Lesvos - Day 3 - 22nd April 2025

A www.blueeyedbirder.com adventure

A hasty breakfast and a quick visit to the now open supermarket and bakers to get provisions for the next few days and then off around the coast towards Eresos passing Flamingos on Parakila Marsh on the way and various roadside Wheatears, Larks and Buntings before pulling onto the old road at Agra to scan the slopes.  Being a little later than usual meant that there was some sunshine this time and within a few minutes we had found several singing Cinereous Buntings and the sound of the males even on the highest pinnacles drifted down to us on the road.  Eastern Black-eared Wheatears (EBEWs) buzzed and chattered and both forms were seen as well as Cirl and Cretzschmar’s Buntings while a vocal Tree Pipit could be heard calling.  Linnets were another trip addition and Ravens passed below us.

EBEW

On again and onto the start of the track from Eresos to Sigri which began well with a male Eastern Orphean Warbler belting out his most magnificent song from the very first oak.  The first section was quiet with just a few Cirl Buntings and Stonechats and as we climbed up the escarpment we started to pick up more Buntings and hearing the Rock Nuthatches although seeing the latter this time was proving tricky.  A female Pied Flycatcher in the big oak near the top suggested that a few birds may have made it in.

Once on the top over the first cattle grid (take it slowly by the way as it is now somewhat sagged) we parked up and were soon amongst the Wheatears with Northern, Isabelline and EBEW.  The repertoire of the Issies was as wondrous as ever including bits of Quail, Linnet and Crested Lark within the electrified fizzy song.  Real Crested Larks and Woodlarks were singing and a swirl of Ravens and Yellow-legged Gulls attracted me to a circling Osprey and then a pair of Long-legged Buzzards and Short-toed Eagles.  Common Kestrels and a fine pale Eleonora’s Falcon came over the ridge and we heard a Chukar somewhere downslope.

Isabelline Wheatear - ACV

Isabelline Wheatear - Jim Willett

Isabelline Wheatear

Isabelline Wheatear

From here bits of the track were ‘quite poor’ and required a bit of careful navigation in my seemingly low slung car and I had to resort to temporarily reducing my load.  Down at the little hut by the cliff it was possible hear the Rock Sparrows before we even got there and the male was instantly found on the telegraph pole singing happily before dropping back down to the same old Nuthatch nest as they used last year and was seen removing a faecal sac. He also sung from just above the nest and showed off that lemon yellow lower throat patch to good effect.

Rock Sparrow

In the Chaste Trees below there was a green and yellow Icterine Warbler and a Wood Warbler was flycatching and picking insects off the walls and roof of the cave at the base.  Cirl and Corn Buntings were on the wires with a family of Stonechats and a Great Reed Warbler appeared close to the car.  It always amazes me how many of these we see away from any water whatsoever.

A couple of stops at the three Pear Trees of Happiness proved excellent with a couple of very showy Eastern Orphean and a foraging Eastern Subalpine along with several more Common Whitethroats and Great Reed Warblers.  There were three Flycatchers with Pied, Spotted and a fine male Collared found and both Icterine and Wood Warblers were repeated too.  The former clambered around and even stopped long enough to be scoped. A duller individual but so good to actually see one so well.  A male Sardinian Warbler rattled and popped up on top and Eastern Olivaceous and Cetti’s were added to the Warbler list.  Bee-eaters prukked overhead and the very first Black-headed Bunting of the year was in song from the wires directly above our heads. They would be everywhere within the next few days.

Black-headed Bunting

Black-headed Bunting

Spotted Flycatcher

Eastern Orphean Warbler

Essence of Icterine

A pair of Ruddy Shelduck came up off the river where hundreds of Spanish Sparrows were roving around in noisy amorphous flocks. Lunch at the Fig Grove revealed almost nothing within bar a pair of Sombre Tits and a view of the Ollie at last but rock turning did add some micro-Mantids and a small Chequered Scorpion while Snake-eyed Lacertid, Starred Agamas, Balkan Green Lizard and a very robust Glass Lizard were all seen.  There were a few butterflies with Clouded Yellows, Eastern Festoon, Spotted Fritillary and Small Copper and some cool Orthopterans including mahoosive Egyptian Grasshoppers and Red Winged Digging Grasshoppers.

Chequered Scorpion

Termites!

Spanish Sparrow - Jim Willett

mini Mantid - Jim Willett

A rustic lunch in the sun and then back onto the track down towards the chapel.  It was getting a bit ropey in places but we pressed on and another brief stop revealed hundreds of Yelkouan Shearwaters passing offshore and a single Med Shag.  A Black Stork flew down the valley.

Black Stork - Jim Willett

The section beyond the chapel was very poor in places and I had to take the car through quite gingerly although the little Fiat Pandas seemed ok! There were several Woodchat Shrikes and families of Stonechats and a party of Swifts contained ten Commons and three Pallids and it is in this spot that I regularly encounter them.  

Egyptian Grasshopper

No Little Owl for us today but the Lesser Kestrels from this point on posed on telegraph poles and rocks for a change and 12 were noted as we dropped down to the Cheese Sanitorium.  A female Golden Oriole cat called as we arrived and two males were subsequently seen posing in a single bare tree where they simply glowed.  The Peach grove behind us had a 2cy male Collared Flycatcher, both Whitethroats, Whinchats and a strange looking Wood Warbler that had just the faintest hint of  lemon yellow throat.

Red-rumped Swallows - ACV

Red-rumped Swallow - Jim Willett

Red-rumped Swallow

Wood Warbler - Jim Willett

Wood Warbler 

Golden Oriole

Cretzschmar's Bunting - Jim Willett

Cretzschmar's Bunting

The very slow bump through had taken its toll on the day as we reached Sigri but there was still enough time to enjoy the place with a pair of polished Spur-winged Plovers with sheep on the way in along with a couple of both Masked and Woodchat Shrike and the first Jackdaws but most of the action was down at the upper Faneromeni ford where there were multiples of all three Flycatchers once again as they flicked back and forth and even came down to the river bed.  It is always a joy to see them here on days like this.  Reed, Sedge and Great Reed Warblers were all seen and Nightingales sung and flashed across the view.  Further down there was a pair of Ruddy Shelduck, some Wood Sandpipers and a Ruff and a Little Crake scurried across.  The view the other way was quite different with just a few flycatchers but a bathing mass of flava Wagtails that included Blue, Black, Grey and ‘Romanian’ Blue-headed types.  There were more Wood Sandpipers and 15 Little Egrets too.

Spur-winged Lapwing - Jim Willett

Spur-winged Lapwing - Jim Willett

Spur-winged Lapwings

Little Egrets

Time was getting on so we started to make our way out picking up Lesser Whitethroat and several more of each Flycatcher.  By the turn to the beach there were over 20 Turtle Doves and a couple of Collareds up on the wire with a single Rock Dove in the paddock below and out first Common Redstart.

Turtle Doves & one Collared Dove

Nettle-leaved Figwort -Scrophularia peregrina

Roman Nettle - Urtica pilulifera excruciating

Dracunculus vulgaris

A short stop at the Sigri Oak Grove gave us three more Orioles with one male briefly on the steps on the back of the boast covered there!  There were even more Flycatchers and four Wood Warblers too before we moved on and White Wagtail was the only trip addition before we reached the man road for the run back over the top slowing through Lardia where Wren and Eastern Bonelli’s Warblers were heard.

Even then I diverted off and popped into Agriosikos and walked up to the mast for the view down over the pans where I could even see the cars parked beyond the salt pile by those looking at the Isabelline Shrike.  Three Scops Owls were already ‘pooping’ in the Oaks and the late evening Blackbird chorus was getting going with showy Eastern Subalpines and Orpheans, families of Cirl Buntings and Chaffinches and even more good views of Sombre Tits.

Anemone coronaria

Black & Yellow Flat Millipede - Melaphe vestita

It really had been a long but productive day and we headed back after seven to get ready for dinner.