My wife and I re-visited one of our favourite chill-out places for a 5th time, the greek island os Samos. We stayed at the same hotel near the little fishing village of Kokkari on the north coast. It really is a great place to relax and unwind.
The weather was superb and so not a lot of migration took place during our stay. In previous years we have seen lots of Bee-eater and Eleonora’s Falcon moving east to west and a few White Stork and Short-toed Eagle. Not the case this year, with cloudless blue skies. However I did manage to see a few new birds that I’ve not seen on the island before, as we hired a car for 3 days.
A very pretty and green island and lots to explore. We didn’t really scratch the surface. So highlights for me were as follows:-
Butterflies – 10+ Two-tailed Pasha (only emerged during the middle of our second week); 2 Southern White Admiral; lots of Painted Lady (including some that were extremely small); Cleopatra; Large White, Red Admiral; Holly Blue; Small Skipper; Aegean Meadow Brown; Scarce Swallowtail; Swallowtail; Small Tortoiseshell and Ilex Hairstreak
Birds – (Highlights only) Greater Flamingo (5); Ruddy Shelduck; Black-winged Stilt; Roller (6+) Bee-eater (party of 6 and 20+); 2 White Stork; Honey Buzzard (1) Long-legged Buzzard (pair); Short-toed Eagle (1); Common Buzzard; Sparrowhawk (1); Kestrel (1); Eleonora’s Falcon (6+); Red-rumped Swallow; Ruppell’s Warbler; Sardinian Warbler; Yellow-legged Gull; Tawny Owl: Hooded Crow; Samos Jay – the total list was just short of 50 species.
Others – Oriental Hornet; Snake-eyed Lizard; Odalisque; Beautiful Demoiselle; Red-veined Darter; Hummingbird Hawkmoth; Carpenter Bee; Pyramidal Orchid.
