Pbirdarc1205

MY BIRDWATCHING HIGHLIGHTS FOR DECEMBER 2005

	6^thDec. At Neo Chorio. A yellow wagtail hung around all day. Unusual this as they are autumn or spring passage migrants only.
	20^th Dec. At Chania hospital. A single honey buzzard found me at Chania hospital and no doubt spread the word about that I was back under intensive medical care.
	22^nd Dec. Along the coast. We saw a female kestrel actively hunting, far more active and dashing than the kestrels we are familiar with in England. Further on were two more pairs; a shag; a flock of 33+ meadow pipits; 3 serin; 30+ tawny pipits; and 2 moorhens.

	23^rdDec. At Neo Chorio. At home, a single honey buzzard was still eying me up and a short toed eagle sauntered by.
	24^thDec. At Neo Chorio. A lovely male goshawk was quartering the fields below us in search of a meal.
	29^thDec. At Neo Chorio. A pair of booted eagles circled. I am beginning to wonder just how many of these are ones we have seen before and how many are new ones. At present there is no way of telling. Down on the coast. We found a dead raptor hung up in a tree. A friend recovered the body and took it away for identification. To me and from the distance I saw it, it looked much more like a second year red morph booted eagle or even a red morph steppe buzzard than an ordinary buzzard - but it must be born in mind that there is tremendous variation in all the raptor species and only the ‘classical ones’ can be identified with certainty - especially at close range as experienced watchers are accustomed to long distance identification features and can get thrown by really close up views. I look forward to the views of the experts! We also saw another moorhen and had fine views of a long legged buzzard, yet another species seen out of season.
	30^th Dec. At Galatas. A booted eagle circled, this is a favourite spot of theirs.
	31^st Dec. At Kamisiana. We saw our first whinchat for ages.

A few final words for November..... What a lousy month for us – the combination of hospital visits and a prolonged spell of bad weather meant we spent very little time chasing birds but we are starting to get a little bit excited as my hospital visits are drawing to a close soon and also spring migration will be starting again so here should be lots more birds to record.

Our Christmas cards were mainly of robins though we had the odd doves and three French hens. Very subdued after all the exotics my right hand man had to try to identify last year and the lovely photograph of the lesser kestrel was very much appreciated and took about a millisecond to identify!

Until next month, Good Birding! Paul Smith.