dunno why not a lot of poeple have commented on it.....After a typically delayed flight from Gatwick we arrived in Kos sometime after midnight on Thursday 9th July. The taxi journey to Tigaki was brightened by the first bird encounter of the trip - a large owl ie not Scops or Little, flew over the road and was caught in the headlights briefly. I've no idea what that might have been.
The grounds of the hotel Tigaki Star actually run up to the edge of the salt-pans (Alykes) and a morning walk quickly added a tick to my Greek list - Zitting Cisticola. In fact these turned out to be one of the commonest birds around the hotel frequently heard zit...zitting overhead as we lay by the pool. The salt-pans still held a reasonable amount of water but most of the birds seemed to favour the far side. The exception were a pair of Black-winged Stilts which stayed loyal to a rapidly drying out area of the pans near to the hotel and constantly harangued anybody walking along the neighbouring footpath. Towards the end of the holiday I discovered the reason for this behaviour when early one morning I had fantastic views of 4 chicks feeding out in the open. On our first full night in the hotel I woke to hear the characteristic call of a Scop's Owl but, thinking it must be a regular event, decided not to get up to search for it. Unfortunately I never heard it again!
The highlight bird of the trip showed up on our second day as we swam in the sea in the late afternoon. I saw a group of smallish waders flying low over the sea and despite the presence of lots of other bathers they settled on the shore a couple of hundred yards away. I quickly dried off, grabbed my binoculars and ran off up the beach. The birds were still there and I had just enough time to identify several Kentish Plovers and realise that one bird was larger than the others when they were flushed by a passing jogger (this will prove to be a repeating theme!). The birds settled again a few yards further down the beach and I approached them carefully, intrigued by the larger bird. It was immediately obvious amongst the flock but seemed more wary than the other birds keeping its back to me whilst trotting away. My impression was of a very long-legged bird with a Grey Plover type bill but quite wrong in plumage and size. The group were soon flushed again (yes, another jogger) and I was able to see the bird in flight - a distinct Kentish Plover type wing-bar and no white rump. This time the flock flew off down the beach and I returned to the hotel puzzled. I'd not seen a Sandplover before but couldn't think what else it could be, I looked in my Collin's guide and this looked the only likely candidate but my views hadn't been good enough. The following evening the bird was again present in the same place but even more flighty and it wasn't until two days later that I finally got good, close-up views of the bird on the salt-pans that I could confirm it as Greater Sandplover - an adult female. The bird was present throughout my stay but became easier to see on the salt-pans in the early morning as the beach became ever busier. I saw it for the final time on Tuesday 21st July.
There appeared to be a slow passage of waders through during my stay with single sightings of Ringed and Little Ringed Plover, Common Sandpiper and Dunlin early on in the trip but not seen again. For a couple of days another two Black-winged Stilts joined the original pair and small groups of Ruff, Redshank and Greenshank passed through. Green Sandpiper numbers rose from one in the first week to three by the end of my stay. Yellow-legged Gulls roosted on the salt-pans in their hundreds with dozens remaining throughout the day, favouring the freshwater inlet to the south-west. Also there one morning were 3 Black-headed Gulls and a fine adult Mediterranean Gull - a bird that I often struggle to see in Greece.
Apart from the ubiquitous House Sparrow and the aforementioned Zitting Cisticolas passerines were difficult to find around Alykes. The best was a first-winter Citrine Wagtail found on my final day. A single Black-headed Wagtail was present on two occasions and a juvenile Woodchat Shrike showed well one morning. Warblers were pretty thin on the ground with only Reed and Olivaceous being seen regularly; a Cetti's showed once from my hotel room balcony whilst a lone Sardinian Warbler came to investigate the Woodchat Shrike as I was watching it. Conspicuous by their absence were Black-headed Bunting; I know they're one of the earlier returning migrants but mid-July? A pair of Cetzschmar's Buntings were seen on two occasions.
Other noteworthy birds around the salt-pans included Eleanora's Falcon, Lesser Kestrel, Bee-eater, Stone Curlew, Gull-billed Tern, Hoopoe and Rock Dove. Over the town and hotel there were Red-rumped Swallows, Pallid and Alpine Swifts as well as the more usual swifts, swallows and martins. Collared Doves were common, of course, but it was good to see Turtle Doves in equally healthy numbers.
A trip to the volcanic island of Nissyros is a must for anyone visiting Kos. The hour's ferry trip from Kardamena in the south of the island got Yelkouan and Cory's Shearwater and Audouin's Gull onto my list. Entering the caldera of the volcano is a fascinating experience - you can walk right down to the bottom where crystals of yellow sulphur are forming around puddles of boiling mud and the ground is too hot to touch. I dread to think what will happen if Health & Safety get to hear about it! The island is meant to be the best place to find Eleanora's Falcon but I didn't see a single one. There were plenty of Ravens and at one stage I glimpsed a large eagle sp from the coach which I think was probably Short-toed but by the time I could get a better look the bird had gone.
For two days we hired a car and drove around the island. A trip into the mountains on the first day started with a rather scruffy looking Roller on wires just outside the town - in subsequent days we got views of several of these glorious birds between Tigaki and the neighbouring village of Marmori. Our first destination was the castle at Old Pyli with hopes of seeing Bonelli's Eagle. A steep walk up a signposted footpath (a first for Greece in my experience) resulted in some glorious views over Tigaki and out across the sea to Kalymnos and Turkey - but no eagles. As we drove away my eye was caught by a large raptor flying into roadside trees just ahead of us. I pulled in to the side of the road and using binoculars through the windscreen managed to get excellent views of a Long-legged Buzzard before it was flushed by another car driving past. What followed was not so much the intended drive through glorious mountain scenery as a frustrating trek through some of the less pleasant parts of Kos (Kos town, Psalidi etc) as we became hopelessly lost. The road map we had didn't seem to bear much resemblance to the actual road network and once within the Kos/Psalidi area all road signs disappeared. A couple of Wheatears seen flying away from the road were most likely Black-eared but views were poor; the only bird added to the list during this trip was a roadside Stonechat. We never did find the mountain road we had been looking for and returned home hot, bothered and not talking to each other!
The following day with normal communications restored we set off for the south of the island. Rollers were almost commonplace on overhead wires on the side roads that we favoured; Ravens, Lesser Kestrels and Eleonora's Falcons flew in the mountains to the south of Kefalos; and a few tatty Peacocks seem to have become a tourist attraction in a place called Plaka! In Limonia we had a late lunch watching Cory's Shearwaters flying close inshore before heading back to Old Pyli for one more go for Bonelli’s Eagle. And this time the struggle up the mountain footpath paid off with a single bird flying quite low over the castle shortly after our arrival.
A final tally of 62 species over our two week stay was a bit disappointing compared with a visit at a similar time of year to Lesvos but there were some fantastic birds including a lifer and two Greek ticks.
Bird List:
Cory’s Shearwater – 3 off Limionas, 1 off Tigaki, 7 from Kardamena-Nissyros ferry
Yelkouan Shearwater – 3 from Kardamena-Nissyros ferry
Little Egret – 3-4
Grey Heron – up to 13
Mallard – 4 imm/female
Sparrowhawk – 1 at Old Pyli
Long-legged Buzzard – 1 at Old Pyli
Bonelli’s Eagle – 1 at Old Pyli
Lesser Kestrel – 2 at Alykes and various other locations
Eleanora’s Falcon – occasional at Alykes and around island
Moorhen - 1
Black-winged Stilt – up to 4 adults + 4 chicks
Little Ringed Plover - 1
Ringed Plover - 1
Kentish Plover – up to 15
Greater Sandplover – 1 female
Dunlin - 1
Ruff - 2
Redshank - 1
Greenshank – up to 3
Green Sandpiper – up to 3
Common Sandpiper - 1
Mediterranean Gull – 1 adult
Black-headed Gull – 2 adults + 1 juvenile
Yellow-legged Gull – c200 at Alykes
Gull-billed Tern – 1 in adult winter plumage
Feral Pigeon - up to 10 in fields around Alykes
Rock Dove – 3 in Alykes; c30 Nissyros
Collared Dove – everywhere!
Turtle Dove – 7+ in Tigaki Star grounds; common on island
Scops Owl – 1 calling in Tigaki Star grounds
Common Swift - common
Pallid Swift – a few amongst Commons
Alpine Swift – 1 over Tigaki; common on Nissyros
Bee-eater – 6+ at Alykes; 1 at Old Pyli
Roller – frequent on wires between Tigaki and Mastihari
Hoopoe - 1
Crested Lark - common
Sand Martin - 2
Swallow - common
Red-rumped Swallow - common
House Martin - common
Black-headed Wagtail - 2
Citrine Wagtail – 1 ist winter
White Wagtail - 1
Stonechat – 1 in mountains above Kos town
Cetti’s Warbler – 1 in Tigaki Star grounds
Reed Warbler – common around Alykes
Zitting Cisticola – 13+ around Alykes, not seen elsewhere
Sardinian Warbler - 1
Chiffchaff - 1
Spotted Flycatcher – 2 adults + juvenile in Zia
Great Tit – 1 in Tigaki Star grounds
Woodchat Shrike – 1 juvenile
Magpie – 1-2 in various locations
Jackdaw – 6 over road near Antimachia
Hooded Crow - common
Raven – 2 in mountains south of Kefalos; 6 in Nissyros
House Sparrow - common
Greenfinch - 4
Cretzschmar’s Bunting - 2
Thats not a bad list really, good report & thread this by the way, for anyone going to Kos.
nice report dunno why not a lot of poeple have commented on it.....