Lesvos - Day 2: 1st September 2025

It is always good to wake up in Lesvos with the sound of the Grey Crowned Cranes bugling and the Peacocks greeting the day.  Breakfast with the Red-rumped Swallows chirping around us and a Cetti’s Warbler showing incredibly well as it scolded Elvis the cat.  Off to get Koulouri and then the supermarket before heading off to conduct a circuit of Metochi.  It was already seriously warm and I decided to have a look at the Kamares before the haze got to bad and counted 12 Kentish, two Ringed and a single Little Ringed Plover, two Little Stints, two Redshank and singles of Ruff and Greenshank while two Short-toed Larks flew over.

Kentish Plover

Kentish Plover

It was too hot at Metochi to conduct a full loop on foot so small pedestrian sorties were undertaken.  There were only three birds on the actual lake which was full of water with two Grey Herons and a Moorhen.  There were several Vagrant Emperors and Red-veined Darters and a single Eastern Willow Emerald tucked in the Oriental Plane trees. 

Eastern Willow Emerald

There were plenty of small birds to discover with a bit of patience and between there and the actual monastery I found four Red-backed and single juveniles of Woodchat and Masked Shrike, four Eastern Black-eared and six Northern Wheatears, three Whinchat, four Stonechat, six Spotted Flycatcher, two Tawny and a Tree Pipit, a brief Ortolan and a few warblers with Whitethroat, four Willows, two Lesser Whitethroats and a vocal Marsh Warbler that popped up out of some Fathen and showed very well in a fig for a couple of minutes.

Eastern Black-eared Wheatear

Eastern Black-eared Wheatear

Eastern Black-eared Wheatear

Red-backed Shrike - ACV

Red-backed Shrike

Nine Bee-eaters called quietly overhead and Red-rumped Swallows were the most numerous species encountered.  Black-capped Jays moved through the Olives and an Accipiter spooked the Swallows and peaked my interest as it felt interesting and was right to do so as it was a beautiful juvenile Levant Sparrowhawk.  Not my first autumn one but certainly my first good look at a juvenile.  I was very chuffed.  Oddly t was the only raptor I saw.

Hooded Crow

Red-rumped Swallow

Levant Sparrowhawk

Levant Sparrowhawk

Great Banded and Freyer’s Graylings were noted along with lots of Meadow Browns, Small Coppers, Tailed Blues and a single Common Blue while a Hummingbird Hawkmoth was nectaring on some tiny Chicory flowers.

Pomegranate

Huge Oak Apple Galls

Osyris alba

Oriental Hornet

Lang's Short-tailed Blue

Small Copper

Meadow Brown sp

Meadow Brown sp

Brown Argus

Common Blue

Okra 

The heat sent us back to the Pela passing two juvenile Marsh Harriers on the way and a little mixed pulse of hirundines contained two Sand Martins.  We went out again at 4.15 and drove straight onto a Caspian Tern heading east along the beach towards the Tsiknias. The first tern of the trip!

Around the coast to Parakila (passing a Short-toed Eagle on the way) and down to the little harbour at the end through the olives where oddly there were no Med Gulls at all – in fact only a Cormorant and zipping Kingfisher.  The two Turpentine Trees were have almost no berries and held no warblers at all but a look around allowed me to pick up three Spotted Flycatchers, three Eastern BEWs, two Cirl Buntings, two Turtle Doves, Middle Spotted Woodpecker and some thirsty Chaffinches and Tits that included a single Sombre. Two Persian Squirrels played chase in the road.

Short-toed Eagle

Short-toed Eagle

Persian Squirrel

Great Tit - I don't normally get to take pictures of one here!

A visit to Agios Ioannis chapel took me back into the sun and I could hear Cirl Buntings, Sombre Tits and Western Rock Nuthatches on the slopes but could only find EBEWs and a single Starred Agama.

Starred Agama

A Stigmella mine on Oriental Plane?

Chaffinches and Blue Tits were coming down to drink at a leaky pipe and two Ravens kronked above me. 

Back to base and then out onto Loutzaria where there was a good spread of migrants but certainly not the big numbers I see later in the month.  A fine male Black-headed and a similarly dapper Grey-headed Wagtail were amongst the flavours of flava and there were a few Whinchat and Wheatears but still only a couple of Willow Warblers.  Nine Short-toed Larks were with them in one of the fields waiting to be bailed and around the margins there were five Red-backed Shrikes including a smart male and two Woodchats.  Hundreds of mostly Spanish Sparrows were roving around. The first Common Buzzard was sat up on a telegraph pole and both Nightingale and Redstart were seen coming off the track as we crept back round the Triangle to the Tsiknias track.

Great Egret on a hot tin roof

Woodchat Shrike

Whinchat

Red-backed Shrike (ACV)

Black-headed Wagtail (ACV)

Mixed but mostly Spanish Sparrows

Hooded crows and Collared Doves

Time for dinner at the Dionysis and then back on the Tsiknias track for the loop in twilight through to Papiana.  I was hoping for Nightjar and was delighted to find three on red eye glow as they sat in the track but none allowed even a reasonably close approach but it was an excellent way to end the day.

Lesvos - Day 1: 31st August 2025

We drove down to Stansted through wind and spitty rain and arrived in good time for the 0600 flight but alas for ‘operational reasons’ our Jet 2 flight had been delayed by three hours leading to s a somewhat tortuous wait for boarding but by just before 0900 we were in the air and on our way.  I have to admit that it was a bit of a bleary eyed blur but at 1140 we were about only ten minutes out of Mytilene which was frankly astonishing.  We must have a strong tail wind and we all noticed that the decent seemed faster that usual as well but at least we landed safely – the preceding Manchester flight almost touched down and had to circle and go again!

Getting through the airport including collecting luggage took under five minutes – it was all very strange and all to soon we had picked up our car and were off through town.  While doing the paperwork an Eastern Olivaceous Warbler was in the Fig trees and as we drove along the front we saw Shags and Yellow-legged Gulls before wiggling though town.  Sunday’s is always a good day for tacking the road through!

Crag Martins were around the big quarry and opposite Dipi Larsou a Black Kite was an unexpected first raptor of the trip but from here on it was almost birdless as we passed through the crispy landscape and as we reached the Gulf of Kalloni you could see that the Walnuts and other deciduous trees had been having a tough season and many had already shed most of their cover.

We checked into the Pela, had a beer and freshened up and them pottered out of the village and through to the Tsiknias passing Green and Wood Sandpipers in the stink channel before the old nightclub where a Spotted Flycatcher hunted from some very unrusty barbed wire fencing.

Spotted Flycatcher 

Down at the river mouth there was only a Curlew and singles of Yellow-legged and Black-headed Gull and there was not a bird on the river as we drove up towards the ford.

Loutzaria was relatively quiet but I am a little earlier than I have been before but I still managed to find four young Woodchat and a single Red-backed Shrike, several Whinchat and Northern Wheatear, a few lemon and lime Willow Warblers, bouncing flava Wagtails including a couple of Black-headed, autumnal flocks of Corn Buntings and Crested Larks along with three Short-toed Larks and two Tawny Pipits.

flava Wagtail (ACV)

flava Wagtails & Willow Warbler

Willow Warbler

Woodchat

An adult female Montagu’s Harrier steadily quartered and hundreds of Lang's Short-tailed and Long-tailed Blues drifted around the trackside Brambles.

Montagu’s Harrier

Montagu’s Harrier

Montagu’s Harrier

Montagu’s Harrier - the heat haze made things tricky

A good look around the pans gave a selection of distant waders with Redshanks, Little Stints, Kentish Plover and Avocets and 14 Slender-billed Gulls and nine Black-headed Gulls were picking morsels from the still surface despite the gusty wind.

There were four Little and one Great Egret amongst the Greater Flamingos and once down at the Alykes Sheepfields I could see ten Dalmatian Pelicans and eight dozing Spoonbills out on the south east pans.  Two young Lesser Grey Shrikes and another Woodchat were hunting the fenceline and two more Curlew were out on the fields themselves.

Lesser Grey Shrike - hopefully I will get better of the coming days

Dinner beckoned and a drive alongside the pans gave good views of Little Stint, Redshank, Greenshank, Little Ringed Plover and a bonus juvenile Sanderling – a species I rarely see on the island.  

Greater Flamingos

Back the Pela a Hoopoe was sat up on the wires and Hooded Crows and two Jackdaws were heading off to roost while Red-rumped and Barn Swallows seemed undecided and circled around long after the first small Bats had come out to play.  

It is good to be back…