Saturday June 11th was our last full day in the mountains and we focused on getting the species that had eluded us so far. We returned to the Rock Nuthatch spot hoping we might run into this species although the nest was no longer in use. Alas we did not find this bird. Instead though we saw a falcon flying along the ridge, then two, three, four, five! A family of Eleonora's Falcons were hawking insects above the skyline. This was an unexpected species, a lifer for me and the first time Daniel had seen a family group acting in this way. We also saw a couple of Chukar Partridge on the ridge.
We then moved on to look for Masked Shrike and had no luck until Daniel saw a long tailed bird fly from the wire when we had almost given up. Daniel then located a nest and I was able to watch the 2 adults feed 4 young in the nest through a scope for about half an hour. We had moved into a slightly different habitat and had our first Hoopoes, Bee Eaters, Rollers and Golden Orioles of the trip. We also saw a Honey Buzzard in the forest and followed the bird along as it flew through the trees but the bird did not emerge for an overhead view.
We also saw many Fallow Deer along the woodland edges and a Land Tortoise on the road. We were close to an area where European Bison had been introduced but saw only the electric fence to keep them in and not the animals themselves.
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| Fallow Deer |
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| Hoopoe |
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| Land Tortoise |
After sunset we headed to a local park where European Scops Owls were calling. We heard at least two birds and replied to Daniel's taped calls. These birds gave us the run around for quite a while!
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