Nightingales

If you've never heard a nightingale, now's your chance! Incurable insomniacs, these delightful birds sing night and day and are joyously welcomed by us all as heralds of summer. They can be heard from the house, but are clearer in woodland.  But how to tell them from the warblers, robins, thrushes and other tweetlers? The main melody is not particularly distinctive but, the bird breaks off repeatedly and goes "peep peep peep peep", not unlike the alarm on your cooker or digital watch. Obviously, it's the only thing singing after dark! The singing is all part of the big punch up of the mating season and the birds fall silent in an exhausted heap round about mid June

Hoopoes

The sight of a hoopoe is an amazing thing. They're common here and you are most likely to see them fluttering between trees like an outsize black and white stripy butterfly. Their extraordinary call carries over huge distances. Listen out for the distinctive rapid hoo- hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo — breathy and resonating as though it's being played on a didgeri-doo.

Balkan Green Lizard

Our book on Mediterranean wildlife says it is possible to confuse this lizard with the Italian Green Lizard. In fact, they are quite easily distinguished by diet: If you're stuffed with pasta, pizza and ice cream, then it's an Italian Green Lizard. If you’ve had too much moussaka, souvlaki and baklava, then it's a Balkan Green Lizard. Easy, when you know how!

Bee eaters

Occasionally seen in noisy flocks above the house but more often if you're out walking, bee eaters do exactly what it says on the tin. The really lazy ones just sit on top of bee hives up in the mountains with their mouths open and wait for breakfast to fly in.

Eagle or buzzard?

You will see huge birds of prey circling on the thermals almost every day. But have you seen an eagle or a buzzard? Most common around here are buzzards — easily recognised because other birds of prey are generally silent. Buzzards have a distinctive mewing call.

Short Toed Eagle

Eagles are also seen regularly — most often, the Short Toed Eagle. You are unlikely to get close enough to gauge the length of its toes! A much easier way of identifying it is to look a its underside (that the bit you see anyway if it's floating above you!) The Short Toed Eagle is pale and lightly flecked, with no obvious dark patches. The buzzard has large dark patches on the underside of the wings. 

Black Redstart

The spotting of a Black Redstart in the UK gets twitchers all of a flutter, but here they're as common as muck. Perky, robin-like birds but without the red breast. Instead a patch of red under the tail shows like a flash of red petticoat as it darts around the trees

Black red squirrel

This is a red squirrel, honest Guy! - those happy little chaps you see in Northern Scotland, except here they're ….black. These jolly animals are seen in all the areas of high forest, bouncing from tree to tree

The stationary stuff​

Holly oak

The only holly you see in this part of the world is nursed and cherished in people's gardens. But out in the maquis, you'll see a bush that looks uncannily similar. This is the holly oak, and it's covered in acorns in autumn.

Squirting cucumber

This is an activity plant! As the name suggests, it's a member of the cucumber family. In summer and autumn it produces little hairy cucumbers, which explode at the slightest touch, sending their seeds in all directions. They only explode when they are really ripe, so it's a game of Russian roulette to poke them and see what happens—Best to do your poking with a stick, as some people are allergic to the juice.

Judas tree (a.k.a Rosebud Tree)

Very striking woodland tree in spring and early summer, when the purplish pink flowers appear before the leaves. The name comes from the folk tradition that it was on one of these trees that Judas Iscariot hanged himself (although he would have had to have been very short, as many only qualify as large bushes.)

Caper​

It's stunningly pretty and yes, it's the thing you put on your pizzas! The edible caper grows wild all over the lower slopes of the mountain, along the railway line and even in the churchyard. The edible bit is the flower bud.