28 April 2019

New Trip Report: Crete

Here’s a report from Michael Kessler

Crete, 2019: Michael Kessler, 8 days & 20 species (several of them dead) including Etruscan Shrew, Eastern Rock Mouse, European Free-tailed Bat and Steppe Bat. Not bad when the trip was primarily an orchid hunt!

Jon

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3 Comments

  • 28 April 2019
    Vladimir Dinets

    Finding 51 out of 70 orchid species is totally mind-blowing. I would be happy if I found 5.

    • 28 April 2019
      Venkat Sankar

      I also found that statistic pretty amazing. Even larger plants like conifers can be maddeningly difficult to find unless you have extremely precise locality data or know local experts who can lead you to them… I guess that’s where the mobility of mammals helps a bit 🙂

  • 29 April 2019
    Michael

    Well, I guess that’s where being a botanist by profession helps ;-). But there are lots of locality information on Cretan orchids around and I asked some colleagues who gave me good tips. And even some of the well-known sites such as between Spili and Gerakari are amazing, with around 25 species in flower. Still, it took me many hours of walking through the spiny phrygana to track down all these species. Lots of fun! If anybody is interested in details, jusk ask!

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