BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Selsey Birder" data-source="post: 1486879" data-attributes="member: 42221">Well nobody seems to want to add any comments to this report, i trust you want me to continue, here is the third days report:-May 5thSo what would day three bring? Well hopefully some target birds where we knew their location, but had not yet bothered to visit (well more accurately we had not yet been able to find the time to visit).We set off again at 5.30am to visit Achladeri with the intention of arriving just after first light, well again this stretches the truth a little, i understood we were going to drive the Upper East River first. However, Sam missed the turning, so Achladeri it was! We arrived by 6.15am to find one vehicle at the picnic site, but no sign of any human activity. The location of the Kruper’s Nuthatch nest was easily located and the male was singing from a nearby branch, the female was also quickly located and we spent a happy 15 minutes watching and recording them as they visited the nest and sang. We then wandered up the trails looking for Short-toed Treecreeper, we heard them, but apart from a glimpse of something flitting in the trees no luck. We did find the owners of the other vehicle and re-directed them to the Kruper’s nest site. We wandered back towards the cars and admired the nuthatches again, before searching the more open area around the picnic site.Birds were starting to appear now, we found 3 Masked Shrikes here, plus a flyover Peregrine Falcon and the first Common Whitethroat of the holiday. We headed back to “Derbyshire” and stopped on the left handed corner immediately before the road crossed the water. Here we could view the marsh where 23 Ruddy Shelducks and a pair of Shelduck were to be seen together with a pair of Red-backed Shrikes. Then a flock of Swifts appeared over the trees, with a mixture of hirundines which included a Red-Rumped Swallow and then best of all at least 3 Pallid Swifts within the flock. We started to drive again, but quickly realised there were more birds in the narrow ditch on the left-hand side of the road. Here there were 3 Black Storks right next to the road, together with a number of Grey Heron and Little Egrets with a lone Great White Egret too. We stopped (probably illegally) at the junction with the main road to obtain photos of the Black Storks (can someone please tell me how to post my photos here, they are much too large for the upload limit, how can i reduce their size please?) and whilst we were waiting for the photographers to return Yvette realised there were some small passerines in the field next to us – 5 Short-toad Larks.Since the girls were going to the mud baths to rest their aching joints after the donkey ride we had arranged to meet them in Molivos for lunch at 1pm, this still left plenty of time to visit the salt pans, as our previous visit on Sunday had been a little rushed. Our first destination was the cafe opposite the salt workings, we had heard rumour that a visitor from sub-saharan Africa had arrived and was singing well from a bush only 50yds from the cafe. We drove around the pans seeing the usual waders, together with 5 Glossy Ibis on the pool mentioned earlier. As we turned onto the narrow track that leads to the cafe we had a female Montagu’s Harrier quartering the ground (Ads got some good video of the bird and re-visited it later to confirm the identification since there was a minor dispute). Now ten years ago that would have been an argument that could not be resolved, nowadays technology resolves so many of those identification disputes. We have been grateful to Adam’s video camera on many occasions, not least when we stopped on the busy A149 in North Norfolk to confirm the id of a Yellow-browed warbler that we all suddenly started to panic about – somebody foolishly stated they could not remember seeing the second wingbar and as is typical in that situation all of us then could not remember it either – sure enough there it was on the film!Anyway, returning to much warmer climes, we parked the car beside the cafe and started to walk to walk west, almost immediately hearing the bird singing, a male Rufous Bush Robin. I saw a few in Kenya the previous November, but somehow this bird sat singing beside a Lesvos beach was much more evocative. We also quickly located an Olivaceous Warbler in the next bush and returned to the vehicles with a light step, time for a coffee – not so quick there folks, the cafe was not yet open.Time to visit the sheep field again before the cafe opened. We entered the fields and started to look carefully in the long grass, sure enough a head popped up and quickly disappeared, that was a relief they were clearly still here, with patience we saw at least 5 Red-Throated Pipits in their splendid spring plumage and wandered over to inspect the flood. A few different waders here included a Grey Plover that was new for the trip and the Little Stint flock still amounted to 32 birds. That cup of coffee was now calling louder, however as we drove away from the sheep field a splendid Lesser Grey Shrike demanded our attention as it sat on the fence for all to admire.An excellent cup of coffee, together with complimentary bottles of water and cake followed at the little beach cafe (highly recommended) before our next treat was delivered as we drove away – a first summer male Red-Footed Falcon flying and then sat on the telegraph wire above the salt workings. The large pond opposite again held good numbers of Squacco Heron (5) and a female Marsh Harrier also put in an appearance, together with a Purple Heron hiding in the reeds and a Whiskered Tern flying over our heads.Now for my first rant of the holiday, i have no objection to photographers, but those that disturb a bird in order to obtain their precious photograph are close to Robert Mugabe in my popularity rankings. We found the mini soccer pitch easily just north of Kalloni and from the small group of people did not need to count the fifth tree from the southern entrance! The Scops Owl was showing clearly appx 20 feet from the ground and if i could figure out how to shrink the photograph i would post our record of the bird. Now our picture is not perfect because to get closer or to walk under the tree would doubtless disturb the bird. One gentleman (i am struggling to use that word and i am ashamed to say he was British) walked directly under the tree and believe it or not had his wife move a branch so he could take a “perfect” picture of the bird. When my friend Sam congratulated him on his lack of intelligence he thanked him for his opinion, the red mist descended and i gave him a piece of my mind (can’t remember what i said, only that it was extremely sarcastic). He very sensibly quickly returned to his vehicle and left the site. If you are the photographer and reading this i truly hope you are ashamed, you are also presumably aware that the bird was not seen again in this location, where it had been showing well all Spring! As you might have gathered i am still furious, the birds are far more important than a photograph and also, but of lesser relevance, all the other birders were denied a sight of this enigmatic little owl because of pure selfishness.We made time for a brief stop at the Bandstand where 5 Short-toed Eagles and 2 Black Storks were in evidence late morning, together with for most of the group their first Eleonora’s Falcon of the holiday. We then decided to get our daily dose of the Petra Reservoir track before going to meet the girls for lunch. There was nothing of great relevance, except for a Marsh Warbler and an Alpine Swift, this bird was the first of over 60 we were to see later in the day. There was clearly a considerable movement of Alpine Swift over the north of the island that afternoon, as lying by the pool that afternoon we saw in excess of 35 birds in an hour late afternoon and totalled in excess of 60 that afternoon. During that late afternoon we also had a Hobby and 2 Long-Legged Buzzards flying over the pool in Petra.Our evening visit to the Reservoir track again showed no great change from earlier in the day although we did see a Great Reed Warbler at the start of the track as we returned to our vehicles plus Woodchat Shrike and Whinchat that had not previously been in evidence. Half way through the week and for me the trip list now stood at 129.To be continued........</blockquote>

Verification