After more than 18 months since our last overseas trip (Faro, Portugal, February 2020), Sabine and I decided to spend 2 weeks in Crete. For me this represented a first time visit and hence a voyage of discovery in terms of wildlife on the island. During the 14 days we based ourselves successively in Heraklion, Georgioupoli and Chania which provided excellent opportunity for exploring the differing habitats within the island. As an aside the food, drink, weather and hospitality were all excellent and hence a repeat trip is definitely on the cards.
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| Swallowtail |
25th September - Aposolemi Beach: Just to the east of Heraklion is an area where a river from an inland gorge meets the sea. In the spring and winter the river attracts migrants but at this time of the year it was pretty dry. However we saw our first butterflies here, namely 2
Swallowtails and 1 Mediterranean Skipper, the latter a first. Also a distant Red-backed Shrike, 15 Little Egret, Red-rumped Swallow, Common Buzzard and 1 Cettis Warbler.
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| Mediterranean Skipper |
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A distant Red-Backed Shrike
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26th September - Rouvas Gorge: A beautifully clear sky provided a perfect backdrop for this ca. 2h walk up through the Rouvas Gorge where we encountered
Blue
Rock Thrush, Cirl Bunting, Raven and 2 Cretan Grayling. |
| male Blue Rock Thrush |
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| male Blue Rock Thrush |
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| Cretan Grayling |
27th September - Aposolemi Beach: Back to Aposolemi Beach, with an earlier start of around 9.00 a.m., to see what else I could find here. Again the butterflies were of real interest with a
Clouded Yellow, 1 Mallow Skipper (another first), 1 Mediterranean Skipper and a single Eastern Bath
White on the beach. This butterfly, my third new species of the trip, spent most of the time on the wing, settling only occasionally for a photo. In terms of birds the highlights were a Hoopoe, Kingfisher and Common Buzzard. |
| Clouded Yellow |
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| Clouded Yellow |
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| Clouded Yellow |
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| Common Buzzard |
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| Eastern Bath White |
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| Eastern Bath White |
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| Eastern Bath White |
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| Mediterranean Skipper |
29th September - Heraklion: Heraklion is fairly built-up with only limited green spaces. However close to the hotel near the tennis courts I found a small sunny area with flowers and shrubs which proved to be a great place to find butterflies. After quickly finding a couple of Clouded Yellow together with several Small White I then spent an hour or so chasing a small blue butterfly which turned out to be a Lang's Short-tailed Blue (fourth new butterfly species and counting). Later I found a second one together with singles of Mediterranean Skipper and Mallow Skipper.
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| Lang's Short-tailed Blue |
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| Mallow Skipper |
30th September - Drive to Georgioupoli via Lake Kournas: Our short stay in Heraklion was over and so we headed off to the small resort of Georgioupoli via Lake Kournas. On the way we saw our first Griffon Vultures of the trip and two Alpine Swifts. Lake Kournas is a large inland freshwater lake popular with tourists. Here we hired a pedalo and headed off to the middle of the lake where we found a small group of 4 Black-necked Grebe together with several Little Grebe. Around the lake there were large numbers of flowers which attracted many Holly Blues together with a Humming Bird Hawk Moth and 5 Lang's Short-tailed Blues.
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| Black-necked Grebes |
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| Black-necked Grebe |
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| Humming Bird Hawk Moth |
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| Lang's Short-tailed Blue |
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| Lang's Short-tailed Blue |
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| Little Grebe |
1st October - Preveli Beach & Georgioupoli: Preveli Beach is on the south side of the island of Crete but can be readily accessed motorway as a result of a recently constructed motorway. On the way we stopped by the side of the road to watch a group of about 15-20 Griffon Vultures circling in the sky, some of them coming lower down. Preveli Beach is accessed by climbing a winding cliff path. Once on the beach a group of ca. 10 Yellow Wagtails briefly settled and 2 Cretan Grayling were seen. A path from the beach takes you further inland up the gorge where there were Crag Martins flying high on the rock faces together with Ravens. On the way back up the cliff face a Booted Eagle and Peregrine flew over. Back at Georgioupoli later in the afternoon we saw Barn Swallows, Meadow Pipit and Hooded Crow.
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| Booted Eagle |
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| Griffon Vulture |
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| Griffon Vulture |
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| Griffon Vulture |
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| Meadow Pipit |
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| Yellow Wagtail |
2nd October - Georgioupoli environs: With the aid of a local guide book we set off after breakfast for a 20Km walk around Georgioupoli, taking in some of the local villages and countryside. This proved to be one of the most interesting and varied days from a wildlife perspective with the following seen:
4
Spotted Flycatcher, 1 Thrush Nightingale, 1 Chiffchaff, Collared Dove 1 Red-rumped Swallow, several Griffon Vulture, Common Buzzard, Swallowtail Butterfly, Cretan Wall
Lizard, Cretan Cyclamen and a male Lang’s Short-tailed Blue. |
| Chiffchaff |
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| Collared Dove |
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| Cretan Cyclamen |
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| Cretan Wall Lizard |
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| male Lang's Short-tailed Blue |
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| Spotted Flycatcher |
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| Spotted Flycatcher |
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| Thrush Nightingale |
3rd October - Drive to Chania and Agia Lake: Our final transfer saw us drive the short distance from Georgioupoli to Chania with what turned out to be the first of three visits to Agia Lake, an inland nature reserve with a diverse range of wildlife. Here we clocked up the following: 1
Kingfisher, 1 Marsh Harrier, 1 Booted Eagle, 1 Squacco Heron (a first - spotted by Sabine), 1 Cormorant, Barn Swallows, a ‘white’ Barn Swallow, House Martins, Moorhen and Coot. An area of flowers and shrubs near the lake proved excellent for butterflies with Holly Blue, Red
Admiral, Speckled Wood and Small White. The Speckled Wood was more brightly coloured than those encountered in the UK (ssp. ticris) and belongs to the ssp. aegeria.
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| Barn Swallows |
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| Holly Blue |
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| Speckled Wood ssp. aegeria |
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| Squacco Heron |
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| Squacco Heron |
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| Squacco Heron |
4th October - National Botanical Garden and Agia Lake: In the morning we did a tour of the National Botanical Garden where in addition to an impressive range of flowers, shrubs and trees we saw a flock of 10 Chukar, 5 Sardinian Warblers, a Speckled Wood and a Holly Blue. On the way back we paid our second visit to Agia Lake where I spent a couple of hours thoroughly searching the 'butterfly area' resulting in sightings of
Common
Blue, Clouded Yellow, Mallow Skipper, Mediterranean Skipper, Small Copper and Lang’s Short-tailed Blue. We also saw a Kingfisher, Spotted Flycatcher, Common Buzzard and Red-veined Darter. |
| Chukar |
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| Holly Blue |
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| Sardinian Warbler |
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| Clouded Yellow |
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| male Common Blue |
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| Common Buzzard |
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| Mallow Skipper |
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| Red-veined Darter |
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| Spotted Flycatcher |
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| Spotted Flycatcher |
5th October - Samaria Gorge, Omalos Plateau and Agia Lake: The Samaria Gorge is an extremely popular tourist destination since from the top of the gorge it is possible to spend half a day walking the entire length down to the coast followed by a boat/coach trip back. We opted to walk the gorge for about an hour before turning back and instead walking north across the Omalos Plateau. Here we saw plenty of Griffon Vultures, a Booted Eagle, several Choughs, Linnets, Goldfinches and 2 Cretan Grayling, plus a very distant Bearded Vulture.
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| Griffon Vulture |
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| Cretan Grayling |
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| Chough |
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| Booted Eagle |
On the way back home our final visit to Agia Lake produced the usual Booted
Eagle and Spotted Flycatcher together with an impressive haul of butterflies for October namely, Clouded Yellow, Brown Argus, Common Blue, Mallow
Skipper, Small Copper and Lang’s Short-tailed Blue.
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| Booted Eagle |
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| Brown Argus |
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| Mallow Skipper |
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| Small Copper |
6th October - Kissomos: For the final day of the trip we decided to do a long walk around the coastline at Kissomos including a descent down to the beach. The views were spectacular, with clear blue skies, and we finished on a little flourish by seeing a Woodlark which was singing together with 2 Crested Larks, 10 Ravens, 1 Peregrine, 10 Griffon Vultures, 2
Hooded Crows, a Kestrel and 2 Clouded Yellow.
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| Woodlark |
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| Woodlark |
Overall a fantastic 2 weeks in Crete with perfect weather and an impressive amount of wildlife including some first for both birds and butterflies.