This report is to show that a good time birding can be had away from known locations.
We booked a week at the Stars studios just outside the village of Agios Georgos (south) because of its location, which is out on its own before you reach the village itself, and also from the number of good reviews it has (best Greek food).
The room we had was on the first floor(top), the balcony looked over a small strip of grass then scrub, brambles etc. a garden then olive trees. The other side(entrance) gave you views over gardens towards large hills.
All our birding was done on foot as neither of us drive, saying that we were out every day, thunder storms or not. We did three trips to a nearby salt water lake/lagoon called lake Korisson, although you couldn't get too close to it from the south on foot, you could certainly get good views. The rest of our time out was spent walking through olive trees(more like forests than groves)and round agricultural land. In fact we approached the lake by three different routes, one of them across large sand dunes.
We never set off before 10:00 and were out till 16/17:00 so didn't feel like or needed to walk the fifteen minutes into the village to eat as the food at the Stars lived up to its reputation and was no dearer than anywhere else.
The number of birds wasn't great, low sixties, but a driver could certainly improve on that by covering more sites. Some were one offs (Hoopoe) and some daily (Red-rumped Swallow). I'll list the birds seen but will not double up(seen at two sites).
Stars studio balcony
Red-rumped swallow (most numerous bird)
Bee-eaters
Jay
Barn swallow
Olive-tree warbler(for two days feeding on blackberries)
Zitting cisticola (daily)
House sparrow
House martin
Magpie
Collared dove
Whitethroat
Blackcap
Wren
Stonechat
Lesser whitethroat
Sardinian warbler
Barn owl
Scops owl
Hoopoe
White wagtail
Spotted flycatcher
Swift(400-500)
Buzzard
Black kite
Kestrel
Peregrine falcon
Lake Korisson and around
Yellow-legged gull
Little egret
Great white egret
Grey heron
Greater flamingo
Pintail duck
Kingfisher
Ringed plover
Kentish plover
Lesser grey shrike
Grey wagtail
Greenshank
coot
Green sandpiper
Redshank
Dunlin
Sparrowhawk
Black redstart
Sanderling
Oystercatcher
Great cormorant
Cetti's warbler
Long legged buzzard (14 went to roost on the hill top followed by 24, thirty minutes later) so 24 or 38?
Other birds whist walking
Willow warbler
Wood warbler
Goldfinch
Great tit
Blue tit
Spanish sparrow
Whinchat
Blue rock thrush
feral pigeon
Blackbird
Robin
Firecrest
Booted eagle
Goshawk
Tawny pipit
Cirl bunting