Birding in Lesvos 2024 - Part 3

 In part 3 I'm just going to post a few of my favourites from the 2nd week.......

Black-headed Bunting in full voice..

Nightingale,

Goshawk have a bit of a problem with a Raven,

Shelduck on Tsikinias River,

Caspian Gull,

Red-throated Pipit,

more Greater Flamingo,

Pygmy Cormorant,

Laughing Dove in Loutra Village,

Collared Dove,

Spur-winged Lapwing (Plover),

Purple Heron,

European Bee-eater,

ready for it's close up!

Krüpers Nuthatch,

Long-eared Owl (Again, no apologies!),

Masked Shrike,

Female Montagues Harrier,

Black Stork,

Squacco Heron,

Lesser Grey Shrike,

Stone Curlew,

Corn Bunting,

Persian Squirrel,

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler,

Black-headed Bunting yet again,

Spotted Flycatcher,

Stonechat (with lunch),

Find the Rock Sparrow,

Spotted Redshank,

Short-toed Treecreeper,

Krüpers Nuthatch,

Butterfly!

Marsh Sandpiper,

Bar-tailed Godwit & Marsh Sandpiper

and finally setting up the bonfire in Skala Kallonis Square for the Greek Orthodox Easter Celebrations.

I did say I would do a list of all the birds we came across in the two weeks, so here it is:

Alpine Swift  ("Apus melba")

Avocet  ("Recurvirostra avosetta")

Barn Owl  ("Tyto alba")

Bar-tailed Godwit  ("Limosa lapponica")

Bee-eater  ("Merops apiaster")

Black Stork  ("Ciconia nigra")

Black Tern  ("Chlidonias niger")

Blackbird  ("Turdus merula")

Black-eared Wheatear  ("Oenanthe hispanica")

Black-headed Bunting  ("Emberiza melanocephala")

Black-tailed Godwit  ("Limosa limosa")

Black-winged Stilt  ("Himantopus himantopus")

Blue Rock Thrush  ("Monticola solitarius")

Blue Tit  ("Cyanistes caeruleus")

Buzzard  ("Buteo buteo")

Caspian Gull  ("Larus cachinnans")

Cetti's Warbler  ("Cettia cetti")

Chaffinch  ("Fringilla coelebs")

Cinereous Bunting  ("Emberiza cineracea")

Cirl Bunting  ("Emberiza cirlus")

Citrine Wagtail  ("Motacilla citreola")

Coal Tit  ("Periparus ater")

Collared Dove  ("Streptopelia decaocto")

Common Sandpiper  ("Actitis hypoleucos")

Common Tern  ("Sterna hirundo")

Coot  ("Fulica atra")

Cormorant  ("Phalacrocorax carbo")

Corn Bunting  ("Emberiza calandra")

Crag Martin  ("Ptyonoprogne rupestris")

Crested Lark  ("Galerida cristata")

Cretzschmar's Bunting  ("Emberiza caesia")

Curlew Sandpiper  ("Calidris ferruginea")

Dalmatian Pelican  ("Pelecanus crispus")

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler  ("Iduna pallida")

Fan-tailed Warbler  ("Cisticola juncidis")

Glossy Ibis  ("Plegadis falcinellus")

Golden Oriole  ("Oriolus oriolus")

Goldfinch  ("Carduelis carduelis")

Goshawk  ("Accipiter gentilis")

Great Reed Warbler  ("Acrocephalus arundinaceus")

Great Tit  ("Parus major")

Great White Egret  ("Ardea alba")

Greater Flamingo  ("Phoenicopterus roseus")

Green Sandpiper  ("Tringa ochropus")

Greenfinch  ("Chloris chloris")

Greenshank  ("Tringa nebularia")

Grey Heron  ("Ardea cinerea")

Gull-billed Tern  ("Gelochelidon nilotica")

Hen Harrier  ("Circus cyaneus")

Hooded Crow  ("Corvus cornix")

Hoopoe  ("Upupa epops")

House Martin  ("Delichon urbicum")

House Sparrow  ("Passer domesticus")

Icterine Warbler  ("Hippolais icterina")

Isabelline Wheatear  ("Oenanthe isabellina")

Jackdaw  ("Corvus monedula")

Jay  ("Garrulus glandarius")

Kentish Plover  ("Charadrius alexandrinus")

Krüper's Nuthatch  ("Sitta krueperi")

Laughing Dove  ("spilopelia senegalensis")

Lesser Grey Shrike  ("Lanius minor")

Lesser Kestrel  ("Falco naumanni")

Levant Sparrowhawk  ("Accipiter brevipes")

Linnet  ("Carduelis cannabina")

Little Bittern  ("Ixobrychus minutus")

Little Crake  ("Porzana parva")

Little Egret  ("Egretta garzetta")

Little Grebe  ("Tachybaptus ruficollis")

Little Owl  ("Athene noctua")

Little Ringed Plover  ("Charadrius dubius")

Little Stint  ("Calidris minuta")

Little Tern  ("Sternula albifrons")

Long-eared Owl  ("Asio otus")

Long-legged Buzzard  ("Buteo rufinus")

Mallard  ("Anas platyrhynchos")

Marsh Harrier  ("Circus aeruginosus")

Marsh Sandpiper  ("Tringa stagnatilis")

Masked Shrike  ("Lanius nubicus")

Middle Spotted Woodpecker  ("Dendrocopos medius")

Montagu's Harrier  ("Circus pygargus")

Moorhen  ("Gallinula chloropus")

Night-heron  ("Nycticorax nycticorax")

Nightingale  ("Luscinia megarhynchos")

Ortolan Bunting  ("Emberiza hortulana")

Pied Wheatear  ("Oenanthe pleschanka")

Purple Heron  ("Ardea purpurea")

Pygmy Cormorant  ("microcarbo pygmeus")

Raven  ("Corvus corax")

Red-backed Shrike  ("Lanius collurio")

Red-breasted Flycatcher  ("Ficedula parva")

Red-footed Falcon  ("Falco vespertinus")

Red-rumped Swallow  ("Cecropis daurica")

Red-throated Pipit  ("Anthus cervinus")

Reed Bunting  ("Emberiza schoeniclus")

Reed Warbler  ("Acrocephalus scirpaceus")

Ringed Plover  ("Charadrius hiaticula")

Robin  ("Erithacus rubecula")

Rock Dove / Feral Pigeon  ("Columba livia")

Rock Sparrow  ("Petronia petronia")

Roller  ("Coracias garrulus")

Rough-legged Buzzard  ("Buteo lagopus")

Ruddy Shelduck  ("Tadorna ferruginea")

Ruff  ("Philomachus pugnax")

Sardinian Warbler  ("Sylvia melanocephala")

Scops Owl  ("Otus scops")

Sedge Warbler  ("Acrocephalus schoenobaenus")

Serin  ("Serinus serinus")

Shelduck  ("Tadorna tadorna")

Short-toed Eagle  ("Circaetus gallicus")

Short-toed Lark  ("Calandrella brachydactyla")

Short-toed Treecreeper  ("Certhia brachydactyla")

Skylark  ("Alauda arvensis")

Spanish Sparrow  ("Passer hispaniolensis")

Spotted Crake  ("Porzana porzana")

Spotted Flycatcher  ("Muscicapa striata")

Spotted Redshank  ("Tringa erythropus")

Spur-winged Lapwing  ("Vanellus spinosus")

Squacco Heron  ("Ardeola ralloides")

Stonechat (rubicola)  ("Saxicola torquatus rubicola")

Stone-curlew  ("Burhinus oedicnemus")

Subalpine Warbler  ("Sylvia cantillans")

Swallow  ("Hirundo rustica")

Swift  ("Apus apus")

Tawny Pipit  ("Anthus campestris")

Temminck's Stint  ("Calidris temminckii")

Turtle Dove  ("Streptopelia turtur")

Western Rock Nuthatch  ("Sitta neumayer")

Wheatear  ("Oenanthe oenanthe")

Whinchat  ("Saxicola rubetra")

White Stork  ("Ciconia ciconia")

Whitethroat  ("Sylvia communis")

White-winged Black Tern  ("Chlidonias leucopterus")

Wood Sandpiper  ("Tringa glareola")

Woodchat Shrike  ("Lanius senator")

Yellow Wagtail  ("Motacilla flava")

Yellowhammer  ("Emberiza citrinella")

Yellow-legged Gull  ("Larus michahellis")

The Shetlands - Part 1

We have just come back from a fantastic week in The Shetlands. This was a guided wildlife tour with Shetland Wildlife (www.shetlandwildlife.co.uk) and our 'guest' guide David Lindo aka The Urban Birder.

I can't recommend the trip enough truly fantastic. We arrived mid afternoon and were picked up and driven the huge distance (5 minutes!) to our Hotel which happened to be at the end of one of the runways, so for a birder and aviation enthusiast, what a location!

We met the rest of our group (13 of us) at dinner. The fun started pretty much straight away and carried on for the rest of the trip a great group. The birding though started straight after dinner, with a short drive to a boat to take us over to the island of Mousa and close encounters with Storm Petrel. Once we alighted on the island we quickly got our first lifer of the trip with a brief fly by by an Arctic Skua. No bird photos for this trip even though it never really got dark It wasn't suitable for photographing our feathered friends.

It was a fantastic experience standing around a Bronze Age Brock at midnight as the Petrels came in to roost, the noise was brilliant and to watch them scramble into the holes in the wall was fantastic!

The Brock on Mousa

So in bed by 2:30am, after a long day (2 flights to get here!)
Next day saw as head out with The Urban Birder for a short birding walk, before loading up the van and and heading for Unst. We did start though by going to Sumburgh Head first and getting close to the Seabirds. We spent a couple of hours where the Puffins put on a good show:

There were plenty of other birds about, especially Fulmar:

Lots of Guillemot:

Gannets flying by:

Some Twite were 'playing' in the fields behind us:

And as we walked back to the minibus, this juvenile Wheatear posed for a while:

We the had lunch just watching all the bird activity before setting off to Unst and the two ferries that would take us there. At the first ferry at Toft I managed my first shot of an Arctic Skua as it flew over:

As we approached Unst, Hugh our 'Leader' said a Lesser Grey Shrike had been spotted around the Airstrip at Baltasound, coincidentally being where our Hotel was for the next 3 nights. so we stopped by on the way and had good views through the scopes, but a bit far for my lens particularly without my monopod (no room in the luggage!), this is the best I could do:

So I'll end part one here, more to follow.