Blue Eyed Birder: Lesvos - Day 13 - 2nd May 2025 for Oriole Birding

So, last night news came out of a Great Snipe at the same spot on the Tsiknias as our Common Snipe but it was clear that both species were involved so we opted for a pre-breakfast raid to chance our luck. For the first time all week it was calm and still although still not overly warm.

Amazingly it only took me five minutes to relocate it which allowed us to enjoy watching it for a while before the hungry hoards descended. It was a bruiser and beautifully patterned too and put on quite a show until walking back into the reeds. Three Spoonbills flew over and seven Gull-billed Terns moved up river.

Great Snipe - Paul Wood

Great Snipe - Toby Carter

Leaving the crowd behind I drive us to the end of the river track so that we could walk out onto the foreshore in the slim hope that a Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin would materialise. After a few minutes I picked one up singing way off and thankfully he was perched up on top and looked great in the scope. There was no need to go closer.

Down at the sand bar we added Curlew, two Med Gulls, Kentish Plovers, Sandwich, Little, White-winged Black and Common Terns and the same Montagu’s Harrier was once again quartering. Eight more Spoonbills circled us and a Little Crake in the river edge was a good way to end and send us back for a Pela breakfast.

Olive Tree Warbler was the target for the day so we spent the first half of the day around Metochi and Potamia passing two River Warblers in song on the way there! We ended up hearing the OTWs very well and even had them at the same time as singing Masked Shrikes for useful comparison but seeing one just never happened.

Two Rollers were seen – one on wires and another heading north and there were three Lesser Grey and 18 Red-backed Shrikes logged but it really was a raptor morning although it was at times very frustrating with birds often being picked up late as they actively moved northwards. Between us we saw three Lesser Spotted Eagles, six Short-toed Eagles, Black Kite, two Long-legged Buzzard, six Common Buzzard, seven Marsh Harrier, six Red-footed Falcons, Kestrel, three Hobbies, two female Sparrowhawk and a male Levant Sparrowhawk. The Lesser Spots included two together that actually appeared to be hunting which threw me to start with and I wished I had called them sooner. Such behaviour was noted by others during the morning and it seemed likely that they had arrived the day before and were hunting before carrying onwards.

Long-legged Buzzard

Metochi itself held the Pygmy Cormorant once again and we found three Little Bitterns, Purple Heron and full breeding plumaged Cattle Egret that was happily eating Scolopendra! There were both Terrapins around the margins now that it had warmed back up a little.

Purple Heron - Jim Willett

Little Bittern

European Pond Terrapin

Stripe-necked Terrapin

Cattle Egret - Jim Willett

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler

Small Pincertail

Blue Featherleg

Small Skimmer

Levant Water Frog

Meadow Brown sp

Lunch back at the Pela and then up to Agriosikos for a proper walk. The breeze had picked up it was at least attempting to be warm and we were rewarded with 12 singing Eastern Bonelli’s Warblers although actually seeing one was almost impossible this time. European Nuthatch, Hawfinch, Robin and Wren were all new for the trip and Ravens were a constant companion as they called and tumbled overhead. They never found us a big BOP though and only Buzzard and another Levant Sparrowhawk were noted.

Ravens

As hoped there were quite a few butterflies to track with Eastern Festoons, Small Coppers, Green Underside Blue and Scarce Swallowtail seen. There were a few other inverts and a recently deceased Lesser Blind Mole-Rat.

Lesser Blind Mole-Rat.

Violet Carpenter Bee

Green Underside Blue

Eastern Festoon

Eristalis sp

Epistrophe eligans

Hawthorn sp

Crepis rubra

Dor Beetle

Lupinus angustifolius

Nodding Thitsle Carduus nutans

Papaver argemone

Papaver rhoeas

Trifolium tomentosum

Broad-bodied Chaser

Masked Shrike

Hypecoum imberbe - a deeper colour and different leaf than Hypecoum procumbens seen on Ipsilou - I think!

Vicia melanops

A trip down to the Kalloni Salt Pans before dinner saw us ensconced in the hide and counting a vast flock of marsh terns with at least 130 White-winged Black and 20 Whiskered. A Black Stork got blown towards us and the White Stork flock were mobile again but it was the Cetti’s Warbler that almost came into the hide that made Carolyn’s day. We said goodnight to the pair of Spur-winged Plovers that were getting very friendly in the channel and made a final stop at the Tsiknias where four Little Bitterns and Little Crake finished things up nicely.