Work trip to Rhodes

I had a hotel inspection in Rhodes and due to Ryanair only flying on a Saturday and Tuesday, had a whole day to myself.

I did research on Fatbirder and the like and identified four likely looking areas to see if i could get some decent birds. Each area could not have been further apart and so I hired a car and circumnavigated the island.

First stop was the Appolika Reservoir which is the only permanent freshwater on the island.

I had expected a selection of common ducks, gulls etc and actually got a lone cormorant!

It had taken an hour of winding roads and 3km of rough track to get here so was a bit peeved to say the least. I did get some Ravens flying, the ubiquitous Hooded Crows, a solitary Willow Warbler and a very elegant soaring bird of prey.

I certainly had not seen one before so ruled out the obvious Kestrel, Peregrine etc but could not identify.

I am hopeless at photographing birds in flight but rattled off a couple of shots and hoped one would be good enough to ID when I got back to the hotel.

I did not have the benefit of looking on a computer and the small size on the back of the camera meant I had to wait until I got home. Even then I still could not pin it down so emailed the photo to Jono.

Unsurprisingly, my font of all knowledge picked it out immediately as a Red Footed Falcon which is a lifer for me so the journey was worthwhile after all.

The only other wildlife was a few Meadow Brown butterflies and this damselfly (I think another for Jono!)

I then made my way to Plimmini which is a small beach with scrub behind at the very south of the island. I could see how good this would be for migrants - sort of Minsmere like without the water!

However, I had obviously missed migration and had nothing other than a large amount of Crested Lark.

Next stop was Garoudis river which gets good reviews. I am sure it would be good if it had any water in it!

The whole area was completely barren and I did not see one bird!

Other birds seen over the three days were Red Rumped Swallows, House Martins, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Jay, Yellow Legged Gull, Buzzard, Kestrel, Blackbird, Starling, Collared Dove and House Sparrows. Very average.

The island is lovely and I am sure if you hit it right with migration it would be better than I experienced.