LIVADI IN DECEMBER

I started taking photos of wildlife 12 years ago, on Lundy. I have always been interested in nature and when I saw the wonderful wildlife on the island, I decided to try and capture it with a camera. I bought myself a Canon 550d beginners' camera and a secondhand Canon 100x400mm zoom lens. I have had great fun with this combination, but as I am now doing guided walks, I felt it was time to upgrade my kit. 

I purchased a Canon R7 mirrorless camera and a 100x500mm zoom lens. This camera, it turns out, is a lot more complicated than the 550. I downloaded the manual and after a while I managed to turn the camera on! What a difference. The pictures are crisper, and I can shoot from much further away. I can also Bluetooth the images to my phone to show people on the walks. 

Once I had bought the new kit, Kefalonia had a month of thunderstorms. November was a complete washout, and all the while, I was itching to try the new camera. The sun finally came out so a trip to Livadi was in order, it being the best place on the island for wildlife. I decided to go to Livadi via the St Theodore lighthouse, as it is supposedly a good place to photograph the monk seals. This was my seventh visit to the caves along the shoreline to the lighthouse, and still no luck. So, onto Livadi.

As soon as I had settled under the pines, a large number of great egrets and cormorants flew onto the marsh. They seemed uneasy and did not settle for long before trying out different parts of the marsh. The cormorants were especially jittery and would fly out of the marsh and then back in, keeping in small groups. They all eventually settled, which allowed me a few shots. (I have not gotten to photographing moving objects in the manual yet)!

One of the most colourful birds on the marsh is the kingfisher. With most rivers and streams drying out during the Summer, a lot of kingfishers will hunt the coastlines and marshes for food. They are very nervous birds and with the old camera, I struggled to get decent shots. There are no hides here to get close to the birds. With the new set up, I was hopeful that this would change. As if on cue, a male kingfisher arrived and sat in the reeds, about 50 feet away. I was more than happy with the results of my first shots with the camera. 

There were a lot of ducks on the marsh, and I tried to photograph some teal. When checking the camera, I realised that one of the ducks was a shoveler duck, a species I had not seen before. Their bills look much too big for them, but they are very handy for sieving small invertebrates from the mud or crustaceans from the water's surface. 

My bum was getting numb from the small stool I use, so I went for a walk down the road to the lagoon. Walking along the road between the marsh and lagoon can offer up a few more birds. There are usually common sandpipers and egrets along the lagoons edge and just recently, there have been Great-crested grebe on the lagoon. There were no grebes, but the sandpipers were running along the shoreline and there were plenty of egrets fishing. There were a lot of stonechats along the edge of the marsh. These beautiful little birds are among my favourites and I always try to photograph them. Another colourful bird that should be heading back to Africa is the flamingo. They stop off at Livadi on their Spring and Autumn migrations. There have been a few stragglers this Autumn and there was 1 on the marsh, feeding with the egrets and grey herons. 

Although it is December, the island still hosts many butterflies. As I was walking back up to the pines, keeping a look out for the elusive blue rock thrush, there were large whites, clouded yellows, red admirals, painted ladies and plain tigers flitting along the roadside. The plain tiger butterfly is anything but plain, with its black body spotted with white dots, and the sunset orange wings with black and white edges and tips. 

Once back on the miniature torture device, or stool, I settled in to look for more photo opportunities. I spotted, what I first thought, was a juvenile squacco heron, hiding amongst the reeds. After a few shots, I checked the cameras screen and could not believe it. I had photographed my first ever bittern. I have always wanted to capture this beautiful bird but had never seen one. With the new camera and lens, I had got a couple of reasonable shots of this very shy and elusive bird. I then proceeded to take about 50 more shots (the joy of digital cameras), to make sure I had some evidence of this bird. 

I was elated when I got home from my Livadi trip. I had seen my first shoveler duck and my first bittern, but more importantly, I was very excited about the opportunities to come with my new camera and lens.