I have already agreed with Bev that my Friday stroll to the marina will be the last birding session of this break. Therefore, today, I had to get back up to the Bee-eater nest site to correct the mistakes of yesterday. I’ve manually cleaned the sensor to get rid of the dust/pollen which had gotten inside the camera when I was fannying around changing lenses. Confident that I’d done all I could to give myself the best chance of securing the images I so desire, it was around 09.30 hrs that I set off and within ten minutes found myself stopped dead in my tracks by a calling Scop’s Owl in an olive grove behind the local builder’s yard. Absolutely no chance of gaining access into the area, I listened for a couple of minutes as the bird called, intermittently, then set off towards my chosen destination.
What with all the avian distractions it was just approaching 11.00 hrs when I reached the nest site. Although the cloud cover played havoc with the light levels I still managed to get some very pleasing images during the twenty, or so, minutes I was sat quietly under the shade of a small bush. Happy that I’d rectified the error of yesterday’s efforts, I headed back down towards Pefkohori, only to be distracted by a pair of very noisy Ravens which, in turn, led me to spot a high and very distant Short-toed Eagle. Result! That’s two more additions to the trip, and self-found year, list. The descent was a piece of cake after this and got even better when I found myself, very briefly, face to face with a Polecat-like animal. Absolutely no idea what it was, or could be. The encounter was so fleeting as to be almost surreal. Well pleased with the morning’s results, one more session to go before I return to angling for my wildlife encounters. Greek birding has been everything I could have wished for and then some! One more addition will see the trip list reach sixty species and every one of them self-found. Does it get any better?
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