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Birding Trip Report Crete

29 April - 8 May 2005

by Elke Döschle and Jörg Hönle, Germany

It was less a birding, but  more a 'relax and enjoy trip' for the two of us! I missed some of the good birds, but for them I just didn´t do enough! It would have meant a lot of driving, and that was just not the thing I wanted to do on such a short trip.

The weather was very good, although the wind was present far to often and also far to strong on some days. Temperatures between 18-25° C I would say. The water was  still cold, but it got warmer day by day (or was it me who got braver and more used to the coldness day by day?)

It´s a good time of the year, and here down south it is worth for another trip. Not so much the birding, but the relaxing pace and speed in this area, the flowers and plants, the smell of the herbs, the sound of the sea.

It was nice to get a small image of the bird migration worldwide: on some days a lot of birds, then almost nothing, and then other species than the day before.

Our apartement STUDIOS STAVRIS, which we found in the internet, was excellent and quiet: it was just us, the sea and one or two other couples there, we had our own stripe of beach (although for swimming the beach at the castle was better). I wouldn´t mind to come here again, and then -why not- 2 weeks earlier and one or two weeks longer :-)

Main places for observation:

90% of the birding was done around Frangokastello, both west and east of our apartement. A special spot was the Venetian Castle there and the beach below the castle with ist little pool at the beach taverna. Frangokastello is a two-and-a-half-hour-drive from Heraklion Airport and is on the southwest coast of Crete.

	English	German	Place	Numbers
1	Little Grebe	Zwergtaucher	F	5+
2	Shag	Krähenscharbe	A	1
3	Little Bittern	Zwergdommel	A, D, E, G
4	Night Heron	Nachtreiher	A, E
5	Squacco Heron	Rallenreiher	A, D, E, F,G	1-4 birds
6	Little Egret	Seidenreiher	A	seen daily
7	Grey Heron	Graureiher	A	7 - 12
8	Purple Heron	Purpurreiher	A	4 - 12
9	Griffon Vulture	Gänsegeier	B,C,G	3 - 12
10	Montagu´s Harrier	Wiesenweihe	A	1,1
11	Marsh Harrier	Rohrweihe	A	1 - 3
12	Common Buzzard	Mäusebussard	A	common
13	Bonelli´s Eagle	Habichtsadler	B	2 (1, 1)
14	Red-footed Falcon	Rotfußfalke	A and on road to Plakias	up to 40
15	Kestrel	Turmfalke		common
16	Eleonora´s Falcon	Eleonorenfalke	B	only 1
17	Chukar	Chukarhuhn	Plakias and Preveli	1 seen, many heard
18	Quail	Wachtel	A	one flushed
19	Little Crake	Kleines Sumpfhuhn	E	around 6, m and f
20	Moorhen	Teichhuhn	E	1, 1
21	Coot	Bläßhuhn	F	6+
22	Ringed Plover	Sandregenpfeifer	A	single birds
23	Little Ringed Plover	Flußregenpfeifer	A	1
24	Grey Plover	Kiebitzregenpfeifer	A	1
25	Turnstone	Steinwälzer	A	12
26	Sanderling	Sanderling	A	single birds
27	Curlew Sandpiper	Sichelstrandläufer	A	1
28	Little Stint	Zwergstrandläufer	A	up to 3
29	Temminck´s Stint	Temminckstrandläufer	A	1-2
30	Ruff	Kampfläufer	A	1
31	Greenshank	Grünschenkel	A	1
32	Wood Sandpiper	Bruchwasserläufer	A	2 - 3
33	Common Sandpiper	Flußuferläufer	A	single birds
34	Yellow-legged Gull	Weißkopfmöwe		common
35	White-winged Black Tern	Weißflügelseeschwalbe	A	1
36	Woodpigeon	Ringeltaube	D	just one
37	Rock Dove	Felsentaube	C, E
38	Collared Dove	Türkentaube	A	common
39	Turtle Dove	Turteltaube		widespread, but rare
40	Cuckoo	Kuckuck	A	2
41	Scop´s Owl	Zwergohreule	C, road to Plakias	2 singing birds
42	Alpine Swift	Alpensegler	A, B, C, E
43	Pallid Swift	Fahlsegler	A	some
44	Swift	Mauersegler		common
45	Hoopoe	Wiedehopf	A	2 sightings
46	Woodlark	Heidelerche	road to Plakias
47	Crested Lark	Haubenlerche
48	Short-toed Lark	Kurzzehenlerche	A
49	Crag Martin	Felsenschwalbe	B, C
50	Sand Martin	Uferschwalbe	A
51	Red-rumped Swallow	Rötelschwalbe	A	2 times one bird
52	Swallow	Rauchschwalbe
53	House Martin	Mehlschwalbe
54	White Wagtail	Bachstelze
55	Yellow Wagtail	Schafstelze
56	Whinchat	Braunkehlchen
57	Stonechat	Schwarzkehlchen
58	Northern Wheatear	Steinschmätzer
59	Black-eared Wheatear	Mittelmeer- Steinschmätzer	B and in Preveli Area
60	Blue Rock Thrush	Blaumerle	A, B, C, E
61	Blackbird	Amsel
62	Cetti´s Warbler	Seidensänger	not A, more D
63	Great Reed Warbler	Drosselrohrsänger	E	one at Preveli Beach
64	Reed Warbler	Teichrohrsänger	H	some
65	Sardinian Warbler	Samtkopf-Grasmücke		very common
66	Wood Warbler	Waldlaubsänger	A	one
67	Chiffchaff	Zilpzalp	A	2-3 birds
68	Pied Flycatcher	Trauerschnäpper	A	all around the house
69	Collared Flycatcher	Halsbandschnäpper	A	all around the house
70	Spotted Flycatcher	Grauschnäpper	A	all around the house
71	Blue Tit	Blaumeise
72	Great Tit	Kohlmeise
73	Woodchat Shrike	Rotkopfwürger	A	on 6 occasions
74	Golden Oriole	Pirol	A	towards the end
75	Chough	Alpenkrähe	C
76	Jackdaw	Dohle	C
77	Raven	Kolkrabe	A, B, C
78	Hooded Crow	Nebelkrähe		common
79	Spanish Sparrow	Weidensperling		common
80	Chaffinch	Buchfink
81	Greenfinch	Grünfink
82	Goldfinch	Stieglitz
83	Linnet	Bluthänfling	road to Plakias
84	Corn Bunting	Grauammer	A	small numbers
85	Peregrine/Lanner	Wander- oder Lannerfalke	B	no safe identification

Crested Lark

The main resident birds in the area of our apartement in Frangokastello were Crested Lark , Chaffinch and Collared Dove.

Migration did change a lot! At the beginning of the trip there were huge numbers of swifts and swallows and the red-footed Falcons could easily and daily be viewed on the fields while insect hunting (in groups of 4  to maximum 40).

On some days of the first half of the trips there have been 3 kinds of flycatchers around the house, at the end of the trip it were the yellow wagtails, which showed up in groups of 4 - 15 birds.

Sanderling

Waders showed up daily at our beach, mostly single Common Sandpiper, Ringed Plover and on two occasion a sanderling. At the beach below the castle there were Sanderling, Curlew Sandpiper, Little Ringed and Ringed Plover, Little Stints and Temmincks to see for a couple of  days.

A group of 12 Turnstones, a single Ruff (juv.) and a Grey Plover were obviously just stopping for a little while or at the most for one night.

Squacco Heron

The pool below the castle produced one male Little Bittern, one Night Heron, a few Little Egrets and Squacco Herons.

It was amazing to see groups of up to 14 purple herons to come in from the open sea. Little Egret and Squacco Herons seemed to migrate from bay to bay and were seen almost daily.

Bonelli´s Eagle

Birds of Prey: The Bonelli´s were a highlight, that´s for sure. Plenty of Griffon Vulture, but no Bearded Vulture.

Red-footed Falcon

The Red-footed Falcon was the TOP-Bird of Prey throughout the week, no doubt.

A Quail and two Hoopoes were quite a surprise, Woodchat Shrike as the only species of Shrikes was a bit of a disappointment.

On the trip back to the airport in Heraklion we stopped at  the mouth of  both the Petres and the Geropotamos River, both were rather dissapointing.

If you have any questions, don´t hesitate to ask: email

 

© Jörg Hönle, Pforzheim, Germany. Used by kind permission.