Lesvos 2016 - Part 5 (The last one I promise!)

Part 5, our last full day and a bit of non birding stuff. We started off with a visit to Agiosos as we had fond memories of this mountain village in a thunderstorm last year and popping into a cafe where the local Greek Orthodox Priest was fleecing the locals at cards. I think we were the only tourists in the town that day. What a difference a year makes. The sun was shining and whereas last year we had a small hire car and navigated the narrow streets successfully, I decided not to take a VW mini bus up there, so we walked. As regards birds in the town, there were plenty of Martins, Swifts, Barn Swallows, House Sparrows and Collared Dove.

After a lovely couple of hours and coffees in the same Taverna as last year we carried on up the mountain and parked by the Sanatorium and went for a walk in the woods. We heard plenty and had some fleeting glimpses, but nothing that we could identify for certain apart from a Jay!

On we went but without much success. so we eventually headed back through Agiasos and parked up for lunch and those now boiled eggs (see previous post) near Panaghia Chapel, which we walked to after lunch. This provided us with our first Elonora's Falcon, shame it didn't come closer:

as well as a Spotted Flycatcher posing nicely,

our only Lesvonian Greenfinch also put in an appearance. (Is Lesvonian a word?)

So after a quiet birding day, we called in at Kalloni Saltpans on our way 'home', where a Black Stork entertained us chasing fish:
Missed!

 Try again,

 Gotcha!

Should have videoed it, it was brilliant to watch. Anyway a few more snaps from the early evening;
Kentish Plover,

 Corn Bunting,

 Avocet,

 Bee-eater,

 Whiskered Tern,

 Black-headed Bunting,

 and a final shot of the Whiskered Tern on departure.

Now on to our last day, we were all packed and had checked out of our brilliant apartment at the Shine Studios, just up the road a short way from the Pasiphae Hotel. We can certainly recommend the apartments our hosts were fantastic and couldn't do enough for us plus the apartment itself was superb.

As our flight wasn't until 8pm we went to the Christou River again for Stone Curlew, but despite 5 pairs of bins searching (only 5 now as one of us was up at silly o clock to get the early flight to Gatwick), we couldn't find them... next year... if we can get there!

We also had another look at Metochi and the Potamia Valley, before going back to the Saltpans and Tsiknias River for one last look. Then back to Skala Kallonis for a late lunch and the drive back to the airport.

So here are a few more photo's including a last minute lifer for us on the Tsiknias River!!
Wouldn't be the Saltpans without the Greater Flamingoes,

 Yellow Wagtail getting its lunch,

 and our Lifer, White-winged Black Tern

And for the record our complete list of birds for the week, notable missing items are Cretzschmar's Bunting, Golden Oriole, Blue Rock Thrush, Red-rumped Swallow and Cinereous Bunting! Next year?? Can't believe we didn't get the Swallow!

Alpine Swift  ("Apus melba")

Avocet  ("Recurvirostra avosetta")

Bee-eater  ("Merops apiaster")

Black Stork  ("Ciconia nigra")

Blackbird  ("Turdus merula")

Black-eared Wheatear  ("Oenanthe hispanica")

Black-headed Bunting  ("Emberiza melanocephala")

Black-winged Stilt  ("Himantopus himantopus")

Blue Tit  ("Cyanistes caeruleus")

Buzzard  ("Buteo buteo")

Chaffinch  ("Fringilla coelebs")

Cirl Bunting  ("Emberiza cirlus")

Collared Dove  ("Streptopelia decaocto")

Collared Pratincole  ("Glareola pratincola")

Common Sandpiper  ("Actitis hypoleucos")

Common Tern  ("Sterna hirundo")

Cormorant  ("Phalacrocorax carbo")

Corn Bunting  ("Emberiza calandra")

Crag Martin  ("Ptyonoprogne rupestris")

Crested Lark  ("Galerida cristata")

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler  ("Iduna pallida")

Eleonora's Falcon  ("Falco eleonorae")

Glossy Ibis  ("Plegadis falcinellus")

Goldfinch  ("Carduelis carduelis")

Great Tit  ("Parus major")

Great White Egret  ("Ardea alba")

Greater Flamingo  ("Phoenicopterus roseus")

Greenfinch  ("Chloris chloris")

Grey Heron  ("Ardea cinerea")

Hooded Crow  ("Corvus cornix")

Hoopoe  ("Upupa epops")

House Martin  ("Delichon urbicum")

House Sparrow  ("Passer domesticus")

Isabelline Wheatear  ("Oenanthe isabellina")

Jay  ("Garrulus glandarius")

Kentish Plover  ("Charadrius alexandrinus")

Kestrel  ("Falco tinnunculus")

Krüper's Nuthatch  ("Sitta krueperi")

Lesser Grey Shrike  ("Lanius minor")

Lesser Kestrel  ("Falco naumanni")

Little Bittern  ("Ixobrychus minutus")

Little Egret  ("Egretta garzetta")

Little Grebe  ("Tachybaptus ruficollis")

Little Ringed Plover  ("Charadrius dubius")

Little Stint  ("Calidris minuta")

Little Tern  ("Sternula albifrons")

Long-legged Buzzard  ("Buteo rufinus")

Marsh Harrier  ("Circus aeruginosus")

Marsh Sandpiper  ("Tringa stagnatilis")

Masked Shrike  ("Lanius nubicus")

Moorhen  ("Gallinula chloropus")

Night-heron  ("Nycticorax nycticorax")

Olive-tree Warbler  ("Hippolais olivetorum")

Osprey  ("Pandion haliaetus")

Pied Wagtail  ("Motacilla alba")

Purple Heron  ("Ardea purpurea")

Raven  ("Corvus corax")

Red-backed Shrike  ("Lanius collurio")

Red-footed Falcon  ("Falco vespertinus")

Reed Warbler  ("Acrocephalus scirpaceus")

Ringed Plover  ("Charadrius hiaticula")

Rock Dove / Feral Pigeon  ("Columba livia")

Rough-legged Buzzard  ("Buteo lagopus")

Ruddy Shelduck  ("Tadorna ferruginea")

Ruff  ("Philomachus pugnax")

Rüppell's Warbler  ("Sylvia rueppelli")

Scops Owl  ("Otus scops")

Sedge Warbler  ("Acrocephalus schoenobaenus")

Shelduck  ("Tadorna tadorna")

Short-toed Eagle  ("Circaetus gallicus")

Sombre Tit  ("Poecile lugubris")

Spanish Sparrow  ("Passer hispaniolensis")

Spotted Flycatcher  ("Muscicapa striata")

Squacco Heron  ("Ardeola ralloides")

Stonechat (rubicola)  ("Saxicola torquatus rubicola")

Subalpine Warbler  ("Sylvia cantillans")

Swallow  ("Hirundo rustica")

Swift  ("Apus apus")

Temminck's Stint  ("Calidris temminckii")

Turtle Dove  ("Streptopelia turtur")

Western Rock Nuthatch  ("Sitta neumayer")

Wheatear  ("Oenanthe oenanthe")

Whiskered Tern  ("Chlidonias hybrida")

White Stork  ("Ciconia ciconia")

White-winged Black Tern  ("Chlidonias leucopterus")

Wood Sandpiper  ("Tringa glareola")

Woodchat Shrike  ("Lanius senator")

Woodlark  ("Lullula arborea")

Yellow Wagtail  ("Motacilla flava")

Yellow-legged Gull  ("Larus michahellis")