Kos, it's hot !!

Two weeks at the Oceanis Beach Hotel in Psalidi on the Greek Island of Kos in August.
Two weeks of sun, didn't see a cloud, and temperatures in the 30's with a sea breeze to stop you overheating.
The hotel was lovely, right on the beach, birding was to be a challenge in the heat.
The grounds of the hotel were well kept and had a big flock of House Sparrows with Hooded Crows for company. White Wagtails peaked at 10 and Collared Doves were ever present. From the sunbed we could watch Corey's Shearwater out at sea and passing Med. Cormorant. Passing Swallows and a small flock of Little Swifts kept you awake.
A 20 minute walk along the coast path brought you to the Psalidi Wetlands, dry as a bone !!! But Crested Lark, Tawny Pipit, Barn and Red Rumped Swallow along the way. There was a pair of Black Winged Stilts and a Gull roost of Yellow Legged and Lesser Black Backed, whilst a pair of Long Legged Buzzards floated over. Loud calls from out of the reeds turned out to be Bee Eaters as they flew off.

We hired a car for 2 days to see the rest of the island which was quite small, one end to the other in little over an hour.
The best birding was around Tingaki Salt Pan. Firstly we tried to walk round it but were beaten back by large biting flies, so we stuck to the car with the aircon full on. We found we could carefully drive round most of it anyway. The salt lake seemed to fill up from the sea, so there was always water in it, even though it must have been very salty.
We scoped here at about 10am one morning being careful to avoid full views of the nudists over the dunes !!
Kentish Plover, Spotted Redshank, Greenshank, Wood Sandpiper, Curlew Sandpiper, Little Stint, and Grey Heron, along with a big Gull roost, although we couldn't find any diffent gulls.
It seemed every wire or post had a Roller or a Bee Eater on it, they were all over the place along with Hooded Crows.
We found a track down to th riding stables where the hedges had Sparrows, Greenfinch and Ortolan Bunting, at the end a ruined building had Little Owl being mobbed by Sparrows and strangely an Olivaceous Warbler.

Driving up into the mountains round Pyli and Zia we had more buzzards, Turtle Dove and Raven.
The best place for Swifts was the harbour at Kos town with Common ans Pallid.

We had a boat ride to the volcanic island of Nysseros, from which we added Yelkoan Shearwater
A final walk along the coast path on the last day added Lesser Grey Shrike (lifer), Red Backed Shrike and a Kingfisher which perched on the rocks at the end of the beach, made me wish I'd done this walk more often.
Hard work birding but it always is on summer holidays if you want the sun, still 46 species and one lifer wasn't a bad return.