Our first day is spent exploring the area along the coast near Chania: a mixture of sandy beaches, river mouths, and a delightful headland. Any small wetlands along this stretch of coast can be worth checking for water birds on passage. Wood sandpiper is usually the most numerous wader, with smaller numbers of little stint, ruff and black-winged stilt, while rarer waders can include marsh sandpiper. Views of crakes, especially little crake, can be stunning at the edges of the few freshwater pools, while herons can include squacco, purple and night herons. Land migrants at this time might include hoopoe, bee-eater, wryneck, woodchat shrike and red-throated pipit, while Eleonora's falcon can appear almost anywhere along the coast.
One of the best areas is the Agia Reservoir, which has natural-looking banks and reedbeds. These can harbour small crakes, little bittern and garganey, as well as being attractive to marsh harrier, alpine swift (which can sometimes give superb views low over the water), hirundines and small migrants. We will make several short visits to this area during our stay.
On one day we'll head high into the mountains, passing through some of Crete's most spectacular scenery en route to the Omalos Plateau. This is an excellent area for large raptors: griffon vulture is the most likely, but lammergeier and golden eagle are also found in the area, particularly above the dramatic Samaria Gorge. We also keep a look-out for chough and crag martin. The flowers here can be stunning, with carpets of blue crown anemones sprinkled with pink Cretan tulips in the meadows, while cirl bunting and woodlark sing from the tops of the flowering hawthorns.
On another day we turn south towards the Minoan Cemetery at Armeni, and on towards the hills above Plakias. This area is superb for orchids and other flowers, including stunning red Tulipa doerfleri, Fritillaria messanensis, Cretan cyclamen and Cretan iris, and also attracts migrants heading north.
Among Crete’s flowers, perhaps the biggest draw is the astonishing variety of orchids. The bee orchids are both amazing and confusing, with Cretan bee orchid the star, but with bumblebee, yellow bee and Marengo orchids also notable. The endemic Bory’s orchid always excites, but we hope to see toothed, milky, Provence and tongue orchids too.
