Monday, April 15, 2013

8th Athens Bird Race - Tritsis Park


Saturday April 13th, 2013

Tritsis Park (or Pyrgos Vassilisis = Queen's Tower, formerly) is an area of remarkable parkland on the western edge of the great city of Athens. This is traditionally the location our annual Bird Race comes to an end - finishing time is usually at 19:00 sharp. 

Here, some of Greece's most famous amateur birders and several new-comers meet at the end of a fine day of racing. Let me rephrase: after frantically searching all-day for birds. I won't give bird stats here this time since our team, the "Sainia" (Levant Sparrowhawks), was poorly represented. In fact, the team consisted of only Vassilis Hatzirvassanis and I this year. And we certainly did good to get out of our home-offices....We focused solely on the Park itself...we birded for just two hours but we did mange to see 21 species. (I was taking pics mostly and all that follow below are from this amazing Athenian park!). It was pretty crowded with people but we did find some fine spots with a view. 

Anyway there is a strong social aspect to birding and bird racing. I also post pics of some of the most famous people at the meet: I'm sure some of you know these personalities, some have been around a long time and in all seriousness, some of these people have left their mark in Athens - and beyond....

Look for: Probonas, Papaconstantinou, Latsoudis, Stavrakas, Katerinopoulous, Trigou, Tzali, Fric, Kastritis, Manolopoulos, Portolou, Kaltsis, "Tsaf", Gaitanakis, Leontidis, Kaniatsas, Adrianopoulos, Stephanaki, Kakalis (who came over from Lesvos...) and several more....

Thanks to the volunteers!!!!!