Lesvos 2016 - Part 3

On to part three, its taking a while because we keep going birding! So more posts in the offing. The last post was our day out to the west of the island, so day four was keeping it local and cutting the driving down. We started off at the Christou River Bridge and Marsh, then to Potamia River, followed by Metochi Lake and Potamia Resevoir, ending back at the Kalloni Saltpans, then 'home' via the Tsiknias Ford and River.

We were looking for the Stone Curlews at Christou, but despite receiving plenty of advice on where they might be seen, we drew a blank. The marshes though had plenty of Black-winged Stilt, Avocet, Plovers and the star being a flyover by an Osprey, which this Hooded Crow wasn't too pleased about.

After carrying on searching for a while in the vain hope that the Stone Curlew night appear we carried on to Potania River, where we found our only Gloss Ibis of the week:

Not quite sure what it was trying to eat! The only other bird of note here was this Purple Heron.

We had fond memories of Metochi Lake from last year, but when we arrived we found it seriously overgrown with only a few viewing points. We did get some good sightings of Little Bittern and Little Grebe though.

We now went along the track past Potamia Resevoir and stopped for a coffee at the bridge, hoping to see a few bits and bobs, on the way to the bridge, we were lucky to find Hoopoe and Turtle Dove, but we were in the van and they wouldn't hold still long enough for me to get any photos, difficult when you are the driver!

The only thing I did capture where these Terrapins whilst we were having our coffee:

After coffee we drove back down the track and walked up to the reservoir, this was mainly occupied by Yellow-legged Gulls, with the only other bird being a Ruddy Shelduck over the far side. As we loitered a trio of other birds made an appearance:

 Woodchat Shrike,

and a Black-headed Bunting

A gentle drive now down to the Saltpans and hopefully Stone Curlew past the Saltworks. This gave us;
Black Stork,

 Kentish Plover,

 Black Winged Stilt,

 Avocet of course,

 and Yellow Wagtail

plus Bee-eaters, Crested Lark, Ruff, Little Stint, Temminick's Stint, Common Tern, Little Tern, Collared Pratincole and Wood Sandpiper.

From here we went across river to the ford at Tsiknias River and then down the river back to the main road, before home for Tea!
Here are some of the pics from that:
House Sparrow,

 Little Egret

 Swallowtail?

Little Bittern,

 Squadron of Little Egret,

 Squacco Heron

 Wood Sandpiper

That'll do for part 3 I think, never thought there would be so many, hopefully post part 4 tomorrow!