The almost annual pilgrimage to Lesbos started on the 19th of April, nice and early to catch the migrants but the expected movement didn't materialise. For a start, it was cold the whole two weeks, about 15 degs although in the sun it was hot but very windy, a lot of rain and storms. The channel around the saltpans was almost empty of birds apart from the usual stilts although there were birds in the wet fields eg. short-toed larks and red-throated pipits. It was several days before I caught up with any marsh terns with only one whiskered tern but c.30 gull-billed terns made up for it somewhat. However, I still recorded 156 bird species without any real effort, it was a holiday as well. I am not going to give a day by day account as its too much work so I'll just put in some photos with captions.
A view of the East River mouth good for terns plus two slender-billed gulls
A couple of stone curlews were attempting to nest on the E.River.
Little Crakes on the E.River
Marsh harriers were common plus a few Monty's and two pallids
Black stork, usually plentiful but only a handful seen
Swallowtail, quite numerous
Common Sandpipers were few
Black-winged stilts numerous
Crested larks and corn buntings everywhere
The black-headed yellow wagtail
Ruppell's Warbler - only one seen, a crowd of over one hundred one day, like a major twitch. Plenty of Dutch, German, French and even Italian groups present, Lesbos becoming a victim of it own success!
Scops Owl - several around even in the hotel grounds.
The long-eared owls nested at Papiana school again raising two chicks
Blue-headed wagtails common
Huge flocks of Spanish sparrows near Sigri
Within a day or so black-headed buntings started to arrive.
Black-winged stilts were regular around the saltpans.
Olivaceous warbler, singing in every bush!
A visit to the Kruiper's nuthatch site always produced short-toed treecreepers
There were four around the car park plus a two Kruipers, no need to go to the 'official' site, saw them all without getting out of the car!
Serins were common in the coniferous woods
One of the storms near the saltpans - duvets were still needed at night!
A typical landscape on the west side of the island
A visit to the Ipsilou monastery perched on a lofty mount revealed several cinerous buntings.
Cretzschmar's bunting, another visitor to the higher rocky scarps
At the western tip of the island, Sigri is always a magnet to migrants and one visit revealed c.80 birds hawking over one area.
Other birds here were, rufous bushchat, icterine and wood warbler, lots of spotflies, collared and pied flycatchers, red-backed, masked and woodchat shrikes etc..
A view from behind Molyvos
Spur-winged plover is a regular migrant to the pans most years.
Unsure of this butterfly.
Woodlark, quite common in the higher areas
Sub-alpine warbler- very common, seen all over the island.
Plenty of wild flowers across the island
Lesbos is a great place to visit, never the same each year and that goes for the weather as well, can be cold and very hot. By mid May migration is over and the hordes of birders are gone but there is still plenty of birds to see plus any overshoots that are probably not recorded later on. I remember on a late visit seeing c.40 rose-coloured starlings so who knows what may turn up.
3 comments:
Very nice mike back next year I think
Looks like you had a great holiday,with some nice shots to reflect on.
Some very nice shots Mike plenty of action for the camera I can see why you go.
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