October 18, Methoni Castle
Messenia, final peninsula of the trip! First stop – a castle. Methoni is a medieval fortress that sits on a small headland on the southwest corner of the Messenian Peninsula, protected on three sides by the Ionian Sea. It was the site of many heroic massacres, etc, etc, read all about it on Wikipedia.
Methoni Castle seems like a great spot for birds, especially on migration. There is abundant scrub and open field type habitat, and it sits on a little south-facing headland. It is also a relatively quiet, people-wise, for a tourist attraction.
Soon after entering the main compound, several passerines came down and foraged along the edge of a scrubby trail. Before I got the bins on them, I took them for something like Song Thrush. Through the bins, I was pleased to see they were in fact Crested Larks. A long-awaited bird for me! They were relatively chunky and approachable, I thought, for larks. Another was singing later from atop a nearby church. The species used to be findable in Korea a while back, but I don’t think (m)any have been seen in the last decade or so there.
A half dozen White Wagtails frolicked on the grassy bits between the castle-y bits. I reckon they were of the white-faced dukhunensis subspecies (if that’s even still a subspecies…I’m rusty on White Wagtails).
Several Old World Flycatchers were seen perched around the weedy periphery – low single-digit numbers of European Stonechat, Northern Wheatear, and Black Redstart.
Back at home base in Akrogiali, a Tawny Owl was kewicking all night, and seemed to be sizing up Melina, the resident kitten.
October 19
We stopped off in Kalamata on the 19th – but left after just 20 minutes when we discovered that it was just a big city, and screw big cities.
We stayed in a house at the top of a cliff, in the quiet hills outside of Kalamata in the area of Akrogiali. On the second night the hills were alive with the sound of…Blue Tit, Great Tit, Eurasian Blackcap, Sardinian Warbler, Spotted Flycatcher, Hawfinch, and Song Thrush.
A final note on my travel optics. On a dedicated birding trip I’d bring my ‘main’ birding rig (Canon 100-400 and Swaros), but for a trip where birding was incidental, done in rushed 20-second increments, this gear worked. It took up a fraction of the weight and space when compared to the big stuff.
I’ll say it again – I love the Travelites. I should be a spokesman for Nikon Travelites – they’re compact and light, and pack an oversized punch with that in mind. Nikon Travelites, buy yours today, bird travel nerds. (#sendmefreeshitpleaseNikon)
I shouldn’t diss the Lumix bridge camera too much. It’s a bit loose and janky (second hand), and I never took the time to learn it properly – I know I was not using it to its potential. It’s small and light and it gets the job done, and it was relatively cheap too. Not perfect, but a solid tool to capture record shots. It's still annoying to use though, heh.
And finally…the Collins Bird Guide…have I mentioned how much I love it? Have I? Good ol’ Lars Svensson et al. I just remembered I got an email from him a while back about one of my pictures from Korea. I think it ended up in another field guide that he did, but I’ve never seen it, so who knows. Anyway, that Collins is the best field guide ever. Ever!
What else? Driving at night on Greek two-lane roads sucks. Also, we skipped Athens, oops.
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