This weather is really starting to get on my tits. It was the wettest June ever, apparently, and it’s showing no sign of letting up. At this time of year we should be eating outside on those long summer evenings with the shadows creeping across the lawn, but no. Even when it’s not raining, it’s heavy grey skies.
Bleagh.
That’s ‘Playing with Dvorak’, typed unthinkingly as though I was using a QWERTY keyboard, but with the computer set to Dvorak. Which I’m trying out now; it’s very slow work. I find the fact the punctuation’s in the wrong places especially un-nerving.
What appeals to me about it is the idea that it’s easier on the hands. No RSI. Not that it seems easier just now. I guess it’s all practice; I’m already getting quicker.
This is all Matt WordPress’s fault, btw.
OK, I’ve gone back to QWERTY for now. One thing that becomes clear is how automatic my QWERTY typing is. I think of myself as a mediocre typist; I certainly don’t touch-type. I’m more of a two-and-a-bit finger typist and tend to watch my fingers. But my fingers clearly do know where the keys are. The question is, how much faith do I have in the long-term benefits of typing with the Dvorak key layout?
At least with a computer it’s easy enough to switch. And the system has a convenient keyboard viewer so I can see what I’m doing.
The last of the three locations in Crete that I bio-blitzed was the Lasithi plateau, where I was from the 27th-28th of April. The plateau is just the prettiest place in the world, as well as providing some good birding for me. Apparently, it’s formed by the build-up of silt from the surrounding rivers creating a little flat fertile area high in the mountains. It’s like someone has taken a little slice of Holland nine kilometres by five and placed it 840m up in the middle of Crete. It even has windmills—little ones for pumping water, since although it floods in winter, in summer it gets dry enough to need irrigation.
Spring was a bit less advanced here; whereas on the south coast the flowers were looking a bit sun-blasted, here they were absolutely amazing. Real alpine meadow stuff anywhere there was enough room for it; higher up the mountain, where it got really rocky, lots of tiny little flowers growing amid the rocks. I was particularly pleased to find about 7 species of orchid.
Which makes it slightly embarrassing to admit that I didn’t actually blitz the flowers; I did have a couple of flower books with me with that in mind, but I found I was only able to ID such a small proportion of them to the species level that my list would have been seriously unrepresentative. So I’ve just got a bird list. The bird I was most pleased with was Wryneck, but there were lots of good things. The list appears below, but first, a selection of photos. The first three (the wheatear, lark and warbler) weren’t actually taken on the plateau, but they were at least taken while I was in Crete.
You can either navigate using the strip at the bottom or just click on the photo to see the next one in the set.
Common Kestrel
Peregrine Falcon
Eurasian Griffon Vulture
Common Buzzard
Common Quail
Yellow-legged Gull
Eurasian Collared Dove
Woodpigeon
Common Cuckoo
Eurasian Wryneck
Crested Lark
Woodlark
Barn Swallow
Tree Pipit
Yellow Wagtail
Common Blackbird
Sardinian Warbler
Great Reed Warbler
Spotted Flycatcher
Blue Rock-Thrush
European Stonechat
Whinchat
Northern Wheatear
Black-eared Wheatear
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Woodchat Shrike
Common Raven
Hooded Crow
Eurasian Jay
House Sparrow
Linnet
European Goldfinch
European Greenfinch
Chaffinch
European Serin
Corn Bunting
Cirl Bunting
That barn owl bio blitz button is derived from a photo on Flickr by Nick Lawes used under a by-nc-sa licence; the button is available under the same licence. Not that there’s anything wrong with the Jennifer’s BBB buttons, but I wanted something to match my colour scheme.
Paleohora is a little town on the south coast of the western end of Crete. It’s an expanding resort town with plenty of tavernas and cafes, but still small and quiet compared to the established resorts. Especially quiet in April, which is really before the tourist season starts in earnest. The town sits on a little headland with the ruins of (Venetian?) castle on the end. Immediately behind the town is the start of the mountains, all rocky scrubby stuff, and to one side there’s a little river valley with olive groves and trees and things, which goes down to form a little reed-lined pool. So there’s a range of habitats present and it’s well-placed to pick up migrant birds. This is a shot of the town looking back from the castle site; I haven’t got a picture of the castle because it’s just a few wall-bases and really not picturesque at all.
My best birds here were Common Quail—a species that is relatively common across Europe but very difficult to see—and, especially, European Roller, a great big blue thing I’ve wanted to see for years and is even a rarity for Crete. Oh, and a whole flock of eight Golden Orioles, spectacular yellow birds that are normally shy and reclusive, but which I had a good view of as the flew one by one across the olive groves. But I don’t have any bird pictures from here; I didn’t feel like carrying my telescope around. So here’s my bird list for April 22nd-25th with interspersed photos of the area just for local colour.
Squacco Heron
Purple Heron
Little Egret
Common Buzzard
Peregrine Falcon
Common Kestrel
A big grasshopper/locust thing perched on a prickly pear. Prickly pear is an introduced species; from Mexico, I think? that’s fairly common in various places around the Med.
Common Quail
Common Sandpiper
Yellow-legged Gull
Collared Dove
Turtle Dove
This is part of the river valley from up on the hill. You can see olive groves, obviously; the common tree tended to be some species of plane.
European Scops Owl (heard)
Common Swift
European Roller
European Bee-eater
I’m pretty sure that’s some species of Silene, but I don’t know which one.
Crested Lark
Barn Swallow
Red-rumped Swallow
House Martin
Sand Martin
Tree Pipit
An empty wasp nest on what I think might be myrtle. Taken down on the beach.
Common Blackbird
Sardinian Warbler
Common Whitethroat
Blackcap
Garden Warbler
Wood Warbler
Cetti’s Warbler
Great Reed Warbler
Sedge Warbler
A shot of the shingle beach. There’s a sandy beach on the other side of the headland, but it seemed less productive for birdwatching so I didn’t go there much.
Spotted Flycatcher
Whinchat
Common Redstart
Common Nightingale
Blue Rock-Thrush
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Woodchat Shrike
Hooded Crow
Golden Oriole
Waves breaking on the rocks.
House Sparrow
Spanish Sparrow
European Goldfinch
European Greenfinch
Chaffinch
European Serin
That barn owl bio blitz button is derived from a photo on Flickr by Nick Lawes used under a by-nc-sa licence; the button is therefore available under the same licence. Not that there’s anything wrong with the Jennifer’s BBB buttons, but I wanted something to match my colour scheme.
I’ve posted a few thoughts on the books I read in Crete (a couple of novels by Kazantzakis, some Marquez, Seferis, books on the Battle of Crete and resistance, Aristophanes), which can be found via my ‘What I’ve been reading’ page.
Well, I spent a couple of days in Tzermiado on the Lasithi plateau, which is like a little chunk of Holland – flat fields and fruit trees – randomly inserted in among the Cretan mountains. Some good birds (wryneck, quail, cirl bunting, black eared wheatear, griffon vulture, peregrine, blue rock thrush), and up on the mountainsides, incredible flowers, including about 6 or seven species of orchid, as well as asphodel, cyclamens, and so on.
I’m nearly home now, so soon I’ll be able to show you the pictures :)