Blackbird - Turdus merula

Blackbirds have a good sized population in the area ...There were years with even more birds around but even so they are everywhere. They breed at neighbours' olive groove and garden ...They feed in the yard regularly every day...Special this male who isn't so shy like the female and youngsters...

Crested Lark - Galerida cristata

Although I see Calerida cristata every year ...it isn't a common bird for the little area around the house ...No more than one to three sightings every year in the road...This year I saw it twice, one in the yard and the other on the road ...

House Sparrows- Passer domesticus

There is a big colony at neighbours' roof ....they spend big part of the day around and they love to have a dust bath on the road late in evening ....Except of the House Sparrows there are few Tree Sparrows (Passer montanus) ...but they prefer the wheat field on the other side of the yard ...In fact they come rarely ..the yard owns to house sparrows ))

Goldfinch - Καρδερίνες ...

Goldfinches are the bird of this summer ...Their song is wonderful ...and they don't stop singing all day ...I suspect they start a new breeding season after maybe a succesfull one before ...

Today the breeding behaviour was obvious.... they were bringing nest materials on the big pine ....Lets see ...In fact the place where they put nest material is almost invisible ...It is on a high branch and among four cones and a lot of fresh pine needles.. None can disturb them here ...neither my camera )))

Goldfinches are a common bird for the area and they normaly breed around but this year the family choose our yard like their own home ...This is great ..isn't it ?

There are several young birds around. You can see that the colours aren't fully grown on them ...

This bird is almost full grown,,, Some others are even more difficult to ID  but the yellow at wings is well visible

Everything ....around ...

The Roses

Fruits and Nuts

Olives

Almonds

Walnuts

Pears

Kydonia...I don't know their name in english

And an only pepper ...we are late as farmers LOL!!!

Sunset ...

Wild weeds ....

When nothing moves around ...
those long and lazy evenings















before the mosquitos start their party time ...

the last rays of sun play on little weeds..



















it's time  of relax ....

time to listen to the birds before sleep ...




















it 's time to walk to the road just waiting for the unexpected bird ..















But it happens only when I walk without binoculars or camera with me ...
Never the opposite :))















But weeds are always there ...looking at the sky ...and the sky looks at them ...















before dark comes once again..I took those photos just for fun )))

Living in the fields

A photo is a thousand words ...Better no to try to describe ...or to tell you stories about how my family got this little house and what happened 32 years before, when a strong earthquacke hit Thessaloniki and we had to live outside for several months ...In any case this area in fact was cultivated land of cereals for long ...later in some fields was built summer houses ...Our little property is only 10X10 m ...

In the east there is a nice house with a great garden, the only neighbour who lives there during all the year. North east there is a long field with corns.

Northwest another field just now with destroyed wheat (maybe from a heavy rain). Here an attempt to harvest it but failed...

South is just uncultivated land with a lot of scattered trees most of them olive and almond trees ...

The private road that leads to the house around 100 m long,  cross this uncultivated land from one side, while on the other side there is a nice olive groove ...

There are a lot of habitats for birds to breed and live around ...Unfortunatelly I have never visited this area in other seasons ..so I don't know what species live all the year or stay during the winter around ...
But every year the same birds nest into our little property and around, mostly in the olive groove

I'm not a photographer and with a simple power shot camera it is difficult to take photos of little birds ...but I tried ...There are so many wires and cables around and they love to prerch on them ...The first 10 days I have seen or heard 23 species ..while two more is still unindentified ...11 of them was shot by me at last ...Enjoy ...

The beach isn't too away but for this you need to wait a little ...I can't do all together ...:))

More tomorrow !!!!

Hello friends,
I think it is time to tell GOOD BYE for summer ...


It's time for me to take the ancient roads to the shores of Thermaikos Gulf.


It's time for my yearly communication with the sea and waves


In the desert of fields still my friends will be there ... the Hoopoes, the Red backed Shrikes...the Blackbirds, the different species of swallows, martins and swifts and the gulls......And who knows ...maybe a Greater Flamingo or a flock of Collared Pratincols will fly over my head ...or maybe a Sparrowhawk or a Hobby will make an appearance ...


I will watch the olives increasing in size day by day ..I will watch the without stopping movements of ants opening new roads around the old house ...


I will miss the cams ...i will miss all of you ...my friends in Boma and Facebook


I hope you all have a great happy summer ...






and 15 August will come soon ...and I will be back ...and maybe I will continoue to watch and post pics at this blog ...Until then you can scroll down at the previous pages and have a look at some of the 20.000 pics I have posted until now )) ...Just click at the 'older posts' at the bottom of this page








and maybe I will publish here one or two posts with my news from the fields and some photos ...it depends on what I can do with a telephone line ...






Happy Summer






Καλο Καλοκαίρι !!