Lesvos 2025 Part 3

So onwards with the Lesvos Stuff! 

 Had to go back and see how our young Long-eared Owls were doing, very well, thank you! 

Then a nice Great Egret at the Tsiknias River,

A Jay in the Potomia Valley,

there always plenty of Terrapins in any water around the island.

At Parakila Marsh you can usually find some Greater Flamingoes that don't want the hustle and bustle of the Kalloni Saltpans,

and is it's a marsh, it was nice to find a Marsh Sandpiper.

Back at the Saltpans, down the side channel behind the pumping station, there were a pair of Spur-winged Lapwing, gorgeous bird.

The young Ruff stayed around for the whole two weeks that we were there,

as did the Avocets.

Can never get enough of Bee-eaters, I hope you feel the same, as I'm sure that I'll add a few more along the way. 😀

Another favourite of ours.... a Little Tern fishing in the salt pan channels.

Kentish Plover.

Another iconic bird, most of which had already moved on before we arrived, but we finally stumbled across a lone bird at the salt pans.

Told you there'd be more Bee-eaters!

This attached itself to our car door! If anyone knows what it is let me know!

Black-eared Wheatear.

There were plenty of White Storks around but these Black Storks were much harder to find.

Back at the marshes, these Flangoes have lost their heads.

Swallows collecting mud for nests.

One of our favourite days out is down the Makara Valley, where for the last 3 years we've always seen Little Owl at the same farm. We thought we were out of look this time, but we found one, hiding behind one of the power line poles.

Lizards are everywhere on the rocks...

At the end of the valley you drive along a beach track and come to a bridge (used to be just an impassable ford without a proper 4x4) we stop there and go for a wander. Birds can be heard everywhere, finding them though is a different matter. However Goldfinch will always show off.

It was nice to find a couple of Shelduck at the river mouth

and of course because there was water there were terrapins.

A couple of Ringed Plover were about too.

A very secretive Little Bittern kept popping out of the river margins.

We could hear Reed Warblers all the time, one finally stayed up long enough for me to get a couple of shots.

There are always tons of butterflies down the valley too

and poppies.

The Reed Warbler popped up again..

The froglets liked the river as well.

Swallows were coming down regularly to get a drink.

Then my favourite sighting of the day! Tessellated Water Snake. Awesome!!!

Cretzschmar's Bunting again at Makara.

Birding in Lesvos 2024 - Part 1

So we have been back from Lesvos a couple of weeks now and I have finally finished sorting through my photos, so it's time to do a post!

It was a fabulous two weeks, we saw a record amount of bird species (for us!) Mind you some people take it very seriously and are up at the crack of dawn and go out for two or three hours before going back to their hotel for breakfast, then heading out again and not coming back until dusk,

That's not for us. We go down to breakfast as late as possible, after all we are on holiday. Then back to our room, sort coffee and snacks then head out, so most days we were out about 10.30. After a days birding we then like to get back and have a swim the pool, while the sun is still shining, the sun being out is a must as that early in the year the water is freezing!

Going back to the record for us, we recorded 137 species. This included two never before seen by us, which is a bonus, more of that in a later post. Also for some species we had the best views that we have ever had, although that doesn't always mean good photos (Sorry). For those interested I will do a full list in the end of the last post.

So where to start, chronologically I suppose;

The Tsikinias River just outside Skala Kallonis is always the first port of call and will be visited most days during the two weeks as its a nice way out of the village, it got us off to a great start, with a Purple Heron,

Little Egrets,

Yellow-legged Gull

and Glossy Ibis.

Unfortunately out first day was quite dull so the colours of the Glossy Ibis, don't stand out like they can, here's another photo of an individual,

hopefully it show the colours a little better.

From there its on to the Kalloni Salt Pans to see what's about:

A White stork,

Passing Ruddy Shelduck,

a Whinchat,

there are always Flamingos and Avocets,

Salt!

and a Reed Warbler.

Other birds would have been Wood Sandpiper, Ruff, Black-winged Stilt, Bee-eaters, Crested lark and Corn Bunting.

Despite what I said earlier we did do one pre-breakfast trip, as Tina couldn't sleep so we went out to Metochi Lake; 

It was a dull morning and there wasn't much about, so much for going out early, very over rated if you ask me. But we did see two scurrying Little Crakes in the reeds, getting a photo was nigh on impossible!

There were a few Squacco Herons about, but again photography was difficult as there was a mist coming off the water.

After Breakfast we took an all day trip to Makara and the nearby valley, this is one of our favourite drives, in places you would think your on another planet!. Here are some of what we saw:

Woodchat Shrike,

Little Owl,

Lizard!

Juvenile Stonechat,

a very distant Sardinian Warbler,

Grasshopper,

Wood Sandpipers,

Little Bittern,

Crested Lark,

Turtle Dove,

Rock Nuthatch

Tortoise,

Black-eared Wheatear and

Ruddy Shelduck.

I think I will leave it there for this post, it's a lot of stuff!

Part 2 to follow...............................