MY BIRDWATCHING HIGHLIGHTS FOR JULY 2002
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1st July.  At Tavronitis.  A pair of green sandpipers and a temmincks stint.       

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2nd July.  At Neo Chorio.  A pair of short toed eagles.  At dusk hundreds of swallows and swifts suddenly appeared yet none were seen in the day.
                 

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4th July.  At Neo Chorio.  A pair of short toed eagles  were circling and calling with a pair of common buzzards.    

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5th July.  At Neo Chorio.  A short toed eagle was seen and heard twice, late morning and late afternoon.

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6th July.  At Maleme.  A flock of 70+ ducks out to sea, probably Gargeny.  Is migration starting?  Also a fan tailed warbler was seen and heard so at least some have survived the winter.
                 At Neo Chorio.  A pair of short toed eagles and a pair of ravens.

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7th July.  At Galatas.  A group of 5 pallid swifts and an alpine swift.
                 At Neo Chorio. 50 hooded crows came and perched on the telegraph wires at dusk.  Now they have finished breeding they are starting to group together for roosting again.   

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8th July. At Neo Chorio.  The short toed eagles were here again, this time in the evening.
                At Maleme.  A fan tailed warbler - the same one as on the 6th?
 

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9th July.  At Neo Chorio.  I am at last satisfied that we have long legged buzzards present.  It has taken three days of detailed observation but I can now distinguish them by sight and call from common buzzards.  2+ were circling for some time.

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10th July.  At Neo Chorio. A pair of long legged buzzards were being mobbed by a pair of common buzzards.  Seen together the long legged buzzards have longer wings, appear larger and very rufous on the under wing with pale tails.

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11th July. At Neo Chorio.  A single long legged buzzard; a single raven; and a spotted flycatcher.

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13th July. At Afrata.  A female kestrel; 4 griffon vultures; and a sub adult bonellis eagle.
                  On the Rodopos Peninsulla.  A pair of wheatear; a pair of adult bonellis eagles; 5 griffon vultures; and 8 ravens.  (We also came across a cicada churring away madly - yet it was miles away from anywhere.

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14th July. At Neo Chorio.  A single long legged buzzard was circling with a common buzzard.  In the distance an eagle flew by, probably a short toed.  Bee-eaters could be heard but as so often happens not seen.

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15th July. At Neo Chorio.  Bee-eaters again and a single long legged buzzard.
                  At Tavronitis.  A temmincks stint;  a ruff;  7 wood sandpipers;  1 great white egret; a little ringed plover; and a purple heron.
  

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17th July. At Neo Chorio.  An eleonoras falcon at dusk, the first for some time. 
           

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23rd July. At Tavronitis.  20+ alpine swifts; 3 little ringed plovers; and a purple heron.

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28th July. At Tavronitis.  A little ringed plover; a common sandpiper; and 5 little stints.
                  At Sirili.  A barn owl sat on a fence post beside the road

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31st July.  At Mili.  A bonellis eagle.
                  At Votas.  A raven; and a pair of kestrels.
                  At Sfakia.  A pair of lesser kestrels - no chance of confusion with common kestrels as they are quite different.
                  At the nest site.  Just one adult bearded vulture; plus a golden eagle; a black eared wheater; and 2 pairs of kestrels.
                  At Vathi.  A pair of adult bonellis eagles circled together with their juvenile among a group of 6 griffon vultures.
                  At Kambos.  We found another bonellis eagle.
                  At Sfinari.  22+ ravens were fighting over what must have been a carcass high up on the mountain.  A short toed eagle was circling and a lanner falcon dashing about.
                  At Platanos.  An adult golden eagle majestically soared over though it was a bit tatty as several primary feathers were missing in each wing - so it was probably only just moulting into adult plumage. 
                

And a few final words for July.....   A better month with things starting to happen.  Migration is starting as waders are starting to turn up.  No doubt as August progresses the trickle will turn into an avalanche and by September there will be too many to count and identify.  I am particularly looking forward to seeing the storks again, they are so majestic and impressive as they try to find somewhere among all the tourists to land a feed before moving on.

I was very pleased to have sorted out the buzzards at long last.  When we came here three years ago I told the local ornithologists that I had seen long legged buzzard in our valley, but they scorned me saying that I was seeing a variety of common buzzard.  It took painstaking observation over a long period of time to sort them out, but then that is what bird watching is so often about - looking back again and again; thinking carefully; consulting all the books and then eventually becoming satisfied in the identification.

Like so many truly rewarding things in life, if it was easy there would be little satisfaction to be gained from doing it.  Wherever you are, keep at it and enjoy your birding!
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