Nearly there

I thought that the next blog would be the 2024 wrap-up, but there has been enough activity in the last four weeks to justify a wee top up before Christmas. 

WOW has been very quiet indeed with varying numbers of ducks and waders. Highlight was two of our "Class of 21" black-tailed godwits popping up again. They have been mainly seen at WOW, but have also been picked up at Kinnegar, Upper Strangford Lough, Whitehouse Lagoon and Dargan Bay. They have not been seen between March and August when presumably they are in Iceland breeding. I also got a millpond day at Kinnegar and was able to add goldeneye, common scoter and red-throated diver to the list. A red-head goosander was also cruising off Kinnegar for about a week- I finally got it on the 4th attempt in a downpour. 

The last three photos are pictures from the camera screen in the centre. If there is an interesting bird on the larger island you can get the staff to focus on them, zoom in and take a phone shot. 

Mallard & teal

Wigeon pair

Ringed godwit

Ringed godwit

Gadwall

Gadwall & mallard - note the size difference.

Shelduck and coot

The North Down patch added lapwing and stonechat to the list. The Irish garden birdwatch started and is now into its fourth week. Highlights in the first week were bullfinch (1),  blackcaps (3), goldcrest (1), song thrush (1) and linnets (2). Another interesting addition was a herring gull which is a regular visitor and is not fazed by someone opening the door and shouting at it. Other than that it is the usual suspects with blackbirds being the commonest species - anything up to eight depending on the time of day.

Blackcap (F)

Blackbird

Linnets & Chaffinch

Finally a few shots from the Bolton trip in October which I forgot about, they were all taken in Richard's garden in what might best be described as challenging light conditions if you are Digi-scoping from the bedroom window.

Sometimes birds are "discouraged"

Goldfinch

Greenfinch

Nuthatch

2024

180: Goosander

NDCP

61: Little egret

62: Lapwing

63: Stonechat

WOW

87: Sanderling

88: Goosander

89: Red-throated diver

90: Common scoter

91: Goldeneye

Post Lesvos inertia

No blog of late as there hasn't been a lot to report. WOW has been very quiet and I have not done a lot of walking along the coastal path. The mild temperatures mean less garden birds and I haven't even put the bulk of the feeders out yet. I will wait until it gets a lot colder.  Having said that the Irish garden bird survey kicks off in 2 weeks. The lists have not moved a lot and like last year I think I will miss my "targets". At present I am in the following position with only 7/8 weeks of the year left.

    WOW target is 100 -  presently on 87

    North Down is 70 -  presently on 61

I added mistle thrush to the North Down patch - the first in nearly two years - but the surprise sighting from a recent walk was a little grebe swimming just off the rocks. This was a totally unexpected tick and the first time I have seen a little grebe on the North Down patch. It is one of those birds I never expected to see as the habitat is all wrong. Clearly the "Anything can turn up anywhere" maxim kicked in here. It also was relevant to the little egret in the Long Hole - another patch first. It has been reported to me, but I kept missing it as I went when the tide was wrong. This week the tide was falling and low, and there it was. That was two new patch ticks on two successive days. 

WOW has remained static but a recent trip to England added ring-necked parakeet and mandarin duck. I again managed to miss dipper despite visiting two sites where I had seen them in the past. I missed dipper last year and a recent amble along the Sixmilewater at Antrim also failed to produce the goods. It is becoming a bogey bird again this year. The attached phone pictures were the best I could do for the parakeets and the mandarin. 

Ring-necked parakeets

Ring-necked parakeets

Mandarins and mallards

The proposed development at D3 has not yet started in earnest so here is a shot from the back gate of WOW looking down the river. Apparently that will not be accessible once the cruise liner terminal is completed, the existing path will only go as far as Hide 2. 

I'll finish with a nice sunset from the coastal path at Stricklands to cheer us all up and a view over the reserve at Castle Espie from the coffee shop! 

2024

177: Wryneck

178: Ring-necked parakeet

179: Mandarin duck

NDCP

58: Rock pipit

59: Mistle thrush

60: Little grebe

61: Little egret

WOW

87: Sanderling

Report from Lesvos Part 2

Time for the second half of the week on Lesvos. Not quite as stunning as the first half as I had seen quite a few of the species I wanted to see on the first part of the week. We were doing more tourist stuff and seeing the sights of Lesvos.

Thursday saw us heading North to the fishing village of Molyvos which is where a lot of tourists end up and where Jet2 were trying to send us before Howard re-directed us to Skalla Kalloni. This involved a drive through pine forest on twisty roads and finding a parking spot before walking into the village which is much more of a tourist trap than Kalloni. Shops, cafes, wee market stalls and locals trying to interest you in buying something before the season ends and they are left with unwanted stock. We then went north along the coast looking across to Turkey which is about 15 miles away, before cutting back on the new road towards Kalloni. We were looking for somewhere to picnic when we came across Limnos Monastery so we stopped off, had our picnic and did the tour. Lovely old monastery but no monks. Some nice birds in the surroundings but nothing startling apart from a pair of ravens overhead. The most interesting thing we learnt was that the main monastery is surrounded by lots of little beehive chapels and apparently visiting monks could come for a retreat and have their own little chapel for prayer and meditation.

Coast at Molyvos

Greek Orthodox chapel at Limnos

....and the ceiling

Cloisters

Overview of Limnos

Small chapel in the grounds

Lots of small chapels dotted around 

We returned to Kalloni to chill out and took an evening walk towards the mouth of the Tsikinas river. Beautiful walk but along soft sand which did not do my recovering hips a lot of good, offset however by red-backed shrike, willow warbler and spotted flycatcher in the bushes behind the beach, a jay on the way back and the usual stunning Greek sunset. This happened every evening, but if you have too many stunning sunsets they sort of lose their impact. 

Friday started with a 0600 alarm and a drive to the Kalloni salt pans for a sunrise spectacular with Howard and Colin (from Wales). We had good views of a variety of birds and with three scopes going I think we saw everything there was to see. Interesting fact was that my travel scope is not in the same league as Howard's Swarovski or Colin's £20 e-bay scope he takes with him when he goes abroad. Here is what we saw and heard, plus a few sunrise photos and a link to Howard's account of the same outing. Dalmatian pelican, black stork, spoonbill, teal, kingfisher, curlew, ringed plover, grey plover, greenshank, redshank, black-necked grebe, cormorant, little egret, great white egret, grey heron, greater flamingo, buzzard, avocet, black-headed gull, yellow-legged gull, sandwich tern, stonechat, crested lark and corn bunting - all before an 0830 breakfast. 

Sunrise

Kalloni salt pans

Moonset

Link to Howard's blog is here:

https://blueeyedbirding.blogspot.com/2024/09/lesvos-day-6-20th-september-2024.html

Post breakfast saw us back to being tourists again and calling at Ipsolos Monastery which has monks, the petrified forest, Sigri, and Faneromani beach. We stopped quite a bit on the new road but every interesting bird was a raven (or 12) , the monastery is on a hilltop with fantastic views  and the petrified forest was a real eye opener in terms of the variety of trees which have been petrified. The Sigri museum was also well worth a visit and the drive back via Erosos caused shredded nerves as the wee orange light came on in the middle of the mountains. All the common species were noted but we also saw wheatear, whinchat, sand martin drinking from the hotel pool, 25+ yellow wagtails behind the beach at Faneromani and bird of the day a stunning Eleanora's falcon which flew over us at the petrified forest. 

Ipsolos monastery

Turkey in the distance

Stunning location

Petrified tree stump and roots - it is actually solid rock!!

Looks wooden but it is solid rock

Self with petrified trees - no funny comments please!

Tree stump and fallen tree

Faneromani beach

And so to Saturday and another tourist trip to the Roman aqueduct, Moria and Mytilene which is the capital. We had an amble around, bought a few gifts and had lunch in a seafront cafe. The aqueduct is  very impressive considering it is only a vestige of its former self. It was a tad warm and it also involved an interesting drive through very narrow streets some of which were one way (whoops!!). Mytilene is a large town and ferry port but it has a nice little pedestrian area with narrow streets and interesting shops for wandering tourists. Nice touristy day out but not much birding. Some aqueduct views below, I didn't take any photos in Mytilene and back we drove to Kalloni for a break. 

The streets of Moria

After a rest and a drink I took off to look for two little reservoirs within 10 minutes drive of the hotel. I found them both using Google and was quite impressed. Lake Metochi had water and one spotted flycatcher, Periana reservoir had water and no birds BUT en route home through olive groves a small flock of birds flew up into the trees so I stopped and looked. It was a great tit flock of 10/12 birds so always worth a look to see if anything else is in the flock. I found a willow warbler and then noticed an odd brown bird feeding in the grass and bingo it is a wryneck. Only the second time I have seen one, the first time was on a French camp site in 1985 - 39 years ago. I was quite excited as I had picked it up  myself ( It had been reported earlier in the week) and it might even make bird of the week even though I had three lifers on Monday. Anyway a nice way to finish and here is a celebratory sunset. 

Final sunset from the hotel balcony

Sunday was basically, breakfast, pack, checkout and drive to the airport. Unlike Howard I didn't pick up any final species en route and we checked in and flew out to Belfast via Manchester going from 30C to 13C and from Greek hooded crows to Irish hooded crows. C'est la vie.

No change obviously to the patch lists but the 2024 list took a bit of a boost as follows:

2024

152: Sanderling

153: Greater flamingo

154: Dalmatian pelican    LIFER  😎

|155: Black-necked grebe

156: Black stork

157: Montague's harrier

158: Osprey

159: Kentish plover

160: Yellow-legged gull

161: Slender-billed gull   LIFER 😎

162: Scops owl                LIFER  😎

163: Crested lark

164: Red-rumped swallow

165: Yellow wagtail

166: Whinchat

167: Spotted flycatcher

168: Red-backed shrike

169: Jay

170: Hoopoe

171: Bee-eater

172: Ruddy shelduck

173: Corn bunting

174: Spoonbill

175: Woodchat shrike

176: Eleanora's falcon

177: Wryneck

Report from Lesvos - Part 1

I have always wanted to get to Lesvos as it has a wealth of birds as well as a bit of history and culture. Spring was always going to be difficult with commitments at home and when we were looking for a short warm autumn break I had a look at Lesvos and a chat with Howard Vaughan (ex RSPB warden at Rainham Marshes) to see whether we could do a "non birding" holiday which gave me a chance to see some birds as well. The answer was a very positive yes with the added bonus that Howard and his wife Andrea would be there the same time as we were and were happy to give a few pointers. Jump forward three weeks and we had flights sorted, hotel sorted, car hire sorted and a guide to get us from Mithylini to the Hotel Pela in Skala Kalloni. 

I managed a couple of outings which were bird related - a tour of good spots near the Kalloni salt pans on the first Monday morning and a dawn trip to the pans to see the birds moving out of the roost very early on Friday, and still back to the hotel in time for breakfast at 0830. Other than that everything else was picked up en route, from the hotel, local walks, picnic stops or tourist sites. One bonus was the excellent road network and the lack of traffic which meant you could pull off if a bird appeared overhead. At one point I spotted two birds on a fence along a main road and was able to stop, reverse back and get a look at a wheatear and a whinchat. Try doing that on the A1. 

I'm going to do a daily log with a few photos thrown in, as usual my efforts were not the best, the digiscoping didn't work well with distance and heat haze. I will however put a link at the end to Howard's excellent blog and better photos than mine - as usual a man with a good camera who knows how to use it. If the bird is in green it's a first for the year, lifers get special mention in red. 

The first afternoon saw the default birds which were everywhere and easy to see - hooded crow, collared dove, yellow-legged gull and house sparrow as well as greater flamingo which were always easy to see if you drove past the salt pans which we did quite a lot. We also had a raven en route and a marsh harrier behind the hotel. If you read Howard's blog you will see that while Tanya and I were crashing out in the afternoon heat, he was out spotting exotic raptors and passerines. Apparently I missed a flock of 100+ bee-eaters one afternoon as I had crashed out. 

Sunset at Skalla Kalloni

Ditto at 26C

Monday saw a familiarisation trip round the tracks on the west side of the Kalloni salt pans - a magnet for all sorts of birds, but not before we saw a red-backed shrike and a great tit in the hotel garden. To be honest it was sensory overload as no sooner did we spot one mouth-watering bird than another one appeared to distract us. I missed quite a few but still managed to add a few more to the holiday trip list - 

Dalmatian pelican, greater flamingo, cormorant, shag, grey heron, little egret, great white egret, black stork, black-headed gull,  slender-billed gull, black-necked grebe, buzzard, osprey, marsh harrier, Montague's harrier, yellow wagtail, whinchat, wheatear, jay,  sand martin, red-rumped swallow, curlew, kentish plover, bee-eater, hoopoe, crested lark, greenfinch, goldfinch, willow warbler and spotted flycatcher. 

We then visited a supermarket packed a picnic and set off round the Gulf of Kalloni to a tiny picturesque fishing port called Krakala for a picnic and a few more nice birds - blackbird, bullfinch, Mediterranean gull and kingfisher. The icing on the Monday cake was three singing Scops owls from the hotel. Howard managed to find one and get it in the scope only for it to fly off as he hit the focus ring - but I heard it singing and saw it fly off in the hotel lights so it is on my list. 

Phone photo of a black-necked grebe

Gulf of Kalloni picnic site

Harbour at Krakala

Tuesday saw us doing touristy things at a ruined temple site dedicated to Apollos, an underwater town which you can't see because it is underwater (!!) and a walk in a pine forest followed by  a scenic drive. Red-rumped swallows from the hotel balcony were a good start and we added chaffinch en route but not much else until we went an evening walk around the Christou river bridge which is west of the hotel. A large flock of small brown birds turned out to be corn buntings and I found two ruddy shelduck sitting on a field in a marshy area upstream from the road bridge. Very pleased with the ruddy shelduck for a couple of reasons, firstly I found them myself and secondly it is only the second time I have seen one. The first was a vagrant in Strangford Lough at Castle Espie in November 2005. We even called in to Castle Espie to see if one of theirs had escaped but they said they didn't have any and it was unringed, so bingo, we counted it. 

Ruins of Apollos' temple

And again

A river with water - a rare sight in temperatures of 30C+

This river is close to a Kreuper's nuthatch site but not surprisingly we missed them.

Wednesday saw us back to the temple site for a longer tour and then we looked at the east side of the Kalloni saltpans.  This added spoonbill and repeat viewings of Monday's list. In the evening we drove up a dusty track and tried to find a small reservoir but we ended up too far west at a dried up weir which was basically a bird free zone. The scenery was nice however and we were well off the beaten track where small hired cars seldom go - bit like driving in Africa on an unpaved road. The supposed red-backed shrike we saw  on a fence near the hotel turned out to be a juvenile woodchat shrike. Note to self, do not take any bird in Lesvos for granted - check it out if you can!!

Saltpans and flamingos

Dalmatian pelican, cormorant and flamingos

Typical hillside scrub

No water in the weir

I will wrap this one up for now and leave you with a link to Howard's blog with more exciting birds and better photos. I will start at Day 1 where we get an honourable mention and you can follow his daily blog from there., it is well worth reading through each day and it will whet your appetite for a trip to Lesvos, or at least let you see why I wanted to get there.

https://blueeyedbirding.blogspot.com/2024/09/lesvos-day-1-15th-september-2024.html

I'll save the lists for Lesvos Part 2.