Lesvos day 5 Saturday 29th April 2017 PART 1

A lie in this morning, I'm sure the gang can manage to do their own thing without me, the birding is easy around the hotel and really suits a pre-breakfast walk.

So before another busy day a catch up with a few photographs,

Lesvos day 4 28th April 2017

Another mammoth day, (17 hrs yesterday) and ten today......

Demanding gang ........so  much to show them so many great places to go and impressive birds and other wildlife to experience.

Some of us started with a pre-breakfast bird watch at the Kalloni Salt Pans with DUNLIN, CURLEW SANDPIPER, WHISKERED TERN, being the highlights.

Over breakfast of ham, cheese, homemade baked beans, bread and boiled eggs, out of the corner of my eye I saw a dark long tailed bird land in the poplar trees outside the patio, immediately I could see it was one of the most prized birds to find on the island a GREAT SPOTTED CUCKOO; I shouted a bit squeakily at the other guests who didn't pay any attention then I shouted louder and ran to find the rest of the group and the hotel owner, to say everyone was delighted with seeing this great bird would be an understatement.

GREAT SPOTTED CUCKOO

Post breakfast we all set off towards Polchinotos, another set of salt pans, along the way another stop at KSP, gave us MONTAGUS HARRIER (♂), GREY PLOVER (8), and TURNSTONE.

We then drove the beach towards "Poli'" which was a bit quiet but a stunning drive nonetheless. With a BLACK HEADED WAGTAIL at ALikoudi PoolWe did however find LITTLE RINGED PLOVER, plus pair of KENTISH PLOVER complete with a nest of three eggs which we carefully negotiated over.

LITTLE-RINGED PLOVER

KENTISH PLOVER NEST, (taken at distance and with extreme care)

BLACK HEADED WAGTAIL

After a quick on the hoof ice cream we stopped to look for Roller but came away with SERIN.

Another busy day.....................

Lesvos day 3 27th April 2017

A pre breakfast potter revealed four LITTLE CRAKES, 2 ♂ and 2 ♀, and a SPOTTED CRAKE, plus a smart LITTLE BITTERN ♂. A nice start to the day.

After breakfast we set out to the aptly named Kalloni Raptor Watch Point, where we picked up GOSHAWK, SPARROWHAWK, SHORT-TOED EAGLE, COMMON BUZZARD BLACK STORK AND RAVEN.

A short drive saw us at Kavaki where RUPPELLS WARBLER, SUBALPINE WARBLER, and TURTLE DOVES gave really good views.

Turtle Dove

a very distant Rupells Warbler ♂

We called in to the reservoir at Persama gave us an out of place WOOD SANDPIPER, and 2 RUDDY SHELDUCK.

A superb lunch at Molivos Castle, with everyone replete saw us head back south to Achladeri, where KRUPERS NUTHATCH were feeding young at an accessible nest site. Everyone had great views and we left happy. The next bird was surprisingly a "WOOD" NUTHATCH, but not Short-toed Treecreeper.

Classic Pine forest habitat for Krupers Nuthatch

Back to the Salt pans where a female type MONTAGUS HARRIER  upset the AVOCETS but not the 125+ RUFF, the "best" bird was a CURLEW.


Driving back across country, one of the last birds of the day but the very best bird for me was WRYNECK, a new bird for me on the island.

What will tomorrow bring.

Photos are with a basic "bridge" camera if you want better ones club together to buy me a nice camera :-0

Juvenile Spur Thighed Tortoise withdrawn into carapace

Lesvos day 2 26th April 2017

Ah, the smell of the Mediterranean, oh no that will be ANTIFREEZE!!!

Another reciting day in the field, 10.5 hours including 40 minutes waiting for a replacement car.

Highlights today included,  COLLARED FLYCATCHER, EASTERN ORPHEAN WARBLER, ALPINE SWIFT, TEMMINCKS STINT, MARSH SANDPIPER, WHITE-WINGED BLACK TERN, WHISKERED TERN, CUCKOO (2), BLACK REDSTART, MARSH HARRIER, LESSER KESTREL, LONG-LEGGED BUZZARD, SHORT-TOED EAGLE, CINEREOUS BUNTING, CRETZCHMARS BUNTING, ISABELLINE WHEATEAR, WESTERN ROCK NUTHATCH. Plus a good fall of Whinchat and Black-eared Wheatear.

The quality of the day was a SEMI-COLLARED FLYCATCHER AT Meladia Valley.

Temminicks Stint

Rock Nuthatch nest and chick (VH)

Starred Agama (VH)

Lesvos 2017 day one or was it two!

The intrepid party of five set off from Llanelli on Monday 24th at 15:00, we arrived at the Hotel Pela at 08:01 on 25th WOW, seemed like a long time but the journey was uneventful and easy thanks to Airport Flyer of Llanelli and Aegean and Olympic Airlines.

To summarize the first day we had 73 full species plus a sub , I insist on counting all the Wagtails as they are my favourites.

Bernie managed at least 2.5 ticks, with With Ruddy Shelduck, Masked Shrike and the half was Greater Flamingo, those that know him will have to ask.

Nick has been before but Veronica and Cris were blown away (I think, we were all pretty tired).

The highlights included, MARSH SANDPIPER, GARGANEY, SHORT-TOED SNAKE EAGLE, LONG-LEGGED BUZZARD, WOODCHAT SHRIKE, WHISKERED TERN, BEE-EATER, BLACK STORK,  SPANISH SPARROW and of course WOOD SANDPIPER.

Some dodgy photos from the "bridge camera"

Woodchat Shrike

Spanish Sparrow

European Bee-Eater

Beach walk and signs of Spring event, Saturday 22nd April 2017

A bright morning with a chilly E-NE breeze but still pleasant to be out.

The Green-winged Orchids are spectacular at the moment with a good showing across the reserve.

The theme of today's event was "signs of Spring" and we had plenty to see.

A heads up from Bernie about a fall off Wheatears in Sandy Water Park a few miles east of the reserve. At Pembrey it was soon apparent there was a movement of birds and very quickly the numbers started to mount up, there were at least 20 birds on site with the majority being females, only three males were noted.

Staying with birds three Whimbrel which were quite approachable seemed to be newly arrived, a few Swallows passing through plus the mix of resident birds such as Stonechat, Meadow Pipit and Skylark made for a decent morning.

Whimbrel

The highlight though came in the form of the GREEN HAIRSTREAK butterfly, with four seen on the food plant, Gorse,a stunningly colourful butterfly; a couple of Speckled Woods and Small Whites were also noted.

Green Hairstreak

There wasn't much of a strandline on the beach so we didn't linger, but made our way back to the entrance, counting Wheatear on the way.

BonJour mon amiee? Friday 21st April 2017

With a perfect forecast for this morning, overcast and little or no wind, I was on site at Pembrey by 05:30hrs for a ringing session.

I set up in the recently created reed bed ride, deeper into the reeds, and with a bit of bush craft and luck soon had a GRASSHOPPER WARBLER, (Grawa) in the net, another trans-Saharan migrant with the unmistakable "reeling" song. The tail of this bird shows "growth bars" which may indicate poor feeding in the wintering grounds.

I also caught seven SEDGE WARBLERS, (Sedwa) including a bird already carrying a ring, it's always interesting to find a ringed bird in the net, although usually they are birds that have been ringed in the area on previous occasions---- not today though this Sedwa was wearing a FRENCH ringing scheme ring, my first control of a bird ringed outside of the UK.

The information has been sent to the BTO who will forward the ring number to the French scheme and in the future not sure when I'll know exactly where it was originally ringed and when. This is the science part of ringing how old is the bird?, where was it ringed? what condition was it in? has it been controlled elsewhere?, how many migrations has it completed... so much to learn.