Blue Eyed Birder: September 2024

Friday 27 September 2024

Lesvos - Day 10 & 11 - 24th-25th September 2024

And so off to Vafios I went after breakfast stopping first to watch five Dalmatian Pelicans and a Med Gull in the perfectly calm Bay on my way to pick up a koulouri before a brief pause at Persama on the way up.

Med Gull

Happy pulling in little silvery fishes

Dalmatian Pelicans

Shag

Persama

The small pool was now no more than a muddy puddle with 40 White Wagtails bobbing around it so I pressed on up to the view point and had it to myself for the first hour and a bit. The drive up suggested that there had been another fall of passerines with Spotted Flycatchers zipping this way and that and at least three Common Redstarts flashing orange tails across my path. There was a good gathering of Cirl Bunting at the leaky hose on the right hand side and at least a dozen came up but I could not stop as I had a car behind me.

At the view point there was a thick layer of lowish cloud but it was already 22c and the breeze was light and coming from visible Turkey.

Vafios view down to Mithymna with Turkey and its raptors beyond

A Grey Heron lumbering over the hill side and inland was my first migrant and I picked up several Spotted Flycatchers actually dropping down out of the cloud base – birds were still arriving! Chaffinches and House Sparrows bimbled east and Cirl Bunting called around. The first Honey Buzzard came in at 1020 and this dark juvenile flew straight at me and by 1100 I had seen another single, five spiralling Sparrowhawks, a male Goshawk, Kestrel and Short-toed Eagle while hundreds of House Martins and a few Swallows swirled through at great height. Ravens are a constant presence and have a wonderful vocal repertoire here and at one stage we had about 50 in one giant kettle of black.

Ravens

Jed, Ralph, David and Sue joined me shortly afterwards and up until 1345 we amassed another 98 Honey Buzzards including several small groups and one of 26. Four Short-toed Eagles, a juvenile Marsh Harrier, two Hobbies, three Peregrines, an Osprey and many more Sparrowhawks were seen. This was all capped off but a beautiful pale Booted Eagle. Spot Flys continued to drop in and a Hawfinch flew in to the Oaks below us while more hirundines moved through.

Honey Buzzard

Sparrowhawk

Honey Buzzards

I left Jed and Ralph to their diligent sky watching in the now blazing sun and headed for home wondering if their Eagle luck of yesterday would continue. They did not even wait till I got back before they had Steppe Eagle again! Amazing. For my troubles of being stuck behind two coaches and a lorry over the top road I did manage to see a Honey Buzzard and two female a male Goshawk at eye level as I started the drop back into Kalloni.

Great Banded Grayling

The rest of the afternoon was spent tinkering with packing and generally doing that relaxing thing that I so rarely take the opportunity to do.

Clancy's Rustic

Rush Veneer

Vestal

Looks like a Small Ranunculus

A last dinner at the Pela this evening with the noisy Hooded Crows heading off to roost in one direction and three Great White Egrets and a Little Egret going the other way.

There was time for one last bump in the morning through Loutzaria before the flight home to a cool and damp Suffolk. Fences of Willow Warblers, Tree Pipits, Spot Flys and Red-backed Shrikes bid their farewells and once again I could even see Dalmatian Pelicans as we headed out past the saltpans for one last time.

Goodbye to the Pela

And Hyde and Elvis

Back at Mytilene we stopped on the sea front to sort out the final bit of packing (emptying water bottles and stashing cheese koulouri). Yellow-legged Gulls were loafing on the flat shining sea and a bonus first-winter Audouin’s Gull was a pleasant surprise (and my first of this age here) and it flew to join a bobbing adult. Just behind them a Scopoli’s Shearwater languidly flew just inches above the water and was a fitting final bird for the trip.

Every year is different out here in the autumn. It felt quieter this time with fewer of the commoner regulars (but still zillions more than you would ever see back home!) and a little less variety and wader numbers were certainly much lower than expected but it was still a magical ten days and it was good to venture up soe new tracks.

Raptoring is undoubtedly getting better and with more eyes looking I am sure that we can very firmly put Lesvos on the map as somewhere to head for in late September for excellent but not overwhelming skywatching experience. Steppe Eagle (cue sobbing…) was big rarity this time but surely we can eventually pick up an autumn Oriental Honey-Buzzard or even an Amur Falcon given the regular carrier species here?

I am still sure that some of the eastern passerines that make their way to the UK each autumn must dribble down this way too. Two Yellow-browed Warblers have been seen on Antikythera Bird Observatory this autumn so why not on Lesvos? A Little Bunting was seen last year too so I really think that anything is possible and it will just take more eyes checking all those hundreds of Willow Warblers and occasional flicking brown jobbies and perhaps a braver visit later into October after the package season flights have finished. We just need to cost of getting there with Aegeon Airlines out of season to come down to something mere mortals can afford and the whole late autumn, winter and early spring will open up and who knows what we can find then?

Lesvos - Day 9 - 23rd September 2024

Out through Loutzaria after breakfast where a Little Egret posed just past the houses and two juvenile Turtle Doves were perched up on the old nightclub wires with the Feral Pigeons and Collared Doves. This is only the third time this trip I have seen them and I suspect it is the same birds unfortunately.

Little Egret

Turtle Doves

The Tsiknias was devoid of anything but the mown alfalfa fields were full of bouncing flava Wagtails, Sparrows and Corn Buntings while around the triangle there had been a fresh arrival of very energetic Willow Warblers and a few more Tree Pipits. Five Sparrowhawks suggested some immigration of these too.

Willow Warbler

From here we headed on a big loop back towards Mytilene and then around the Gulf to Plomari before wiggling back up out the other side through the very lovely village of Palaichori (don’t try it with a minibus) and then Ampeliko.

The views were stunning but the birdlife almost non-existent with just a few Raven, Tits and Chaffinches. From one vantage point you could see an imposing escarpment (I pictured Bonelli’s Eagles and Eagle Owls) but the plateau above it was hundreds of acres of burnt skeletal pine trees in all directions from the vast fire that almost reached Vatera a few years back.

The whole plateau right of the sea was a burnt desert

We popped back out at Mikri Limni and after lunch on the beach at Achladeri (more Willow Warblers and Flycatchers – not eaten of course) we headed back to chill for the afternoon before a poodle out onto Loutzaria once again at the end of the day where Wagtails and Tawny Pipits obliged and tree juvenile Red-footed Falcons briefly hawked over the Tsiknias.

Red-backed Shrike

A last dinner at the Dionysos before a final full day tomorrow.

Thursday 26 September 2024

Lesvos - Day 8 - 22nd September 2024

Two Kestrels were our breakfast birds for the Pela this morning. Not the hoped for Red-foots but actually not a common bird around the Bay. We stayed to see Derek and Tanya safely off on their journey back to Northern Ireland and then headed up island with just the briefest of stops in Lardia to watch a kettle of 13 Honey Buzzards and a pale phase Booted Eagle drift over in the clear blue sky. Perivolis was our destination and some ex-soldiers of middling years were having a breakfast BBQ reunion all decked out in their fatigues. Some were a little snugger than they used to be.

We were invited to join them and the regular shepherd we see down, there but they still had some cooking to do so while Andrea fed the cats I wandered along the river as usual. Fewer birds with no sylvia warblers and just a sprinkling of Spot Flys and two Common Redstarts. The Blue Tits suddenly alarmed and a female Accipiter went through at eye level showing me all I needed to confirm the suspected Levant Sparrowhawk.

Down to Gavathas once again but this time we braved the sea. It was cool but soon warmed up and as usual there were no other people down there and just our car in the forty space new shiny car park!

Lunch was taken at the little chapel on the Ancient Antissa road with a calling Chiffchaff being the first of the trip. I topped up the basin of the small spring water fountain and a pair of Wood Nuthatches (our UK one) came in briefly before I had worked out how to keep it filled up but a Sombre Tit came straight back in a drank from the wet tap without realising there was crystal clear water just below him. I am sure they found it after we left. Great Banded Graylings flew through and two Millet Skippers and a Cardinal were noted in the Valonia Oaks too.

Sombre Tit

Back out and up towards Ipsilou before dropping down on the Eresos road. There were no birds what so ever in this most desiccated part of the island but down in the lush fields around Skala Eresou there were 26 Rock Doves and 12 Collared Doves feeding in a field but I could not find any Laughing Doves again. Some Red-rumped Swallows were the only other birds of notes and the river, albeit still wet, reeded and deep held only Mullet and Stripe Necked Terrapins and not one bird of any sort!

Rock Doves

Up and down and up again for the descent to the Kalloni Bay but I decided to veer off to Apothika for a look as I have only ever headed down to Makara. A sign pointing to some sort of ancient stone wall sent me off on another track that led of one still wet river heading to the Bay (Mnimoria) before reaching a mini estuary (Kardama). I never even knew there was water down here. There may have only been two Little Egrets and a very long-billed Curlew but I could imagine it being very good in the spring for passerines too. Further investigation is needed!

Apothika

Kardama

Curlew

I found another sign for the huge Kalochtistos retaining wall and could see its massive blocks up the slope aways. An old path took me up there – certainly not access for all but worth the effort. As at several spots found on the island (including Metochi Lake!) there is a QR code that takes you to more information. No one is quite sure but they think it may have been part of a sanctuary dating back to the Greek Archaic period between 700 and 500 BC with obvious subsequent use. There were certainly many presumed Roman pottery shards around.

Kalochtistos

There were some birds too with Lesser Whitethroat and Spot Flys in the Turpentine trees, audible Rock Nuthatches and a male Blue Rock Thrush. The day was wearing on so it was back to the Pela for a salted caramel Cornetto equivalent from the freezer and then took some pics of the moths I caught last night.