Lesvos Birding 2023 - Part 1

 Well finally the PC is sorted apart from my watermarking software, so just a quickie... all images included in this post and all posts in this blog site are copyright of Tom Willetts. 

Sorry about that but there are people out there aren't very nice!

So this is part one of our two week trip to Lesvos in May. It was great to be back, our last visit was pre covid in 2019. Between then and now we had had two trips planned but due to covid etc they never happened. So as I said it was wonderful to be back in one of our favourite places. We stayed as usual in Skala Kallonis;

It's just such a brilliant place, great Tavernas, food, scenery and the best base (in our opinion) for getting around the island. So on to the birding!

Actually we'll start with a bit of wildlife, an (Eastern) European Hedgehog wandering around by our hotel room.

Then some terrapins on our walk to the village:

Once we had our hire car we ventured out to the Tsikinas River and the Saltpans, seeing:

Little Stint

White Stork,

Black-winged Stilt,

Bee-eaters,

Short-toed Eagle,

Little Stint,

Yellow Wagtail,

Black-headed Bunting,

Couldn't resist another Stilt photo,

and another Stint,

or two Stilts, "getting it on" 😂

Plus many more, including Spanish Sparrow, Corn Bunting, Crested Lark, Marsh Harrier, Wood Sandpiper, Greater Flamingo, Avocet, Common Shelduck and Ruff.

Next day got a bit of sight seeing in. The Roman Aquaduct at Moira.

Then over the next few days:

Squacco Heron,

Spotted Flycatcher,

a trip to Agiasos,

Enjoying the wonderful poppy fields,

Ruff,

Crested Lark,

Spur-winged Lapwing,

and Roller.

That'll do for starters.............ttfn.