Birds of Corfu

Spotted Flycatchers are common birds on Corfu. This House Martin was nesting right over the reception entrance.



Red-rumped Swallows collecting mud.


I found this Woodchat Shrike nest at Paleokastritsa.


Woodchat Shrike

Olivaceous Warblers are fairly common on the hillsides, and have a very Reed Warbler like call. Other birds seen included Alpine Swifts, , Hoopoes, Turtle Doves, Sardinian Warblers, Sub-alpine Warbler and there were at least five Scops Owls singing around San Stephanos.

Butterflies of Corfu

Cleopatra is a common species on Corfu and is like a brightly coloured Brimstone, with a an orange patch on the upper forewing.


Bath White and Clouded Yellow.


I think that the skipper is Lulworth Skipper, and Painted Lady.


Silver-washed Fritillary and Swallowtail, both fairly common on Corfu.

Herps of Corfu

The commonest lizard on Corfu, Dalmation Algyroides. Notice the blue throat of the male, and the extremely long tail.


I think that these two are Green Lizard and Erhard's Wall Lizard (thanks to Mike Brown for helping me out with the latter). Balkan Green Lizard also occurs on Corfu, and is quite difficult to separate from Green Lizard, except that it is usually larger, with a relatively larger head and males often have a yellow throat. This green lizard is, I think, a young animal so size is not really helpful, but it does have a blue throat. However, other photos I have may suggest that it is in fact a young Balkan Green Lizard. We did see a large green lizard at Paleokastritsa which I've put down as Balkan Green Lizard.


Turkish Gecko and Greek Marsh Frog.  The Marsh Frog group is a very difficult group to separate to species level, but fortunately geographical range is usually the key feature, as in this case!


European Pond Terrapin and a youngish Balkan Terrapin.

Dragonflies of Corfu

Balkan Emerald. You can just make out the yellow spot on the side of the thorax.


Scarlet Darter and Southern Skimmer.

Albania

Photo: Balkan emerald.

We caught the ferry from Corfu Town and travelled the 8 miles or so to the port of Saranda in Albania. From here we travelled south for about 10 miles to the World Heritage Site of Butrint. Since Albania is very under developed, even compared to Greece, I was expecting wildlife to be abundant, but if that is the case then it was keeping a low profile when I was there. For example I expected to see stork nests on roof tops and an abundance of raptors and egrets, but they certainly weren't in evidence during our brief visit, though I guess that midday in the middle of summer isn't the ideal time to get to know the avifauna of a Mediterranean country. In fact I only saw one White Stork in flight, several Little Egrets and a single raptor.

The latter however, was the bird of the holiday, a superb Levant Sparrowhawk, only my second ever and my first for nearly 30 years! It was in classic Levant habitat, a flat lowland river valley, lots of agriculture around and we were having lunch in a restaurant in the middle of a broad-leaved woodland oasis. The bird flew from near the top of a tree and flew away over the valley.

At Butrint, Nightingales and Spanish Sparrows were numerous,  the latter with an impressive colony of at least 100 nests in the trees at the entrance to the site. Other species included Red-rumped Swallows, Alpine Swifts, Pallid Swifts and Hooded Crows. From the ferry I saw two Cory's Shearwaters about midway between Corfu and Albania, and a Purple Heron flying along the Albanian coast.

Butterflies seemed to be pretty much the same as those seen on Corfu, with plenty of Cleopatras, Swallowtails, Clouded Yellows and Bath Whites. The only two species of odenata I saw were Balkan Emerald and Beautiful Demoiselle.


Beautiful Demoiselle. This species occurs in southern Britain and is very similar to the Banded Demoiselle we get on the Sankey Brook.This is the southern Balkan race of Beautiful Damoiselle festiva, which has completely blue wings.


Cricket and Dalmatian Algyroides. This is another male with a blue throat.


Saranda, Albania.


Part of the World Heritage Site at Butrint. I like the photo of the view across the river, but this is an estuary and we're less than a mile from the sea and there's not even a gull on the posts???

Eccleston Mere

Little Ringed Plover 1
Gadwall 2 (male & female)
Mute Swan 2 adults

Old Coach Road

Yellow Wagtail 1
Tree Sparrow 2

Barrow Lane, Winwick

There was a Black-headed Yellow Wagtail in rape seed fields off Barrow Lane, Winwick yesterday, so I called in on my way home for a look. No sign of the star of the show, but there were at least two Yellow Wagtails, two singing Corn Buntings and a few Tree Sparrows.


Yellow Wagtail and yellow field.

Martin Mere

In between surveys today I called in at Martin Mere. It was a bit quiet and the highlight was this spectacular male Ruff in breeding plumage. Other birds seen included about 35 Avocets and a Raven.


These are more digiscoped photos. This bird was on the far side of Sunley's Marsh (100m distant?). The photos were taken through the telescope at 60x magnification, just by holding the camera up to the eyepiece. The light was poor, and I don't have either the correct type of camera or an adaptor for holding everything steady, so I'm quite pleased with  the results, even though they are obviously not going to win any awards!

Eccleston Mere

Little Ringed Plover 1
Common Tern 1 flew over
Mute Swan 2 adults
Gadwall 2 (male & female)
Lesser Redpoll 3 displaying
Great Spotted Woodpecker 3

Eccleston Mere

Little Ringed Plover 1
Shelduck 2
Oystercatcher 1