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.
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| Sunset at Skalla Kalloni |
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| 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.
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| Phone photo of a black-necked grebe |
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| Gulf of Kalloni picnic site |
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| 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.
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| Ruins of Apollos' temple |
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| And again |
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| 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!!
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| Saltpans and flamingos |
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| Dalmatian pelican, cormorant and flamingos |
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| Typical hillside scrub |
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| 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.
I'll save the lists for Lesvos Part 2.
