BIRDS OF CRETE (2009)

Following is the list of bird species that we saw or heard during our visit to England and Crete for three weeks in April 2009. Most of the birds were seen during our two weeks in Crete (those with a yellow border were sighted in England). A few (Cuckoo, Nightingale) were heard but not seen, and the Red Kite is a likely but not a certain sighting.

There are 80 birds listed here but without the expertise of Barry Nicholson, a member of our walking group in Crete, the number of identified birds might have been less than 20, the remainder listed as "little brown jobbies". Barry had the marvellous ability to tell what something was when I just heard a tweet or saw a blur. Barry's own list is probably 20 birds longer than this (I've only listed those I actually saw or heard).

Alpine Swift	Barn Owl	Black-eared Wheatear	Black-winged Stilt
Blackbird	Blackcap	Blue Rock Thrush	Blue Tit
Bonelli's Warbler	Booted Eagle	Buzzard	Canada Goose
Cattle Egret	Cetti's Warbler	Chaffinch	Chough
Chuker	Collared Dove	Common Sandpiper	Common Swift
Coot	Corn Bunting	Crag Martin	Cretzschmar's Bunting
Cuckoo	Eleonora's Falcon	Goldfinch	Great Tit
Greenfinch	Greenshank	Grey Heron	Grey Wagtail
Griffon Vulture	House Martin	House Sparrow	Jackdaw
Kestrel	Lesser Grey Shrike	Linnet	Little Crake
Little Egret	Little Grebe	Long-legged Buzzard	Magpie
Montagu's Harrier	Moorhen	Nightingale	Northern Wheatear
Pallid Swift	Peregrine Falcon	Pheasant	Raven
Red Kite	Reed Warbler	Robin	Sand Martin
Sardinian Warbler	Sedge Warbler	Serin	Shag
Spanish Sparrow	Spotted Flycatcher	Squacco Heron	Stonechat
Swallow	Tree Sparrow	Turtle Dove	Whinchat
White Wagtail	Willow Warbler	Wood Sandpiper	Woodchat Shrike
Woodlark	Wren	Yellow Wagtail	Yellow-legged Herring Gull
(UK)Great Crested Grebe	(UK)Great Spotted Woodpecker	(UK)Hobby	(UK)Red Grouse