I have just returned from a week's holiday on the Greek island of Corfu, during which I took a daytrip to Albania. I did not see that many species, I thought birds were very thin on the ground in Corfu. I stuck mainly to the north of the island. The not very long bird list is
Great Cormorant
Booted Eagle
Golden Eagle
Common Buzzard
Common Kestrel
Peregrine Falcon
Black-headed Gull
Yellow-legged Gull
Common Wood Pigeon
Eurasian Collared Dove
Barn Swallow
Red-rumped Swallow
House Martin
Grey Wagtail
Stonechat
European Robin
Common Blackbird
Zitting Cisticola
Sardinian Warbler
Blackcap
Common Chiffchaff
Firecrest
Spotted Flycatcher
Blue Tit
Woodchat Shrike
Common Magpie
Eurasian Jay
Common Starling
House Sparrow
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
European Greenfinch
European Goldfinch
European Serin
Cirl Bunting
In Albania we landed at the town of Seranda and were taken to the Butrint National Park for a guided tour of the Greek/Roman/Byzantine ruins there. This was set in deciduous woodland and on a peninsula in a lagoon. There seemed to be more birds here than in Corfu with the lagoon holding egerets, herons, gulls (including Slender-billed Gull). i saw two Hobbies flying around a unfinished tower block hotel in Seranda and on the road to Butrint there were losts of small birds in the fields, as well as a few Short-toed Eagles hunting the scrubby hillsides. While watching these four falcons flew in from the sea and headed south along the coast, they were smallish but that was all I could get on them.
Albania looks as if it could become the next "budget" Mediterranean destination after Bulgaria. They certainly seem to be going for that, although I don't think they're quite ready yet.
Also forgot to mention the unidentified Pelican in Sidari Bay.
David
Hello David. I visited Corfu twice in August 2002 and 2003. Also found birding hard work but with persistance found a couple of o.k. spots. Stayed at Kanali just outside of Sidari. A little valley just on the edge of the eastern side of Kanali held a few migrants each morning, as did a little headland further along at peroulades (right on the NW corner of the island) including Wryneck, subalpine warbler, hoopoe, lesser grey, woodchat and redbacked shrikes, honey buzzards etc and Cory's shear, a few waders and heron sp. offshore. Never many birds but usually a few different each day. Also a small passage of raptors up in the mountains on the north east coast
(particularly around Old Parithia) and over Corfu Town. I guess they come across from Albania and then work their way south through the island. These included Honey buzzards, common buzzards, booted and short toed eagles, peregrine, kestrel and sparrowhawk. The strangest sighting was a male marsh harrier over the top of the Pantokrator mountain. These birds seemed most common just before midday. Also two sightings of larger eagles but too distant for I.D. The better spots on the island are further south i.e. the airport lagoons, the ropa valley and right down the bottom the lefkimmi saltpans. I really enjoyed Corfu although I wouldn't reccomend it particularly for birding. I only saw Albania through bins but it looked tempting.
corfu has some great birds but its not the amount of birds is the type of birds that you can see