The Evros delta, the first stop in Greece

I had heard about the Evros Delta in Greece as a good birding site, particularly in spring. We hadn´t planned to visit Evros Delta during the workshop, but we decided to give it a try as we felt that we had succeeded with the Golden Jackal photography. That meant that we only spent the morning hours on the fourth day in the Golden Jackal hide before we packed the minibus and headed towards Greece and the Evros Delta.

The trip was uneventful, even if the Greek border police made us stay for longer than we liked. We steered the minibus towards the hotel just on the outskirts of Tychero before we headed towards the wetlands.

One understood that we now where near the Turkish border as we saw many military vehicles. The Evros Delta actually form the border between Greece and Turkey. It is considered to be one of the most important wetlands, not only in Greece, but also in Europe.

We didn´t know what to expect during this detour and sadly it didn´t start well as most birds just flew off as soon as we stopped. It also felt a little peculiar to see all the watch towers, on both sides of the border, and the machine gun nests, on the Greek side. The glad news was that the watch towers and machine gun nests disappeared when we moved further into the delta towards the Mediterranean sea.

Our main target was the Greater Flamingo.

We found a flock that wasn´t as cooperative as one would have hoped, but still we climbed out of the minibus and gave it a try. The birds of prey where plentiful, particularly the Common Buzzard and the Western Marsh-harrier.

I would say that this picture represents the Evros Delta in a good way with the reed beds and the mountain as background. This picture shows a female Western Marsh-harrier that showed herself in a beautiful way.

The whole area was teeming with birds, most of them uncooperative, but still we got decent pictures of some. It was also nice to see a White Stork there. Maybe a little early, but there certainly were spring temperatures in the air.

It was a great stop on the way to Lake Kerkini and it was really nice to get out in the warm weather.

Photo Gallery: The Evros delta, the first stop in Greece