Lesvos 2025 Part 4

 The Lesvos adventure continues,...............................

So we start with a beautiful Red-backed Shrike

and a White Stork posing nicely on a shed roof near the Kalloni Salt Pans.

Out Kavaki way, we came across a pair of Turtle Doves, which was delight,

then a Black-eared Wheatear down on the rocks

and a magnificent Blue Rock Thrush, but it never cam close enough for a decent photo.

Another bonus was a an Subalpine Warbler.

Continuing on from Kavaki to Petra/Molyvos resevoir there were plenty of Ruddy Shelduck, with one obliging with a flyby,

Followed by a buzzard.

A nice Black-headed Bunting, but for the life of me I can't remember where!

But this Egret was back at the Tsiknias River,

as were these White Storks.

Curlew Sandpipers at the Saltpans...

Another Stork...

And yet more Bee-eaters

I couldn't resist more Spur-winged Lapwing shots

as well as more Curlew Lapwing Photos.

Spoonbills! At the eastern side of the Saltpans we found 30 Spoonbills in one of the channels,

that then decided to relocate and join the Dalmatian Pelicans and Flamingos.

Another bird we see everywhere, but a rarity in the UK. A Corn Bunting, because they are so common I tend to forget to photograph them, so here's one!

Little Tern catching its lunch.

Yellow Wagtails..

We hunted for this one and were finally rewarded, a Collared Pratincole.

That's a great bird to end part 4 with.

Firth of Forth South Coast

We have just returned from a loooong weekend in Edinburgh, we were up for our daughters birthday, where much beer and wine was consumed! In between we managed a couple of short trips along the south coast of the firth calling in at a couple of our favourite spots.

Our first trip out after some errands took us to Musselburgh, Prestonpans and Aberlady. However before we arrived at Musselburgh Lagoons I realised that I had left my camera at our daughters place! Which was a shame as the sun was out and the birds were showing really well on the Lagoons, especially the Curlew Sandpiper, this was a first for us in the UK, but not a lifer, but it did edge our UK list up to 234, not too bad as we don't twitch.

I know there are some great birds about at the moment, but I don't fancy a 5 hour drive down to the tip of Cornwall to see the Brown Booby or Wilson's Petrel!! Anyway there are so many photos being posted on twitter, saying look at what I have seen and you haven't, it gets on my nerves! Sorry rantette over! (could be jealousy!)

Back to to Musselburgh..... in addition to the Sandpiper there were tons of Black-tailed Godwit, Sandwich Terns, Oystercatchers, Dunlin, Redshank, Curlew and a some Greenshank, Lapwing and a couple of Ruff. There were Gulls of course, Black-headed, Lesser Black-backed and Herring. A few Teal were wandering around too.. plus a couple of early Wigeon dropped in just before we left. The other great thing to see were the Gannet fishing just offshore always a delight.

We moved east to Prestonpans, seeing Eider and Red-breasted Merganser, which was nice, we also found a nice parking spot behind Lidl that gave us great views across to Edinburgh, the water and some shoreline, here we picked up a group of Turnstone to add to our list, as well as more Eider.

We then carried on to Aberlady, sadly we had got the tide wrong, so there wasn't much about other than a large number of Gadwall, Greylags and Canada Geese. Not a bad couple of hours.

On Monday we went out again, this time with the camera, but the weather was really dull and when we got to the hides at the lagoons, all the birds had decided to move as far away as possible! Species wise there was no sign of the Greenshank or Ruff, but the Curlew Sandpipers were still there. We did add some Shelduck and a Ringed Plover to our Tally though.

Then a visit from the RAF... that's what got the birds up!

We didn't have a lot of time, so we just popped up to Prestonpans again, where we added, to our surprise, a Wheatear to the tally.

Lesvos Birding - Part 1 of 2

We have just returned from two weeks on Lesvos, luckily Thomas Cook managed to keep going and brought us home! On the unlucky side for out first week there we were quite poorly, but thanks to the local pharmacist in Skala Kallonis, and a rest day we managed to get out and about.

Because of being under the weather we kept things pretty local for the first few days, but that's the advantage of staying in Skala Kallonis there is lots on the door step. The Salt Pans, The Christou & Tskinias Rivers, Metochi Lake and the Potamia Valley & Reservoir.

Before I go on I have to say firstly that for those who haven't been and are thinking of going for the birding, Steve Dudley's book, A Birdwatching Guide to Levos is a must, also joining the Lesvos Birders Facebook and Whatsapp Groups are also a good idea.

So to start off we had a great couple of weeks amassing 112 species of birds, plus loads of other stuff, I am going to keep it simple and just post a few photos, with what and where, rather than a detailed day be day account. Firstly we were staying in the Kalloni Bay Hotel overlooking the Kalloni Pools that are now sadly rather overgrown and silted up, but there us still some good birding to be had there...this first batch of photos were taken from our hotel room balcony.
Great Egret & Grey Heron,

 Squacco Heron,

 House Martin, (one of three actives nests on our balcony)

the Squaccos liked to roost about 5:30pm on the far side of the Kalloni Pools, this time joined by a Night Heron, (if you can find it!)

and if you found the Night Heron, now find the Purple Heron!

Only a 10-15 minute drive from the hotel are the Salt Pans, we visited these regularly, these are some of the highlights.....
Corn Bunting,

 White Stork,

 Common Tern,

 Black Stork,

 Ruff,

 Curlew Sandpiper,

 Wood Sandpiper,

 Black-winged Stilt,

 Avocet,

 Greater Flamingo,

 European Bee-eaters,

 Little Tern,

 Ruff en-masse,

 Squacco Heron,

 White-winged Tern,

 Whiskered Tern,

 and Little Stint

That's not the lot but it gives you the idea how fantastic the Salt Pans are.

Again near Kalloni are some other great sites, Potamia Valley and Reservoir, Metochi Lake, Tsiknias River, Achladeri Forest and the Christou River, we visited them all. So here are some more good bits from those visits.
Bee-eater,

 Little Ringed Plover,

 Black-headed Bunting,

 Krüpers Nuthatch,

  Kentish Plover,

 Cettis Warbler,

 Marsh Frog,

 Little Bittern, (if you can find it!)

 Little Grebe,

 Crested Lark,

 Jay,

 Woodchat Shrike,

 Little Owl,

 Nightingale,

 Black-eared Wheatear,

 Masked Shrike,

 Sand Boa,

 Long-legged Buzzard,

 Olive-tree Warbler,

 Long-eared Owl,

 Short-toed Treecreeper,

 Poppies!

 Scops Owl,

 Middle-spotted Woodpecker,

 Short-toed Eagle,

 Yellow Wagtail

 and Crested Lark.

So that covers a lot of the birds close to Skala Kalloni, in part 2 we will go further afield.