Monday 25th April 2016

Lesbos..

A very very early start this morning to open the nets for my first ringing session, I only set three 12m nets to test how the site, in an Olive grove, would work. I'm giving it another go tomorrow before moving on to a reed-bed site.

There were very few birds in the area this morning and the best I could muster in the nets were two Great Tits, and Two Blue Tits the morning was saved by a Lesser Whitethroat; this was one of the species I was most interested in ringing purely because the entire European population uses the Eastern Mediterranean flyway during its migration. The tits were quite useful as there is a nest box project on the island so these captures will add to that data set, the Lesser Whitethroat data has the potential to add value to studies on the migration routes after passing through the Levant.

Lesser Whitethroat

Then the breeze which was non-existent for the first three hours got up and put paid to any more ringing.

The rest of the morning was spent again just pottering about and the fruits of my labour were; a nice selection of butterflies, Glass Lizard, Balkan Green Lizard, with the pick of the best  following birds:

Mole Cricket

Balkan Green Lizard

Common Tern (dodgy photo below), Long-legged Buzzard, Common Buzzard, Peregrine, Sedge Warbler, Reed Warbler, Subalpine Warbler, Little Bittern, Little Egret, Ruddy Shelduck, Moorhen, Bee-eater, Wood Sandpiper.

Common Tern (s)

I will have to make more effort tomorrow....