You do not need binoculars to start. You just need to slow down and pay attention. Vasilis Konstantinou, our ornithologist guide, explains why Halkidiki is one of Greece's great birdwatching spots.
The first thing Vasilis Konstantinou tells you when you go birdwatching with him is to stop. Not to look around — just to stop moving completely and let your breathing slow down.
"Most people miss birds because they are still moving from where they came from," he says quietly. "The birds can feel it."
Vasilis has been leading birdwatching walks in Halkidiki for eleven years. He knows the wetlands at Kalochori and the forest paths above Athos by sound as much as by sight. He can identify a bird from a hundred metres by the shape of its silhouette, by the angle of its wings in flight, by a single call.
What makes Halkidiki unusual, he explains, is the combination of habitats within a relatively small area. In a single morning walk, you might move through coastal scrub, pine forest, and wetland — each with its own resident and migratory species. During the spring and autumn migration seasons, this makes the peninsula a significant stopover point for birds moving between Africa and northern Europe.
"We had a black stork in May," he says, as if this is something that still surprises him. "They are not common here. You do not forget a black stork."
For beginners, Vasilis recommends starting not with identification but with attention. Pick one patch of bushes, he says, and watch it for five minutes without moving. You will be surprised what appears.
He is right. We were.