Happy Sring everyone!

I saw my very first 5 House Martins (Delichon urbicum) on Feb 13 by Perama, SW Gera Gulf. Since then I have only been seeing 1-2 birds by Ntipi-Larsos reedbed (while passing through with my car) and on Feb 26 I had my first House Martins returning to their nest in Filia village (Western Lesvos).

One other “spring activity” is the appearence of large flocks of Yelkouan Shearwaters (Puffinus yelkouan) in the Kalloni Gulf. It is a movement we observe every year as they come down from the Black Sea and they later on disperse in the Aegean Sea to breed. So I counted 1300+ birds on Feb 20 morning. Also, small flocks of Meadow Pipits (Anthus pratensis) were recorded in most places (29 in Messa, 3 Alykoudi marsh and 21 in Polichnitos Salt Pans).

Yelkouan Sherawaters
Meadow Pipit, after a bath…

I am confident “new” species have arrived but the weather is windy (from the North) and cold today and will go searching towards the end of this week!!

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