Bird watching at Kerkini Lake from Thessaloniki

Bird watching at Kerkini Lake from Thessaloniki

Lake Kerkini is situated in the northeast of the district of Serres, at just 40km distance from the town of Serres and 100km from the city of Thessaloniki. The lake is surrounded by mountains Belles and Mavrovouni, at close proximity with the Greek-Bulgarian borders.

Lake Kerkini:

Kerkini is an artificial lake that was created in 1932, and then redeveloped in 1980, on a site of what was previously an extensive marshland. It is now a wetland of great environmental significance as a result of man's technical intervention on the natural characteristics of Strymon River. Human intervention at the environment usually retracts or takes negative action against the natural processes but Kerkini Lake is a rare paradigm, where logical human handling had the exact opposite result. Nowadays the waters of the lake are mainly of agricultural utility while the lake and surrounding areas provides shelter to a series of wild life species.

Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product

Stop At: Kerkini Lake, Kerkini 62055 Greece

Lake Kerkini in Northern Greece, one of the most important wetlands in Europe, is considered to be one of the top European bird watching destinations. Lake Kerkini is now one of the premier birding sites in Greece as it is situated along the migratory flyway for birds to their way to Aegean Sea, Balkan region and the Black sea.

About 300 bird species have been observed: some of them nestle, some winter while others stop over for rest or food. Among them, the Pelican and the Pygmy Cormorant are threatened by extinction. The area is also one of the most important cormorants’ and herons’ colonies of the Northern Balkan Peninsula. This amazingly wonderful wetland is protected by the Ramsar international convention and presents numerous worth seeing things. Thousands of birds, both rare and protected, riverside forests, water-lilies in a large area, fish variety and fantastic panoramic view from the nearby mountains.

Activities

Over the past few years, the lake become quite popular for ecotourism lovers, environmental scholars and field researchers. Regardless your specific interest or hobby one thing is for sure, you will be amazed by the wonderful scenery of Lake Kerkini. A series of activities such as boat tours, birdwatching, canoeing, horse riding, hiking and biking are offered locally, throughout the year. It is actually a quite amazing site to spend a full day with friends and family if you are fond of nature and wild life.


Duration: 6 hours