Messolongi is located in western Greece between the Acheloos and Evinos rivers. It is famous for its complex of wetlands which comprise six different interlinked lagoons. It is considered to be the biggest such ecosystem in Greece.
Part of the main lagoon has become a salt flat. Actually, there is a family of words about the lagoons that only the locals use: the traditional fish-farms are called ivaria, the boats without keels priaria, the water-houses pelades, the female mullets that carry the bottarga eggs bafes. The locals are highly invested in the lagoon in ways that sometimes contradict one another: the fishermen see it as their natural base, the hunters as a recreational park, the landscape photographers and birdwatchers as a bird habitat.
Nikos Noulas is a member of the Hellenic Ornithological Society and in charge of birdwatching activities at the Tourism Development Agency of Commerce and Industry Association of Messolongi. We find him at the observatory of East Klisova, monitoring the lagoon with a pair of binoculars.
“In the greater Messolongi area around 297 different bird species have been recorded. Some of them are really rare like the spur-winged lapwing or the great spotted cuckoo,” he says, while trying to figure out which birds are hiding in the nearby bushes just from their squawks and rumbles. If you come to Messolongi, you should definitely visit East Klisova’s observatory. The only thing you need is a pair of field glasses and nature will reveal itself to you.
