While emphatically not a birding trip (just a 3 day break to get away from the cold), the binoculars and cameras naturally squirrelled themselves away in our rucksacks. We stayed in the small town of Agia Efimia, in an apartment with a good view over the harbour (exclusively Yellow Legged Gulls and Common Sandpipers).
Agia Efimia (spelling varies - this is Greece)
The common birds around the town were singing and nest building like crazy, hundreds of Swallows and House Martins, very loud Chaffinches and Blackbirds. I had never really realised just how vocal Swallows could be. My favourite nest was being built on top of the security camera in the porch of the supermarket.
Singing Chaffinch
Swallows (loud)
One of the highlights of Kefalonia is Mount Ainos (1,628 metres) - part of a National Park of the the same name. We completely failed to see the black woodpeckers that are meant to live here (or for that matter, the wild horses). We did see a very nice Peregrine, a Wheatear doing sentry duty and a couple of Sombre Tits (a lifer at last).
Wheatear
Sombre Tit
There was one location I'd read about as being something a little special, the marsh at the top of the lagoon between Argostoli and Lixouri (named by another UK birder as the Livadi Marshes).
There's a convenient dirt track that goes most of the way around the marsh (I'd say all the way, but we stopped before we got to the quarry) and you can park at the start of the track - just don't block it. We only spent an hour there, so we certainly didn't see all we could have done, and there was plenty out of binocular and camera reach, but it was still profitable and enjoyable.
There were 50+ Little Egrets on the marsh and 20+ Black Winged Stilts.
Little Egrets
Black Winged Stilts
The stilts took grave exception to a female Marsh Harrier when it flew over them, flying up to send it on its way. Three Buzzards were also cruising around the area.
I was very happy to see a couple of very dapper Woodchat Shrikes, another lifer (yep, the photo is a bit rubbish, but I can't resist posting it!)
Woodchat Shrike
There were a good number of very elusive birds in the area, mostly warblers of various (unidentifiable) kinds, but also a nice Pied Flycatcher (we don't get many of these in Surrey) and a couple of juveniles which happily posed for pictures, but those are going to be posted in the "can you identify this" forum, because I sure as hell can't.
As a finale we were returning to the car and Erica startled a very, very, large bird perched on a tree stump at the edge of the pine trees. It flew out into the marsh and perched on a tree stump a very long way away. Given its large size and appearance I'd say it was an Imperial Eagle - annoyingly it landed too far away to get a half decent photo.
Livadi Marshes
While I don't think Kefalonia will ever be a major birding destination, it is a lovely island filled with nice people and a few good birds. We'll have to go back for longer and explore the rest of the island's habitats and see what else we can find.
"Let loose the Kraken!"
Beautiful photos, looks a great place for a bit of relaxed birding.
I have to say the tit looks more like Coal than Sombre to me - have you any more pics?
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Looks lovely. I'm very fond of Greece but have never been to Kefalonia. Paxos is the nearest Ionian island I've been to.
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Definitely not a Coal - I was watching those on the mother-in-laws bird feeder this weekend. I did watch them (the Sombre ones) for a while before I took the pic. They were much darker, no white nape patch and much less orangish on the underside.
Worth going to - it was a kind of reconnaissance for us as we'd never been before, we usually go to Crete.
Oh - South Africa report coming up shortly - took me ages to get some firm IDs on one or two birds, same problem, went in spring and loads of juveniles about.
I haven't seen Sombre Tit in the flesh so that's my disclaimer... ;) but the bird in your photo seems to show a double white wingbar, as well as a spreading messy bib, glossy black cap and big-headed, short-tailed shape. From photos (including the three here http://www.1000birds.com/reports_GRE_Sombre-Tit.htm) Sombre Tit should have no wingbars, a large but neat bib, a dull dark brown cap and more Great Tit-like proportions with small head and long tail.
Those in the pictures look very much like a female - the male has a black head. No wing bars observed, what's showing grey/white is probably the edges of the wing feathers or just the down, there was a heck of a gale blowing up there - making it very fluffy! These things don't help good ID... I still think that the lack of a nape patch is the clincher. Sadly I deleted my other pic, the autofocus decided that a twig was much more interesting than a bird (and not for the first or last time undoubtedly). I've just Googled them too (must get back to work) - and by God Google picks up images fast - mine is already up there. I'll see if I can find the other blurry pic in the bin some time and see if there are any more clues - it was a side-on shot.
Thanks, it would be interesting to see the other pic if it's saveable. (Re the cap colour, I just checked a couple of books and one didn't mention a difference between the sexes, the other said males have a 'sooty-brown' cap while female's may be similar or paler/greyer. That's for European birds. In those from further east - into Iran/Iraq - the cap is darker.)
Ah - I think the books may differ - just looking at two field guides - one insisting on black cap, the other not so much (sooty black)! Never mind, I'll just have to keep going back to Greece until I'm damned certain! What a horrid fate ;-)
I'm sorry to say that I'm in full agreement will Aiki about the tit - it is a Coal Tit (and I have seen both the browner backed agubris subspecies, with obviously brown tinged cap, which is found in most of the Balkans and on Crete, and the greyer backed, blacker headed anatoliae, found in Turkey and parts of southern Greece).
The features mentioned by Aiki (especially the 'messy' bib, and the wing bars), and also the small crest and brown tinged underparts, are features that are shown by Coal Tit but unlikely to be seen in Sombre Tit.
Unknown said:Never mind, I'll just have to keep going back to Greece until I'm damned certain! What a horrid fate ;-)
What a horrible fate - you may even have to force yourself to visit various different islands - just in case one is better than the others! While you're there, check any "Pied" Flycatchers that you see very carefully - Collared and Semi-collared are probably just as likely as Pied.
As long as you enjoyed the sun - you did say it wasn't a birding trip after all! ;o)
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