Lesvos - Day 2 - 16th September 2024

No early start but a well earnt lay in to recover from the travel of yesterday before breakfast and then out to show Derek and Tanya how to navigate through Loutzaria to the saltpans.

It was pretty much as our drive last night with Willow Warblers, Red-backed Shrikes and Whinchats in the fields.  A couple of Tree Pipits came up and there were more Spotted Flycatchers flicking ahead of us.  A Hoopoe did likewise and flopped over the hedge on pied wings and Bee-eaters were constantly audible and could be seen soaring in the blue.  One day I will find a Blue-cheeked amongst them.

Spotted Flycatcher

Willow Warbler

An Osprey circled up high and closer to earth a group of Red-rumped Swallows glided around us much to Derek’s delight.

Wheatears and more Whinchats appeared in the drier fields and there were Blue-headed and a fine male Black-headed in a hay field where a female Marsh Harrier was quartering.

Wheatear

Crested Lark 'DeeVeeDee!

The pans were a bit hazy but the grey lumps (Pelicans), medium white lumps (Spoonbills) and black lumps (Black Storks) were still present as was the juvenile Montagu’s Harrier.

The sea was flat calm and there were Shags with the Cormorants by the jetty and the Slender-billed Gull was along the foreshore following a Curlew in the shallows while the Kingfisher zipped between dead stick perches. The juvenile Black-necked Grebe was even closer in the channel as we drove out.

Black-necked Grebe 

Lunch at the Pela and then out up Potamia in the stupid 32c heat but thankfully the cloud billowed up and dropped it down to the mid-twenties and it even rained steadily for 30 minutes.

A similar suite and of passerines were found in the olive groves but I was pleased to find a tailless juvenile Masked Shrike being harried by Spot Flys and a bossy Sombre Tit that pushed some Great Tits off the Milk Thistle seedheads that it wanted to fossick in.

A Wryneck dropped down from the escarpment bushes near the Kerami Reservoir and into the Olives where Red-backed Shrikes lined the fences.  Middle Spotted Woodpeckers were vocal as they often are this time of year and one did the decent thing and perched up for a while on a telegraph pole and Rock Nuthatches were very noisy but invisible up on the escarpment.  The only raptor was a very high Eleonora’s Falcon heading up the valley.

Red-backed Shrike

Middle Spotted Woodpecker

The reservoir itself was host to 13 Little Grebes and 22 Coot and two Ruddy Shelduck were with the Yellow-legged Gulls.  Violet Dropwings perched on the dead Hollyhocks and two Crag Martins twitted above me.

Willow Leaved Pear

Violet Dropwing

We checked the old reservoir on the way out and found an adult and two 2cy Night Herons in the Willows and 18 Little Grebe, eight Coot, two Moorhens and a female Mallard were paddling around.  There were more Spot Flys here and a single Pied too and Cetti’s Warblers were calling from the vegetation below me.

Night Herons

The rain intensified and 25 Red-rumped Swallows dropped in, had a drink and moved off just as quickly in one frenetic group. At Metochi the water level was very high and only a Grey Heron was present and a drive round resulted in more of the passerine regulars, with one field in particular holding a silly number of Willow Warblers.  Tree and Tawny Pipits were in the cut field and a flock of ‘plipping’ Corn Buntings zoomed through.

Goldfinches

Tawny Pipit

Tawny Pipit

Willow Warblers

Back at the Pela pre dinner with Bee-eaters calling, a Sardinian Warbler chattering in the Melemi garden and Short-toed Eagles and Black Storks drifting over. Magic.

Black Stork