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| Almyros River |
Every once
in a while I have to make a trip away from the south east coast and venture up
to the big city. It’s a very pleasant drive with good roads interspersed with
exciting mountain chicanes, bridges and tunnels and great views at every turn
but cities are not my natural habitat and so I always try to visit a particular
quiet place at the end of the journey – Heraklion Power Station. Or to be
precise, the confluence of the power station canal and the Almyros river. This
is an outstanding area of wetland where you can happily spend all day pottering
about investigating the wildlife and this is where I thought I’d take you
today.
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| German Chamomile |
So here we are at the Electric wetlands. Even the little
gravel car park is interesting as it’s rough edges are full of wild flowers such
as mallow, squirting cucumber and borage. Right here by the car is a patch of German
Chamomile. As with all flowers in the daisy family (Asteraceae) they are easily
distinguishable by a central hub of disc florets usually surrounded by a circle
of ray florets. You can identify this one by the disc florets which rise up in
a hemisphere from the centre of the plant. A couple of teaspoons of dried
flowers and some boiling water steeped for ten minutes and you have a lovely
cup of chamomile tea. [There are some warnings about drinking chamomile tea for
pregnant women and people on blood thinning tablets so check the latest.]
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| Mute Swan |
Let’s take
a walk over the wooden bridge and do a bit of bird spotting. This is a prime
birding spot for warblers, shrikes and water birds such as coots and moorhens
and, if my ears don’t deceive me, that whumf, whumf, splash is the sound of a
swan landing. There he is, a handsome Mute Swan. These are quite rare passage
migrants to Crete according to my field guide though I’ve been lucky enough to
see them on a few occasions (once a single male buddied up with a lone pelican). One year here I even found a pair of Black
Swans. Goodness knows who’s collection they’d escaped from as they are
antipodean birds.
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| Plain Tiger or African Monarch |
As you can
see the insects are busy around the plants with representatives from most groups
but I’m particularly after a butterfly. It’s a bit overcast today and they’re
not out in force – so far I’ve only seen a Small White and a Painted Lady but I’d
dearly like to get a better photo of this chap I photographed a few years back.
He’s a Plain Tiger or African Monarch and I’ve spotted him here on a couple of
occasions (in August and November). Unfortunately not today though, perhaps it’s
a bit early in the year.
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| Stripe-necked Terrapins |
A word
about ears. They are not just for ornithologists. Bill Oddie may be very adept
at cupping one hand behind his lughole and saying Cetti’s Warbler but it’s a
skill that takes years to learn. For us general naturalists a rustle in the
undergrowth or a plip or a plop can point to something worthy of further
investigation and I definitely just heard a plop. Not the plip of a frog
jumping in the water but the heavier plop of a terrapin. If we creep quietly
through the reeds here and try not to squelch – yes there they are, a group of
Stripe-necked terrapins enjoying some spring sunshine. Make the most of it
guys, looking up at the clouds it won’t be out for long.
But now I
must leave you as my appointment calls. You stay here and continue and don’t
forget to look at the beach. There are some good dunes there and being in the
shadow of the power station it’s not much frequented by sunbathers and
swimmers. I wish I could spend longer here with you, I really do. If you spot
one of those Plain Tigers or anything else of interest then post it to the
Naturalists Group so that I can enjoy them later. Until next week – good hunting.
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