Lesvos 15th -22nd September 2018 [The 500th blog]

A late and unexpected opportunity to make an autumn visit to the Greek island of Lesvos was not to be missed.

So it was that we arrived, at the HOTEL PELA; late on Saturday 15th to night time temperatures in the mid 20's. The hire car was provided by local company TSALIS with their usual efficiency.

Sunday morning, and every subsequent morning dawned clear with rapidly warming temperatures reaching around 30'c on average but with a few hours of 32'c before cooling down to the low 20's. The wind, was at times brisk from the NW which did little to cool the temperature but was still refreshing.

Having visited Lesvos at this time of year I was prepared for the challenge of finding birds, which is much harder than in the spring however a respectable 77 species, including some specials, was achieved.

The highlights of the trip were DALMATIAN PELICAN, with a max of 14 seen;  GARGANEY, PINTAIL, SLENDER-BILLED GULL, BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPER, CURLEW, LESSER SPOTTED EAGLE, CHUKAR, ELEONORAS FALCON, and more YELLOW WAGTAILS, of several sub species, in one field than probably the total UK summer population!!!!
I like to try and get two species counts done with LITTLE GREBE (93) at the Potamia reservoir, COOT (53) at the Persama reservoir, (I've counted these two species on most visits).

Dalmatian Pelican 

Yellow Wagtail sp

Birds in numbers included, WILLOW WARBLER, (every bush had handfuls of this warbler), SPOTTED FLYCATCHER, RED-BACKED SHRIKE and NORTHERN WHEATEAR,

Red-backed Shrike

Spotted Flycatcher

Other wildlife braving the heat were HUMMINGBIRD HAWK MOTH, with thousands on the wing across the island, in the hotel room, tavernas etc, basically anywhere there were nectar rich flowers.
A stunning EUROPEAN PRAYING MANTIS,  butterflies were well represented by SWALLOWTAIL, GREAT BANDED GRAYLING, CLOUDED YELLOW,LANGS SHORT TAILED BLUE, CARDINAL and AEGEON and the rarer TURKISH MEADOW BROWN

Hummingbird Hawk Moth

Praying Mantis

Other interesting wildlife included the EASTERN TREE FROG, these stunning frogs sheltered inside the closed sun umbrellas around the hotel pool.

Eastern Tree Frog

A trouble free trip, enjoyable break to this wonderful Greek island