Lesvos - Day 7 - 21st September 2024

A cooler day, at least to start with that saw us heading up island on the new road. It only took about half hour to get to Ipsilou where the wind was a little chilly out of the sun!  We parked at the top and I walked down to the start of the old cobble track back up to the monastery.  The views are always spectacular and I will always visit here just to take them in.

Raven

Raven

Bird wise it was incredibly quiet and the only migrant in the trees was a single Willow Warbler.  There were Blue Tits and Great Tits in the Oaks and Sombre Tits on the thistle heads while Wood Nuthatches were heard but, like their Rocky cousins below, very difficult to actually pick up.  A Middle Spot was chattering away and tapping at a big Acacia but kept sidling round the back.

Sombre Tit

Giant Fennel

Ravens tumbled and a Peregrine curved around the peak but a flock of Bee-eaters remained invisible above me.  Feeling chilled and slightly puffed (I had forgotten how steep the old path is) we abandoned Ispilou for the coast at Gavathas but the wind was howling up the beach and precluded a relaxing swim so it was around the coast towards Ancient Antissa passing a juvenile Peregrine on the cliffs above us.  It stooped after a White Wagtail and almost caught it but it dropped suddenly and the falcon powered by.

Peregrine

There were very few passerines in the whole bump through to Kalo Limani with just a couple of Spot Flys, Red-backed Shrikes and Willow Warblers.  House Sparrows gathered at a couple of spots and Crested Larks and Cirl Buntings were in the fields where Stonechats clung to fences in the strong wind.

Red-backed Shrike

I spied a group of birds over a headland.  They felt dark and my gut said a migrating group of herons but a soon as I put my bins up I realised they were gulls but they felt wrong for Yellow-legged.  Thankfully they swung round and came back my way and I realised that all 21 were in fact Lesser Black-backs!  I know what you are thinking – really? Excited by LBBGs? But yes!  I have only ever seen one Baltic Gull here before but here was a flock of 21 migrating adults with near black upperparts, fat white trailing edges, imperceptible white wing tip mirror, long slim wings and typical LBBG underwings patterns.

Baltic Lesser Black-backed Gulls

They kept tight together and circled a couple of times before climbing again and heading west along the coast.  This is a suitably rare bird here.  Lunch was taken overlooking the sea but nothing else was noted before the climb back up to Skalachori and the new road back to the Pela.

An early evening potter out onto Loutzaria and the saltpans produced the usual sprinkling of field and fence dwellers along with only my second Turtle Dove of the week.  There were two Slender-billed Gulls at the Tsiknias mouth and four more down in the bay opposite the Sheepfields along with four Spoonbills, Common Sandpiper, two Curlew and a little group of four Teal and six Mallard bobbing around on the sea.

A pulse of Bee-eaters going through

Four Spoonbills & a Yellow-legged Gull

The Dalmatian Pelicans were back asleep in the distance along with 19 more Spoonbills but holding the scope steady was tricky!  A Short-toed Eagle put on a grand performance low overhead and made the wind look like nothing at all.

Short-toed Eagle - sorry - it was quite the poser!

Some mud was exposed in the channel at last and three juvenile Little Ringed Plovers were on its foetid surface while down opposite Hide 3 there had obviously been an influx of Black-headed Gulls and Teal with 55 and 54 respectively. 

Little Ringed Plover

Black-headed Gulls

Greater Flamingos

Greater Flamingos

We called it a night and headed back for dinner but we had barely been seated when a juvenile Red-footed Falcon drifted through with the wind behind it.  I got up and had a look from the side of the Pela pool and found it hawking with two others towards the Pasiphae. The pre-roosting Hooded Crows gave them some half-hearted grief and all three circled back over our heads before disappearing in the growing gloom.  Hopefully they found somewhere to roost close by and we might find them in the morning. First rule of the Pela Hotel… Always take your bins to meals.