My first visit to Greece

Greece is so close to Israel, and such a beautiful country, yet I have never visited it, until last week. I spent the week of Passover with my family in different parts of the country. As it always happens in my family holidays, birding was limited normally to early morning sessions before the rest of the family woke up, and whatever birds I could find during outdoor activities. It was a wonderful trip - I enjoyed the time off and being with my family, Athens was exciting and delicious, the mountains were spectacular, Meteora was unreal. 

In Athens, my focus was not quite on birding. The city is wonderful, offering spectacular views of the Acropolis and other world-class landmarks. The food is excellent, too. This is the panoramic view of Acropolis and the Ancient Roman Agora from a rooftop bar near Monastiraki:

I spent three early mornings birding in Athens. The most easily accessible site was Athens National Garden. I was somewhat underwhelmed by birding there. I am used to birding in Israel, where every small garden hosts large numbers of migrants. In Athens I found very few signs of migration whatsoever. The gardens were almost devoid of any migrants. Yet, birding there was sufficient for my checklist streak keeping and enjoyable enough. One morning I climbed up Philopappos Hill which was a bit better. A few Tree Pipits, a Collared Flycatcher, a singing Nightingale made me happy. I heard an unfamiliar song distantly from inside the closed Acropolis gardens - it turned out to be a House Finch (exotic, introduced). I was unaware of the healthy population there - surely they will become a Category C soon?

From Athens we headed north into the mountains. We stayed in Optasia, a nice place near the town of Karpenissi. Nestled under the mighty Tymfristos mountains, along a nice river, walking around our accommodation was fun. Lots of bird song made my birding enjoyable, especially very early in the morning. 

Female Cirl Bunting near the accommodation

One day we hiked up the mountains, around Velouchi Snow Center. It was very pretty up there, I enjoy high altitude birding. 

Carpets of Crocus scepusiensis (I think)

In fact birding felt very similar to the higher elevations of Mt. Hermon, with plenty of vocal Northern Wheatears, Black Redstarts (with grey rather than orange bellies), Wood Larks and Tawny Pipits. 

We also hiked up the trail leading to Black Cave. It was very pretty, lots of water, lush vegetation, and fascinating rock formations. 

I was surprised to find a small scorpion (30-35 mm) hiding under a piece of bark. I know nothing about Greek scorpions, I think it belongs to the genus Euscorpius but there are several very similar species so any expert advice is welcome.

We made a day-trip to Meteora. This is a spectacular region, totally unreal. 

The main road of Meteora was full of tourists. I deserted my family there and went off birding in quieter sections, especially the nice ridge along the road to Vlachava. 

Birding was quite good there, with lots of bird song and a few nice species - lots of singing Eastern Subalpine Warblers and Cirl Buntings, soaring up in the air were Egyptian Vulture, Black Stork and my first Eurasian Hobby in 2025. I had my lifer Rock Partridge there - I flushed three birds while walking down a trail, no photos sadly.

Eastern Subalpine Warbler

Cirl Bunting singing away

Horseshoe Bee Orchid

On my final morning up in the mountains, before heading back to Athens and home, I wanted to climb up again to Velouchi. Thick cloud that covered the mountain top prevented me from doing so. I birded the slopes above Karpenissi, in mixed forest, which was enjoyable and productive, in pretty habitat. 

Bird song dominated the experience, which is always fun. Coal Tits, Firecrests, Mistle Thrushes and lots more filled the soundscape with spring atmosphere. 

Mr. Coal Tit - The Boss

I didn't remove the wire obstructing the Eastern Subalpine Warbler's face as an expression of Wabi-sabi

Firecrest

Firecrest soundbombed by Chaffinch

Eventually the cloud lifted and I climbed up above the tree line, enjoying more bird song.

Wood Lark singing softly

Male European Stonechats breeding there seemed a bit dark IMO, with large white rumps - maybe some eastern influence?

This stunning Rufous-tailed Rock thrush sang from the top of a tall antenna, and performed amazing song flights; first time for me to witness this.

The second phrase in this recording develops into a buzzing song flight, as he swooped low over me

And then it was back to Athens and home. I managed to see a sweet total of 100 species during the trip - check my eBird trip report here.

Champions of the Flyway 2025

Champions of the Flyway 2025 is done and dusted, and, oh boy, what a whirlwind of birding, conservation and people it was. COTF25 was expertly led by Alen Kacal and Noam Weiss from my team at BirdLife Israel, and was hosted at the Eilat Bird Sanctuary/IBRCE. This year, COTF was boosted by an international workshop, funded by the Ministry of Regional Cooperation, that brought almost 20 international birders to take part in the event. Above all, the main benefactors from COTF are the birds - this year we raised funds to better protect the main breeding colony of Common and Little Terns in Atlit. We are very proud of all the teams that worked together to raise over USD10K for the terns!

I headed down to Eilat on Sunday, March 30th. I didn't have much time for birding en route because I had to be in Eilat by lunchtime for the workshop and some TV stuff. I stopped briefly at Mitzpe Ramon where I had a lovely male Semicollared Flycatcher. Then in Yotvata I quickly connected with three Caspian Plovers that remained there for the next few days and made many birders very happy. A four-minute stop at Samar sewage for the two lingering Lesser White-fronted Geese was sweet. Then, so many birds at Eilat. I dipped on the Hypocolius in Holland Park despite two visits. I *think* I heard it once, but couldn't locate it or sound record it, so it doesn't count.

ON March 31st I spent part of the day with the workshop, and had a few meetings, including the official COTF briefing for all participants in the afternoon at IBRCE. It was great to spend time with new and old friends taking part in the workshop - there were birders from Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria and Ethiopia! Together we saw some cool birds such as this male Oriental Honey Buzzard in Yotvata. It is interesting that in recent years, more and more OHB are seen in the southern Arava rather that in Eilat itself, perhaps following the colonization of Oriental Pygmy Bees in this region, and the depletion of bee nests around Eilat by the honey buzzards.

A quick look in Ofira Park was productive. I love this little park in the middle of the city, it often holds nice numbers of migrants, which are often very tame.

Tree Pipit

Wryneck

Race day, April 1st, was super intensive. I was up for all 24 hours of it, working with teams in the field to make sure they worked well, saw the birds and stayed out of trouble (which some of them didn't...). I got to see lots of good birds myself that day. First thing in the morning Yafruk plains, at KM86, was fun. Early on a group of four Asian Wild Asses galloped past me:

There were several good larks around, including Hoopoe (their song...), Temminck's (in the photo below) and Bar-tailed. 

Lots of Eastern Black-eared Wheatears were throughout the day

First COTF teams arrived there - I helped them get on the key species. This team is the JBO Sparrows - kids from the JBO youth club, with their leaders Rafi and Haim.

Then I headed up to Neot Smadar, where I met a few more teams, a TV crew, a Richard's Pipit, more flycatchers and overall many birds, which was hectic but enjoyable.

Richard's Pipit (Crested Lark in the background)

Woodchat Shrike

Thanks Omri for the snap

In Kibbutz Samar, I joined the teams searching for the Rosy Starling that showed up, and the local Black Scrub-Robins.

Rosy Starling destroying a date

Female

KM20 flamingo pools are a must-stop for racing teams. Most teams show up there in the afternoon, and indeed there were lots of cool birds, including Red-necked Phalaropes, Greater Sand-Plovers, and Gull-billed Terns. 

Sadly 'Freddie' the melanistic Greater Flamingo, that has been returning to Eilat for a decade, does not count as a separate species.

Marsh Sandpiper does

From left: Meidad Goren, me, Jonathan Meyrav and Dan Alon (COTF founders - respect!), Yuval Dax. Happy to see Jonathan racing this year. Next time try a little harder mate...

At north beach, before dusk, many teams congregated and I helped them to quickly see the Brown Booby, White-eyed Gulls and other specialties present before it got too dark. Thanks again Yuval Dax for this photo:

My day ended well into the next, with me meeting teams handing in their lists, reviewing the lists and doing the rankings. I think Alen took this photo, of me sitting down with David, Patrick and Michael (from Israel, Germany and Kyrgyzstan) and their list, close to midnight. I was very tired by then.

Next day, April 2nd, post race, pre closing event, I started early, birding with Patrick in Holland Park and Ofira Park again. Still lots of migrants around, nothing too exciting. This Western Yellow Wagtail was intriguing because it looks like a perfect feldegg but gave a pure flava call - will share sound recording when Patrick sends it to me.

The traditional north beach group photo - by the intrepid Yuval Dax:

Alen and me

The award ceremony at IBRCE was moving and emotional as always. Seeing all the kids, women, people from different backgrounds and cultures, share the moment together, for conservation, gives me a sense of hope for a better future. Photos from the award ceremony by.... Yuval Dax:

Champions of the Flyway 2025 - Woodcocks, with 158 species! Ori Gal, Yagel Yamin, Moshe Zinger and Adam Rosenfeld.

Guardians of the Flyway 2025 - Transitivas, the team who raised the most funds, Dror Lavee, Mars Cohen and Osnal Shalem, here with Noam and Alen. They are the first transgender team racing in COTF ever - I am so very proud of them. Thanks to Zeiss Birding for supporting COTF and providing us with the prizes for the winning team.

Knights of the Flyway 2025 - Hawfinches, the team who made the most noise, were most creative in their actions, for the second year running! Check this video for example. They are Ilai Parfinian, Geva Be'er, Lotan Strul, Adam Weinstock, and Itai Lahovitzer, aged 11-13. Here they are with their leaders, Shai Vashdi and Yehudit Mandelbaum.

Huge thanks again to Alen and Noam who led COTF this year, with the support of BirdLife Israel team - Yuval, Meidad, Reeva and Yotam. IBRCE team and volunteers, Tzadok, Leaby, Sasha, Daniel, Noah, Zvi, Eden and Shira were amazing. Thanks again to the Ministry of Regional Cooperation and Municipality of Eilat for supporting the event and bringing over our friends from overseas. Zeiss Birding have been our partners for many years now - thanks Petra and team!

From a birding POV, this was a good year for migration on the ground. Lots of common migrants which is great. On race day the weather was weird so raptor migration was blown to some direction. After a very dry winter the desert holds birds in low densities but it is always great to be out there. Check my trip report here.

That's all for now, see you in COTF26! Go Champions!