Time to go home. A
final Pela breakfast saw the Pygmy Cormorant fly through once again but the problem with
early September is there are no other birders at the hotel with whom to share
the joy and you end up looking like a weirdo gesticulating at a black bird
overhead!
It was going to be a scorcher again so we got ourselves
sorted, settled up, said our farewells to Thekla and the team and set off on a
final bump through the middle for a last fix of fields dotted with Red-backed
Shrikes, Wheatears, Whinchats, Willow Warblers and Spotted Flycatchers on the fences
and irrigators and flock of noisy House Sparrows, Corn Buntings and flava
Wagtails fossicking in the herbage.
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| Stonechat |
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| Red-backed Shrike |
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| Northern Wheatear |
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| Northern Wheatear |
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| Whinchat |
A Zitting Cisticola was calling (not singing) at the Pump House Corner - they have been very scarce this autumn and I hope they are just being furtive in the extreme heat. There were a couple of close Flamingos in the Saltpan
Channel and a final Dalmatian Pelican way off on the middle pans before we hit
the main road and wended our way through the familiar wooded landscape to Mytilene
and the slightly turbulent journey back to a typical cold and rather damp
England where at least the roads were kind and took us home in a just a couple of
hours.
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| Essence of Zitting Cisticola |
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| A new species for me - probably Sacred Thorn-Apple Datura wrightii rather than the familiar pinnate leaved D stramoninium that is also here. |
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| Greater Flamingo |
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| Greater Flamingo |
As ever with Lesvos there is an
immediate sense of sadness at having left her behind but next year is already
planned. I just wish I could get there
cheaply out of season. I wonder what
wonder the late autumn and heart of the winter holds?
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