Sunday 27th September 2015 LESBOS TRIP SUMMARY

Do I start with the fact that this has been one of the most successful trips I have made to the "magical isle" of Lesbos, YES I will, with two memorable days in the week, perfect weather, a mix of dry and sunny and wet and overcast, great wildlife and enjoyable company.

Red-footed Falcons passed through in huge numbers with probably 1000+ birds over two days, White Pelican,and my first  Osprey and Ferrunginous Duck on the island

The avifauna stole the show as expected for a mainly birding trip with a total of 120 species seen and one (Long -eared Owl heard),

Common Shelduck, Mallard, Garganey, Teal, FERRUNGINOUS DUCK, Scopolis Shearwater, Yelkouan Shearwater, Little Grebe, Greater Flamingo, Black Stork, Eurasian Spoonbill, Grey Heron, Purple Heron, Great White Egret, Little Egret, GREAT WHITE PELICAN, Dalamtian Pelican,Great Cormorant, WESTERN OSPREY, European Honey-buzzard, Short-toed Snake Eagle, Western Marsh Harrier, Montagus harrier, Sparrowhawk, Common Buzzard, Long-legged Buzzard, Common Kestrel, RED FOOTED FALCON, Eleonora's Falcon, and Peregrine.

Osprey, my first sighting in 10 years of visits

Common Moorhen, Eurasian Coot, Eurasian Stone-curlew, Black-winged Stilt, Pied Avocet, Grey Plover, Common Ringed Plover, Little Ringed Plover, Kentish Plover, Common Snipe, Curlew, Spotted Redshank, Common Redshank, Marsh Sandpiper, Common Greenshank, Green Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper, Sanderling, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Dunlin,and Ruff.

Greater Flamingos

 



Slender-billed Gull, Black-headed Gull, Mediterranean Gull, Yellow-legged Gull, Black Tern, European Turtle Dove, Eurasian Collared Dove, Western Barn Owl, Long-eared Owl (heard), European Roller, Common Kingfisher, Eurasian Hoopoe, Middle Spotted Woodpecker, RED BACKED SHRIKE, Lesser Grey Shrike, Woodchat Shrike, Eurasian Golden Oriole, Eurasian Jay, Hooded Crow,  and Northern Raven

Juvenile Red-backed Shrike

Lesser Grey Shrike

Sombre Tit, Great tit, Eurasian Blue Tit, Crested Lark, Woodlark, Sand Martin, Barn Swallow, Eurasian Crag martin, Common House Martin, Red-rumped Swallow, Cetti's Warbler, Willow Warbler, Common Chiffchaff, Eastern Bonelli's Warbler, Wood Warbler, Eastern Olivaceous Warbler, Icterine Warbler, Zittng Cistiola, Eurasian Blackcap, Lesser Whitethroat, Common Whitethroat, Krupers Nuthatch, Western Rock Nuthatch, Short-toed Treecreeper, Common Blackbird, Common Redstart, Whinchat, European Stonechat, Northern Wheater, Eastern Black-eared Wheater, Blue Rock Thrush, Spotted Flycatcher, House Sparrow, Rock Sparrow.

Whinchat

Western Yellow Wagtail, (flava, thunbergi,) White Wagtail, Tawny Pipit, Meadow Pipit, Tree Pipit, Red-throated Pipit, Common Chaffinch, European Greenfinch, Corn Bunting, and Cirl Bunting,

Domestic Goats, one of the mainstay farm animals on the island

As well as the birds we picked up a couple of reptiles, dragonflies and butterflies,

Starred Agama

European Glass Lizard

Snake- eyed Lacertid

Snake-eyed Lacertid??

AN AMAZING WEEK ON A MAGICAL ISLAND WITH GREAT WILDLIFE, WILD SCENERY AND FRIENDLY PEOPLE.





Friday 25th September 2015 LESBOS TRIP last field day

Today we set off West to visit the Meladia Valley area and the Ipsilou Monastery,

On route we found the four European Rollers I read about on Facebook this morning, it pays to check!!

believe me its a Roller

European Roller in flight, look at the colours!

Whilst the photos are rubbish it was thanks to Nick (again, he's been on form this week spotting odd birds, I just wish he would identify them!!) that the first one was spotted so followed by the others.

Short-toed Snake Eagles, Marsh Harrier, Eleonoras Falcon, Common Buzard and Common Kestrel made up the raptor list today.

Red Backed Shrike, cropped to hell

Common Buzzard



The Meladia valley has a few hotspots, and by checking them we found Wood Warbler, and an un identified flycatcher.....

Bird, Butterfly, Reptile, and Dragonfly  wise it was quiet by great quality in Wood Warbler made up for it.

Pithariou reservoir and monastery

Thursday 24th September 2015 LESBOS TRIP

Overcast humid conditions this morning found us looking for Pygmy Cormorant, needless to say we failed miserably, but we still had a great day spending most of it at the Kalloni Salt Pans, where we experienced one of the spectacular storms Lesbos can produce.

Storm clouds and Flamingos

There were Sanderling, Dunlin, Curlew Sandpiper, Redshank, Greenshank, Spotted Redshank, Kentish Plover, Ringed Plover, Avocet, and Stone Curlew.

Small waders a distance away!!

The surrounding fields had Red Throated Pipit, Yellow Wagtail, Montagus Harrier, Marsh Harrier, R F Falcon, Kestrel, Long Legged Buzzard, and Tawny Pipit.

Yellow Wagtail "flava"

Marsh Harrier and Montagus Harrier

The afternoon was spent in the north west corner, it was very disheartening to see the refugees fleeing persecution in Syria and Afghanistan.
We continued to an irrigation reservoir and travelled on a trekking route to look for dragonflies and reptiles.....

Starred Agama, a Lesbos favourite

European Glass Lizard, this one was over a metre long

will confirm id later



one of the "green" lizards? will confirm

Wenesday 23rd September 2015 LESBOS TRIP

Today has probably been one of my finest days on Lesbos since I stared visiting 10 years ago...

Conditions were perfect for a "fall" of migrants, and so it turned out to be.

With Meadow Pipit, Tree Pipit, Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Red Backed Shrike, Turtle Dove, Chiffchaff, Whinchat, Northern Wheater and Yellow Wagtails in numbers.

The highlight however has to be seeing over 250 RED FOOTED FALCONS, and incredible and awesome sight.

Red Footed Falcons

Red Footed Falcon

Female/immature Red Footed Falcon

Edible Snail

Common Blue ♂

Grayling spp!

Pine Forest at Achladeri





 

Tuesday 22nd September, 2015 LESBOS TRIP

A really great day with plenty of birds and Nick for company.

Only photos today, all record shots...

Osprey

Great White Egret

Turtle Dove

Crested Lark

Goats!!!

Red-backed Shrike

Western Rock Nuthatch

not sure yet??

Monday 21st September 2015 LESBOS TRIP

Another early start this morning saw us at Metochi lake again, what a contrast with yesterday, there were hardly any birds about, the best we could manage were: one Purple Heron, one Wood Sandpiper, two Spoonbill, two Black Stork, and a Lesser Whitethroat.

After breakfast we drove along the Tsiknias river to the salt pans and picked up Kingfisher and lots of Willow Warbler including a "northern" type bird.

The pans gave us Marsh Sandpiper, three Yellow  Wagtail spp, and two Tawny Pipits, a good adult and a 1st year.
I wanted to count the flamingos today so after a lot of clicking I got to 1535, with a good proportion of immature birds,  a minimum of 18 Great White Egrets, there were many more than this I'm sure. the duo od pelicans and the singleton were still present.

A dodgy shot of some of the 1535 Greater Flamingos

We drove South East,picking up Sparrowhawk and nine Med Gulls to do a bit of raptor watching on a hillside over looking Vatera, in the company of some other birders we managed to get on the tail end of some migration/local birds three Elenoras Falcon, and three Kestrel, poor compared to previous years but we turned up a bit late.

Looking South East from Vatera

An afternoon storm saw us back at the hotel to some great lightening, after the storm cleared a Hoopoe landed on the wires outside the hotel
.

We went back to Metochi and picked up a Common Snipe, three Green Sandpipers and two Wood Sands'.

Sunday 20th September 2015 part 2.

some more pics from yesterday

Red Veined Darter, female

Bedriagas marsh frog

Hornet drinking from reservoir edge

Head on attack from red Veined Darter

 

At the Potamia valley reservoir there were hundreds of Violet Dropwings, mostly displaying males, a mass of Hornets sp and an immature Bedriagas Marsh Frog.