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Lakes Polyphytos and Ilarion, Western Macedonia (near Deskati and Kozani, Northern Greece)
June 2024
Our HCMR study team is working on understanding the nature of two high-dam reservoirs, Polyphytos and Ilarion Lakes and the surrounding landscapes. Birds are good indicators of environmental qualities and conditions. Breeding birds are especially sensitive to site and landscape characteristics.
In one long-weekend, blistering hot (14th to 16th June), we did a census search, bird recording in the study area.
We are participating in the Greek Breeding Bird Atlas Project coordinated by the
Hellenic Ornithological Society. The breeding birds census idea has a long history and many applications powered by citizen science. The methodology based on a European Scheme, EBCC, is simple and standardized, and has been adapted for use with the Greek Grid system, which includes more than 160 50x50km squares and at least 2,000 10x10 km squares!
We worked on five of these 10X10 km squares in the Region of Western Macedonia, around the two lakes these days.
We located 97 species of birds and gathered data on breeding evidence. All our data was also made available through the Ebird database platform.
Some photos from the trip follow.
APPROX. 2000 10x10km SQUARES COVERING THE TERRITORY OF GREECE
RECORDING ON EBIRD PLATFORM: EXAMPLES FROM INPUT FEATURES
