Friday 6th May 2016

Lesbos 2016.. the penultimate blog...

Ringing yesterday yielded just four birds, a brood of Great Tits which were in themselves interesting as they are so far advanced in moult to be regarded as a 3 in ringing terms which means they are the older young of the year out of juvenile moult.

The rest of the day, given the weather was more cultural and included visiting the Roman bridge at Kermastes, where it is currently undergoing preservation by the authorities, ah a picture you may think well I didn't think to take one!!

I did manage to catch up with 7 Caspian Terns on the slat pans

Today we headed east to pick up a few odd and ends birds and managed to see Olive Tree Warbler, at a reliable site, OTW is a speciality of the island and is a large robust warbler and elusive so eh no photo...

Alpine Swifts were seen very well and low down again at a reliable spot along the beach.

It has been a tough birding fortnight, splitting time between ringing and birding, with the vast majority of passerines having seemingly moved through. However Lesbos remains a great place to visit for the warmth of its people, the unspoilt beauty of its scenery and of course the wildlife...

Dice Snake?

Wednesday 4th May 2016

Lesbos 2016..

Complacency is an odd thing, yesterday morning I casually remarked "oh Ring Ouzel" as a female of the species flew across in front of the car and landed nearby, a very brief look and I motored on, little did I realise that Ring Ouzel is almost considered a vagrant species to the island opps, I will have to fill out a rare bird description report ....

After a few thunder storms through the evening the morning was reasonable but I didn't plan any ringing instead we went off in search of Caspian Terns never did see them though! I then decided that a late and short ringing session was called for so set the nets at the Christou River reed bed at 09:30hrs.

By 09:40hrs there were three warblers in the net the first clearly a Reed Warbler, the second was somehow different ( it also called differently) and the third was an obvious Reed Warbler.

My "not an obvious Reed Warbler" was duly processed and it seemed apparent that this bird needed reference to the ringing "guide" by Lars Svensson.

The overall impression was Reed Warbler like but with a more Olive tone across the back, the rump was more buffish but still not rufous, was this a MARSH WARBLER? the wing was 69mm, the "notch" in the 2nd primary feather was 9mm, the tarsus was 23mm long and 2.5mm wide,the bill 12.4mm long and 1.8mm wide, the primaries were lightly but obviously tipped whitish.

I became more and more convinced that I was processing a Marsh Warbler and used a calculation from the guide book which helps determine the identification of the species V Reed Warbler which is  bill length 12.4mm - (bill width 1.8mm X tarsus width 2.5mm) = 7.9; also the ratio of the P2 notch to total wing length  9mm/69mm = 0.13 all point to Marsh Warbler!!!

Having reviewed all the data I'm happy with the identification

Tuesday 3rd May 2016

Lesbos 2016...

Today I woke to a near gale blowing, so that paid end to any plans of ringing.

Instead we went "West" in search of Isabelline Wheatears, one of the special birds of the island, fair to say they are pretty reliable at a few sites and within minutes of arriving at one of the sites I've seen them at in previous spring visits one was sat on a wall, then a bush then out of sight.....

wind swept Izzy Wheatear

We called in to the salt pans and were told of a Red necked Phalarope bingo...., given the diminutive size of the bird and its distance from any human there's no photo..

The forecast rain arrived late in the day with a few rumbles of thunder and one or two impressive forks of lightening, not enough to stop an intrepid duo dashing off to look for a couple of reported Caspian Terns, no joy tonight maybe first thing tomorrow.

Saturday 29th April - Monday 2nd may 2016

Lesbos 2016....

It continues to be a hard trip to get many species, for example I've only seen one wagtail since we arrived!

The ringing has continued to be tough also, there is just such a lack of movement, although even the resident birds are playing hard to get.

Despite the lack of birds its also noticeable that there is a lack of refugees, having visited the island hotspot of Molyvos there are no signs of there being a crisis, this is largely due to Turkey now playing their part and discouraging the refugees to leave as they will be returned to Turkey!!!

A few photographs of the other island wildlife, just to prove there's much to see, one thing for sure is that I must buy a decent camera!!!

Carder Bee spp

Small Pincertail

Mmm not sure??

Turtle Dove(s)

1st Summer Night Heron

Thread Lacewing