European Butterflies – tonydavisonphotography.com

Holiday to the Aegean Island of Samos

2017, Birds, Birds of 2017, Butterflies, European Butterflies, Year No Responses »

Jun 042017

My wife Helen and I decided to head back to the beautiful Aegean Island of Samos for our usual weeks holiday. This was to be our 4th visit, to the same hotel and location and we really like our little Shangri-la. This year the bird activity around and over the hotel was rather quiet and a little disappointing in comparison to the other years we have visited. Still I managed around 50 Bee-eater during the week, 6 Eleonora’s Falcon, 2 Long-legged Buzzard, 2 White Stork, 1 Short-toed Eagle, 1 Red-footed Falcon, several Red-rumped Swallow, 1 Sardinian Warbler, 4 Chukkar, 5 Peregrine, lots of Hooded Crow, lots of Yellow-legged Gull, several “Samos” Jay, pair of White Wagtail, Tawny Owl, large numbers of migrating Swallow & House Martin, all being the main highlights. Butterfly highlights were a Southern Swallowtail, Common Swallowtail, Long-tailed Blue, Cleopatra, Ilex Hairstreak, Holly Blue, Large Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Painted Lady, Clouded Yellow, probably Aegean Meadow Brown and Large White. Two Dragonflies – Odalisque and Beautiful Demoiselle.

Interestingly there are a number of races of Jay across Greece, but the black crowned race – Garrulus glandarius samios is exclusive to Samos and Ikaria.

European Bee-eater – above 2 images – Samos, Greece. Tony Davison©

Hooded Crow – Samos, Greece – Tony Davison©

“Samos” Jay – This “Black-Crowned” race is exclusive to Samos & Ikaria – Tony Davison©

White Stork – Samos, Greece – Tony Davison© – This bird was one of 2 that were migrating over the island one morning.

Yellow-legged Gull – above 2 images – Samos, Greece – Tony Davison©

Long-tailed Blue – Samos, Greece – Tony Davison©

Aegean Meadow Brown – Samos, Greece – Tony Davison©

Odalisque– Epallage fatime – Samos, Greece – Tony Davison© – A mature male, recognised by the blue body.

Beautiful Demoiselle – male – above 2 images – Samos, Greece – Tony Davison©

Beautiful Demoiselle – female – Samos, Greece – Tony Davison©

PART FOUR – Desert Birding in Morocco with Boletas Birdwatching Centre

2017, Birds, Birds of 2017, Butterflies, European Butterflies, Year No Responses »

Apr 022017

PART FOUR - Desert Birding in Morocco with Boletas Birdwatching Centre

PART FOUR – For some years now I have wanted to experience the desert birding in Morocco, and during 2017 I was fortunate enough to achieve my goal and I spent a week there, between 10th March and 20th March 2017, birding in the special desert areas. I traveled with Boletas Birdwatching Tours, operated by Josele Saiz. Our team comprised of 7 birders, most of which were also keen photographers, two leaders – Chris Townend and Danny Cazo Monesma and not forgetting our brilliant driver, Mohammed. It was a stunning trip, managing to see 30 new species and over 170 species […]

Back from a Baleares

2016, Birds, Birds of 2016, Butterflies, European Butterflies No Responses »

Jun 012016

Just recently back from a chill-out week on the Balearic Isle of Menorca. We had a great relaxing time at the beautiful resort of Cala Galdana on the south coast. The weather was superb, the food superb and the hotel superb. What more can I say. One of the reasons we chose this resort was due to the easy access of the Algendar Gorge, which is a great place for birding. That kept me quiet for most of the mornings with an easy walk of around 3-4 miles there and back. The Algendar Gorge lies to the north of the […]

Samos 2015

2015, Birds, Birds of 2015, Butterflies, European Butterflies, Year No Responses »

Jun 012015

My wife & I spent another glorious week at our favourite place on Samos, at the small fishing village of Kokkari on the north coast of this beautiful island. This was our third year running on Samos and I must admit, it is one of my favourite places to just simply chill-out for a week and do very little at all. We were one week earlier than last year and so a little too early for the passage of Eleonora’s Falcon. However I did have a huge passage of Bee-eaters on 22nd May. During the day well over 100 birds […]

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