July 2008 ~ Skiathos, Greece

Skiathos was a family holiday with me and my wife accompanied by two of my three daughters and our son-in-law. Probably the last holiday we'll have with most of them together as they all are starting to fly the nest. As such not really a bird watching trip although as usual I took along my travel lens (100-400mm) and got up early some morning to explore the local area to see what wildlife the island had to offer. We stayed at Koukounaries which is in the south of the island and close to a nature reserve that is charmingly called a Biotope.

I have to confess that although Skiathos is a lovely island, it's a little disappointing when it comes to wildlife. Perhaps it would be better at other times of year but there really wasn't many birds about and the ones that were were hard to find and even harder to photograph. Not many reptiles either. On other Greek islands, that I have visited, lizards and snakes are plentiful but I only came across a single lizard in the whole week and no snakes at all.

The Biotope consists of a pine woodland area immediately behind Koukounaries beach, a lake and a large area of grassy scrub, with a few trees, bushes and patches of taller plants.

The pine woods were home to a number of Sardinian warblers but they only offered brief views as they flitted from one patch of cover to another. There was another type of skulking warbler too but I'm not sure what it was exactly. It was pretty much plain grey all over, lighter below and darker above. It had no particular distinguishing features but was much darker than a garden warbler. The most common and easiest birds to see in the pines were the spotted flycatchers and the chaffinches. There were also a few great tits. The only birds of prey on the reserve were an elusive resident kestrel and a brief glimpse of a passing hobby.

The grassy areas attracted a fair number of hooded crows and I spotted a small party of goldfinches and one morning, a pair of grey partridges. There were also a few rabbits and a solitary brown hare that quickly ran for cover on spotting me.

The lake itself had no birds except for an occasional yellow-legged gull which were also found in small numbers around the beaches and harbours.

There were plenty of butterflies, with southern white admiral, small white, swallowtail, scarce swallowtail and two-tailed pasha being quite common. There were also some lovely red dragonflies that were fairly numerous.

Away from Koukounaries I had little chance to do any other bird watching but on a boat trip to nearby Skopolos, I spotted quite a few birds of prey that I could not identify. Our Greek captain told me their Greek name and that they were resident on the many small, rocky off-shore islands. I guess they may have been eleonora's falcons as they were too dark for peregrines and too dark and too numerous for lanners.

The highlight of the bird watching part of the trip actually came unexpectedly for me. We went to Skiathos town every night to eat (our hotel food was pretty poor). As we were eating, drinking and shopping most evenings I never really looked up until one night when I noticed a nightjar, just before dusk. As I watched it I was surprised to see it wasn't the only one. In fact the were a dozen or more flying about, some quite low and all making no sound at all. I wished I'd taken my camera with me.

The only other nocturnal bird (which I did not see myself) was a small owl of some kind that my daughter said was perched in a branch an arms reach from her room's balcony. Sadly it flew off when she got up to come and tell me about it.

Skiathos is a fairly nice place if you just want to crash out on the beach and not do a lot but there are better Greek islands in my opinion and if you want to do a little bird watching there are definitely better islands.

As usual, the butterfly and dragonfly pictures can be seen in the non-bird photo section of this site. There are a few bird pictures in the foreign bird photo section but they are mostly a fairly poor quality. Bird photography can be quite tough in Greece as the birds seem to be even more nervous than usual.