”, well-defined margins of the greater coverts, plus tertials all of the same age. 

Ageing Meadow Pipits can be more difficult when birds born early in the season display many characteristics of adults, with sometimes just a few pale buff juvenile feathers left. The fourteen Meadow Pipits today split 11/3 in favour of first years but similarly sized catches might easily contain no adults, especially so as autumn progresses. 

Meadow Pipit 

Meadow Pipit 

All of our Blackcaps were first year birds, four female, one male, and one likely male with hints of a black cap. 

Blackcap  

Other birds today - 2 Jay, 15+ Swallow, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 1 Nuthatch.

Linking this post to Anni's Saturday Birding.

Willys Win

The early hours had seen bouts of thunder, lightning and torrential rain as Andy and I met up at 0600 to very overcast conditions that threatened more rain. After last week’s 40 birds we hoped for a repeat performance at Oakenclough. 

After The Deluge

The rain held off, the sun came out, and by 1130 we’d caught another 47 new birds, including a Blackcap ringed elsewhere. 

Today’s birds included a nice haul of migratory Willow Warblers and Blackcaps - 16 Willow Warbler, 6 Blackcap, 6 Great Tit, 5 Blue Tit, 4 Chaffinch, 2 Chiffchaff, 2 Robin, 2 Goldcrest, 1 Goldfinch, 1 Treecreeper, 1 Garden Warbler and 1 Spotted Flycatcher. 

Oakenclough often springs a surprise. Today’s came when we caught a Spotted Flycatcher. Spotted  Flycatchers are not rare; in fact they breed here at Oakenclough in woodland some 250 metres from our ringing site where the nestlings are ringed but we rarely if ever see Spotted Flycatchers in spring or summer away from that summer habitat. 

The Spotted Flycatcher is well known as one of the species that makes minimal stops to and from their African wintering grounds and the UK. Today’s bird was an obvious, very spotty and still fluffy juvenile, not long fledged from a nest but not one from our nest boxes as it had no ring. It may have come from a natural site close-by. 

Spotted Flycatcher 

Of the sixteen Willow Warblers, only three were adult, as one might expect from what appears to be a productive summer. All three adults were in the process of completing their main summer moult. 

Willow Warbler - juvenile/first summer 

Willow Warbler - adult 

Of today’s six Blackcaps the only adult we found was a female, ACE2152, the ring from elsewhere on a previous occasion. We’ll find out the details in a week or so. 

 Blackcap

Blackcap - ACE2152 - adult female

Goldcrest - adult male 

Treecreeper - Juvenile/first summer 

It’s another 6am start tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how many of today’s birds we catch. I suspect none.

Do The Splits

We are back from Menorca where we spent two weeks enjoying this wonderful island for the fifteenth year.

We collected a Fiat Panda from Mahon Airport via our good friends Setta and Mixalis at Momple Car Hire.  The little Panda is the ideal car for negotiating the sometimes narrow lanes of the Menorcan countryside or the slender, immaculate streets of quiet inland towns. 

We split our time between sightseeing, birding and simply relaxing during the warm, sunny days.

"Click the pics" for bigger photos and a taste of Menorca.

Near Es Prat 

Near Binimel 

Cala Fornells

Es Mercadal 

Es Migjorn

Joan Riudavets Moll - Aged 114 years

Melons- Es Migjorn 

Es Migjorn 

Hotel Ses Tillets

I'm now busy catching up with friends and family alike. Until then the rest of this post is about a relatively common species wherever I go.  

I took quite a lot of pictures of flycatchers, birds that at home I would normally just label as “Spotted Flycatcher” Muscicapa striata, the common flycatcher of the UK that breeds in most of Europe and western Asia.  

Quite recently the International Ornothological Committee (IOC) decreed that the spotted flycatcher that breeds in the Balearic Islands (Menorca, Majorca, Ibiza) and also the islands of Corsica and Sardinia is a separate and distinct species, Muscicapa tyrrhenica. They named the species Mediterranean Flycatcher. 

A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2016 found that the subspecies M. s. tyrrhenica and M. s. balearica were genetically similar to each other but significantly different from the other spotted flycatcher subspecies. The authors proposed that these insular subspecies should be considered as separate rather than conspecific species. In recent years “splits” of previously conspecific species are all about genetics rather than appearance, and as one might expect, the description of each species is much the same. 

It is said that Muscicapa striata has “dull grey-brown upperparts and off-white underparts. The crown, throat and breast are streaked with brown while the wings and tail feathers are edged with paler thin margins.” In comparison Muscicapa tyrrhenica has “paler and warmer plumage on the upperparts, with more diffuse markings on the head and breast.” The sexes are alike in each case. 

Judge for yourself with pictures here from Greece, the UK and Menorca.

 

Mediterranean Flycatcher - Menorca

 Mediterranean Flycatcher - Menorca 

Mediterranean Flycatcher - Menorca

Spotted Flycatcher - Greece 

Spotted Flycatcher - Greece 

Spotted Flycatcher - Greece

Spotted Flycatcher - UK

Are you a splitter or a joiner? Maybe like me you just enjoy flycatchers - with or without spots?

Linking today to Wild Bird Wednesday,  Anni's Birding  and Eileen's Saturday Blog.

Why Skiathos?

Keen eyed readers will note how the header picture changed. I swopped the Glasson Dock Common Tern for a Skiathos Yellow Wagtail. 

Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava) is familiar to British birders but throughout Europe there are many overlapping races and intergrades of Yellow Wagtail, whereby literally dozens of races and sub-species have been described. This makes identification and assignation difficult, especially at migration time in Central Europe in the case of juveniles like the one shown.

I'm thinking that the header bird, the one below, may be Motacilla flava beema, also known as Sykes’ Wagtail, especially since other Yellow Wagtails I saw fitted the same criteria. Yellow wag experts out there may wish to comment? 

Yellow Wagtail

Otherwise, birding on Skiathos Island proved rather unexciting during very hot, clear weather and wall-to-wall sunshine – not the best conditions for dropping migrants onto an off-shore island. So I returned home with very few bird pictures. 

We saw lots of Spotted Flycatchers, Whinchats, Yellow Wagtails, Red-rumped Swallows and Barn Swallows, together with Buzzards, Willow Warblers, Kingfishers and the inevitable Eleonora’s Falcons. Unlike other years Red-backed Shrikes were few and far between where by locals told of a long hot summer where a successful breeding season may have finished early. 

Spotted Flycatcher 

Red-backed Shrike 

A developing storm on our last day saw thousands of Red-rumped Swallows overhead as they descended below cloud level to escape the incoming turbulence. We left Skitahos just in time because since we returned home Cyclone Zorba laid waste to a number of places on the Peloponnese mainland including parts of Athens. 

There was a knock-on effect to Skiathos where we heard that tourists out to enjoy the last week of the Skiathos season have had a pretty raw deal from cloud, rain and wind.

Today, Sunday, from Skiathos. "The main road is closed at Acropolis, at Kolios and at Troulos due to flooding and water escaping from the mountain into the sea. Power disruptions due to the weather. 102 mm of rain today to add to the 53 mm of Saturday." 

Nonetheless we asked the lovely Anna to reserve our room for next year as we have no reason to doubt the question of “Why Skiathos?”. 

Why Skiathos?

Skiathos Town

No Name Gyros

Big Aselinos Beach

Skiathos 

Skiathos donkey

Bourtzi Skiathos

Ouzo

Yes, we will be back.  And very soon.

So will Another Bird Blog with more news, views and photos.

Linking this post to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.