Volunteering at Antikythira

We are at the end of April and still get have strong winds and rain. Once more we had to close nets before the scheduled time due to rain. We had to seek shelter at a warehouse next to the ringing station to ring the birds we had collected just before the rain begun. It […]

According to the perdition we were expecting strong winds today but instead it was pretty calm most of the day. In total we had close to 70 birds half of which were Garden Warbler (Sylvia borin, Κηποτσιροβάκος). Personally this made me quite happy, even though most of the people would be bored. We also got […]

Common Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus, Φοινίκουρος) Still some strong wind present and unfortunately the forecast predict even stronger winds for tomorrow. Nevertheless we trapped around 40 birds today. Among them another Eursian Golden Oriole (Oriolus oriolus, Συκοφάγος) on n which we fitted an radio transmitterOther species trapped today: European Turtle Dove (Streptopelia turtur, Τρυγόνι), Eurasian Hoopoe […]

The rain did not allow us to ring more than an hour today. It is true that we have had much more rain late in the season than usual. We had our first Lesser Whitethroat (Sylvia curruca, Βουνοτσιροβάκος) ringed for the season though. The Lesser Whitethroat is not so common during the spring passage so […]

A slow day today with around 30 birds in the nets. The prevailing south wings during last night must have pushed the birds over Antikythira. The few that stopped at the island and trapped today were exceptionally light. The most common species (approximately one third) was the Garden Warbler (Sylvia borin, Κηποτσιροβάκος) . Other species […]

Less than an hour of ringing and in total 10 birds today due to strong winds. We managed though to trap an Eurasian Golden Oriole (Oriolus oriolus, Συκοφάγος ) we needed for our project. This year in collaboration with the Swedish Natural History Museum and the Ornithological Research Center of Ondokuz Mayis University, Turkey, we […]

Among the dozens of European Bee-eater (Merops apiaster, Μελισσοφάγος), one was a little bit different! It was the Blue-cheeked Bee-eater (Merops persicus, Πράσινος Μελισσοφάγος) .The species is not anymore a rarity for Greece but it is always nice when it appears and poses for us!

The wind was stringer today and thus w had less birds. In total slightly less than 30 birds. The first bird though to be ringed was a European Bee-eater (Merops apiaster, Μελισσοφάγος)! Much more were around but did not fell into the nets. Other species trapped today: European Turtle Dove (Streptopelia turtur, Τρυγόνι), Eurasian Hoopoe […]

Strong south winds are present in the east central Mediterranean, but lucky for us Crete is blocking those winds from Antikythira and we were able to ring. In total we had close to 50 birds with a good variety of species. We got our second Eastern Olivaceous Warbler (Iduna pallida, Ωχροστριτσίδα) and Icterine Warbler (Hippolais […]

Too strong south winds today! So ringing is postponed to tomorrow! Yesterday, Stavros, Victoria, Takis and Georgia and Larry departed back to the mainland. Hope to see you soon during a coming sampling season.