Pbirdarc0105

MY BIRDWATCHING HIGHLIGHTS FOR JANUARY 2005

	3^rdJan. At Neo Chorio. At home a wintering booted eagle soared over the valley.
	5^thJan. At Neo Chorio. Two separate male goshawks flew low over the garden looking for a tasty snack.
	9^thJan. On the coast. A friend found two early cattle egrets - an indicator that spring is not far away.
	11^thJan. On the coast. Small flocks of linnets and meadow pipits. At Neo Chorio. A scops owl was calling for much of the afternoon, presumably someone or something disturbed it as they are normally strictly nocturnal.
	12^thJan. At Glossa. A steppe buzzard was circling over one of the olive groves in search of food.
	13^thJan. At Neo Chorio. Two pairs of ravens were displaying vigorously with lots of "kronking" and much rapid twisting and turning. Again, spring is coming.
	16^thJan. At Neo Chorio. Unusually, a griffon vultures flew along the valley, presumably crossing from one feeding ground to another. Later a flock of crag martins were feeding nearby. They are forced to lower ground in winter.
	20^thJan. At Neo Chorio. A male stonechat was in the garden, unusual as they normally prefer more open habitats but this was not the nominate race, but was so brightly coloured it must have belonged to one of the eastern races, probably armenica.
	23^rdJan. At Dempia. There was a booted eagle. And At Kamisiana. A flock of 5 chiffchaffs were actively feeding in some tamarisk bushes.
	24^thJan. A drive up into the mountains. Rewarded us with views of 11 griffon vultures; a pair of bonellis eagles; a flock of 6 honey buzzards; a single lanner falcon; a feeding frenzy of 30+ ravens; and good views of my beloved bearded vulture, this an immaculate adult.
	27^thJan. At Neo Chorio. More crag martins and 2 swallows.
	28^thJan. On the coast. There were more flocks of linnets; meadow pipits; and now greenfinches. Also a great crested grebe was fishing just yards offshore.
	29^thJan. Another drive up into the mountains. This time we found a kestrel; lots of ravens; several flocks of crag martins; a pair of bonellis eagles; a lanner falcon; 6 griffon vultures; a serin; a female whinchat; and lovely views of a pair of lesser kestrels that delighted us with their fast wheeling and diving as they hunted along a mountainside. At Kandanos. There was a real raven feeding frenzy with over 70 fighting over some kind of food. We keep seeing very large numbers at this particular spot so assume some brave soul is feeding them. Well done and keep it up!

And a few final words for January..... The notion that someone is putting out food for ravens is interesting. This is not one of the vulture feeding stations run through the E.U. Life Programme, so it must be a private individual doing his or her bit, and jolly well done if that is the case.

This is in sharp contrast to Agia lake where 20 yellow legged gulls were picked up dead after being poisoned as they fed at a nearby rubbish dump then dying as they roosted later on the lake. There is little chance of finding the source - and even if it were identified there would probably be no further effective action.

Flu, bad weather and lightning blowing up our computer slowed us down this month, but we still saw some good birds and most important, we enjoyed seeing them.

Until next month, good watching. Paul Smith.