Oriole Week

Its been Oriole week. Every morning the flutey calls drift in to us as we have breakfast and a quick scan of the trees usually reveals a few, some mornings there’s been twenty or more. They are amazingly shy though, the best chance of a photo seems to be from the house, where the accept you should be, walk towards them and they fade away…

Lots of other good birds about including two new ones for us here. A Black Stork circling over the garden was followed later the same day by three Eleonora’s Falcons. Booted Eagle was nice too. Migrant passerines are fading now, not so much variety, but a Barred Warbler was good, and there’s been lots of Wood Warblers.

Wolves howling the other night tempted me out with a torch but the only mammal I saw was a Hare. However a Mediterranean Chameleon was more than compensation. We returned to the spot just outside the garden in daylight and sure enough it was still there but not so easy to photograph.

Spurred Helleborines were the latest orchid added to the list. Sadly one of the large populations of Ophrys lyciensis that I put photographs of up last week have been nabbed by the Salep hunters.

With summer fast approaching here it’s the time of insects. Over the next weeks I am sure I’ll be putting up a lot of images of unidentified bugs, grasshoppers and the like. Must get a picture of the ant with three lime-green thorax stripes! But for now a Rhinoceros Beetle that tumbled out of the veg garden diggings… if anyone call tell the species I’d love to know.