This morning brought the widest range of species in a single morning. There were hirundines feeding over the water as thousands of small black flies hatched, resting in rafts on the water and forming clouds in the sparse vegetation. There appeared to have been fresh arrivals of birds, the waders in particular had low levels of fat but there were also passerines with fat scores up to 3 and one Sedge Warbler carrying a fat score of 6. Clearly, these birds with a lot of fat still have a distance to travel.
Little Stint, aged 5
Ageing is possible, according to Demongin, using degree of wear on lesser and median coverts. We found this quite difficult, added to the birds changing from winter to summer colouration and being quite variable individually. Of the ten, only two appeared to be adult.
Little Stint age 5
Wood Sandpiper age 6
Sand Martin
Red-throated Pipit
4F Crested Lark
Total: 32
Little Stint - 10
Wood Sandpiper - 7
Sand Martin - 1
Swallow - 1
Crested Lark - 4
Red-throated Pipit - 1
White Wagtail - 1
Black-headed Wagtail - 3
Sedge Warbler - 3
Whitethroat - 1
We took a break in the middle of the day, what was probably the first really nice day since we arrived nearly two weeks ago with the temperature rising to 21 Celsius, not too much wind and no rain at all.
Before dinner, we drove to Mavrokolympos dam. Travelling to the far end of the reservoir all seemed very quiet, but on the return trip there were a few Whinchats, singles of Eastern Bonelli's Warbler, Wood Warbler and Whitethroat freshly arrived.