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")

Lesvos 2016 - Part 4

I'll see if I can make this the last one about Lesvos as I have trips for Somerset and a visit yo Upton Warren to do as well!!

So where were we! Day 5 a day of exploration and visit a few places that we didn't get to last year. However our first big stop was to be Achladeri Forest, although we did stop at Kalami Marsh before turning off onto the road down to the forest, seeing:
Squacco Heron,

 Corn Bunting,

and  Black-winged Stilt.

A couple of Ruddy Shelduck flew over, we watched them land further down between the Achladeri Road and the sea:

We arrived at the forest car park and walked along the track towards the path across the stream. There were a small group of people there watching something, we joined them to find our target for the forest,
Krüpers Nuthtach

A great result we had only been there 5 minutes. We watched it for a good 10 minutes before it flew away. Being a photographer it's difficult sometimes to curb the urge to get too close to get a better angle or more detailed shot, the main thing though is to observe and enjoy the bird, which we certainly did here. After this we carried on for a while walking the tracks, picking up Chaffinch and our first Wood Lark before returning to the 'bus' and a celebratory coffee!

After coffee we carried on down the gulf cost aiming for the Polichnitos Saltpans. We took the coastal track driving just a few feet from the seas edge, where Common Sandpipers were foraging, this added a new bird for our week. As we progressed we stopped to admire the Poppies,

before stopping at an Olive Grove to look for Middle Spotted Woodpecker, but they were not playing ball but we did find this flighty Masked Shrike

and an Olive Tree Warbler before continuing. As we progressed the weather deteriorated slightly becoming quite dull. So we decided that we would look for a Taverna for our next coffee stop and found one in a tiny harbour village, where no English was spoken, but we managed to get a snack (Sardines and Olives) and some drinks and sit by the water, the people were so friendly and we even came away with a dozen freshly laid eggs free of charge, these were to become lunch the following day.

 I thought I was getting a black coffee, but you have to go with the flow, (note Steve Dudley's Lesvos book on the table!)

 although non-drivers were happy with beer, (our 'bus' in the background)

From here we were only a short distance from the Saltpans, which were very quiet, except for Stilt, Shelduck and Avocet, still we parked up and had an explore and lunch and of course more coffee for Tina and Me! Patience is a virtue as we were to find a couple of weeks later in Somerset, but that is another story, this Kentish Plover came to us, shame the sun had gone by now.

The rest of the day was exploring and driving down to the south coast as far as Agios Fokas, but the weather was getting a bit damp and blowy by this time so not a lot was seen, just some Sedge Warblers and these Terrapins:

So yet again this post is becoming too long, so I will cut it short and add a fifth and I promie a final post about our Lesvos trip.

Lesvos 2016 - Part 3

On to part three, its taking a while because we keep going birding! So more posts in the offing. The last post was our day out to the west of the island, so day four was keeping it local and cutting the driving down. We started off at the Christou River Bridge and Marsh, then to Potamia River, followed by Metochi Lake and Potamia Resevoir, ending back at the Kalloni Saltpans, then 'home' via the Tsiknias Ford and River.

We were looking for the Stone Curlews at Christou, but despite receiving plenty of advice on where they might be seen, we drew a blank. The marshes though had plenty of Black-winged Stilt, Avocet, Plovers and the star being a flyover by an Osprey, which this Hooded Crow wasn't too pleased about.

After carrying on searching for a while in the vain hope that the Stone Curlew night appear we carried on to Potania River, where we found our only Gloss Ibis of the week:

Not quite sure what it was trying to eat! The only other bird of note here was this Purple Heron.

We had fond memories of Metochi Lake from last year, but when we arrived we found it seriously overgrown with only a few viewing points. We did get some good sightings of Little Bittern and Little Grebe though.

We now went along the track past Potamia Resevoir and stopped for a coffee at the bridge, hoping to see a few bits and bobs, on the way to the bridge, we were lucky to find Hoopoe and Turtle Dove, but we were in the van and they wouldn't hold still long enough for me to get any photos, difficult when you are the driver!

The only thing I did capture where these Terrapins whilst we were having our coffee:

After coffee we drove back down the track and walked up to the reservoir, this was mainly occupied by Yellow-legged Gulls, with the only other bird being a Ruddy Shelduck over the far side. As we loitered a trio of other birds made an appearance:

 Woodchat Shrike,

and a Black-headed Bunting

A gentle drive now down to the Saltpans and hopefully Stone Curlew past the Saltworks. This gave us;
Black Stork,

 Kentish Plover,

 Black Winged Stilt,

 Avocet of course,

 and Yellow Wagtail

plus Bee-eaters, Crested Lark, Ruff, Little Stint, Temminick's Stint, Common Tern, Little Tern, Collared Pratincole and Wood Sandpiper.

From here we went across river to the ford at Tsiknias River and then down the river back to the main road, before home for Tea!
Here are some of the pics from that:
House Sparrow,

 Little Egret

 Swallowtail?

Little Bittern,

 Squadron of Little Egret,

 Squacco Heron

 Wood Sandpiper

That'll do for part 3 I think, never thought there would be so many, hopefully post part 4 tomorrow!