North Central Greece

This area includes most of the huge plain of Thessaly on the southern end, where cotton, grains and tobacco are cultivated.

Alyki Kitros lagoon

The word 'alyki' means salt-pan, and the one here became known when a huge colony of Mediterranean gulls established itself here in the 1980s, reaching as many as 7300 pairs in the late part of that decade.

Though there are far less of these birds there now, it is the only breeding site in all of Greece for slender-billed gulls; there are many of birds on the site, breeding and not, from August into the winter, with around 170 species recorded, including many birds of prey.

This area is just northeast of Katerini, near the village of Kitros, and is easily reached, from the north off of the main highway at Methonia; from the south, from the old road from Katerini that is sign-posted for 'Port of Pidna' (an old port) and 'salt works'.