2011 Tour Narrative
This year’s tour commenced just after a week of unseasonably cool and wet weather, but of course, when it comes to seeing good numbers of migrant birds ‘bad’ weather is often good, and this is especially true on the island of Lesvos. Fortunately, while the weather throughout our week was mixed, it was mostly pleasant, with very little rain or strong wind.
The most striking first impression upon arriving on the island was that leaf growth on most of the trees was much further behind than usual at this time of year, but in contrast the show of wild flowers could hardly have been better, their colour lending an attractive backdrop to many of the birds. The flock of breeding plumaged White-winged and Whiskered terns hawking low over a field of bright yellow buttercups was a beautiful sight, while nearby, exquisite Collared Pratincoles posed in a field of pink clover, inbetween sudden dashes to pursue airborne invertebrates.
One of the most notable features of our first few days was the extraordinary number of Collared Flycatchers present on the island, literally hundreds having arrived during the week prior to the tour. Usually we see a handful of these attractive birds, mostly at the western end of the island, but this year they were everywhere and their distinctive piping calls indicated that for every bird that we could see, many more were hidden in cover. We made a point of scrutinising every one, in the hope of finding the much scarcer Semi-collared Flycatcher, recorded on only one of our previous trips, and on day four it paid off with two male Semi-collareds right out in the open, at the more barren west end of the island where many migrants make landfall.
The location of our hotel at Skala Kalloni is very close to a number of excellent birding spots so we were spoiled for choice when it came to short pre-breakfast excursions. Sometimes the only difficulty was having to suspend birding in order to head back to the hotel for breakfast, but the prospect of fresh coffee and wonderful Greek yoghourt with honey was hard to resist! On one of these short excursions we remained rooted at one spot while an array of the island’s warblers presented themselves in beautiful morning sunlight, many of literally side-by-side them in the same tree. This was where we found a Bluethroat, surprisingly only the second ever recorded on Lesvos.
Metochi, a small lake just ten minutes drive away from our hotel is another excellent spot to visit before breakfast, the warm sunlight on its reed-fringed western edge drawing some usually secretive birds into full view. It is likely that more people have seen their first Little Crake here than anywhere else in Europe, and on our visit we counted a record-breaking fourteen individuals, most of which showed extremely well. We also enjoyed our best ever views of a magnificent Water Rail (a species much more often heard than seen on Lesvos) which prompted my first ever use of the ‘Sibley Guide App’ in Greece, in order to remind ourselves the differences between Water Rail and its North American counterpart, Virginia Rail!
Kalloni saltpans and the surrounding fields attract a lot of birds, the most obvious of which are the Greater Flamingos, which we never quite managed to count accurately due to the constant distraction of other species coming and going. Around dusk, flocks of Flamingos took to the air, calling excitedly, and circled high over our hotel, presumably before embarking on the next leg of their journey back to breeding grounds further east. A small pool by the roadside was often packed with shorebirds and here we had opportunities to compare delicate Marsh Sandpipers and Wood Sandpipers side-by-side, study plumage and bare part colour variation in Ruff, and appreciate the beauty of Black-tailed Godwits in breeding plumage. We also had excellent views of a very handsome male Citrine Wagtail that took up residence for a couple of days. Little Bitterns were encountered every day in various wetland habitats but we were very lucky to get a great view of the much more elusive Great Bittern creeping stealthily through the rushes just 200m from our hotel. Another highlight was a Savi’s Warbler that sang most mornings from deep within a tamarisk bush just in front of our hotel, and which would creep into view every now and then.
Tour participants probably wondered why I became so excited by a chance encounter with a female Mallard and ducklings on a small pool near Kalloni, but Mallard is quite a scarce bird on Lesvos. I discovered later that this is the first confirmed breeding of the species on the island!
Driving the rough coastal track along the dramatic north coast of the island offers our best chance of seeing the graceful Audouin’s Gull, but they are by no means guaranteed. It was a delight therefore to pick up two adults at quite close range, drifting back and forth and allowing ideal comparison with the only other ‘large’ gull that occurs here, the much more numerous Yellow-legged Gulls. We also saw flocks of plunge-diving Yelkouan Shearwaters, much closer to shore than usual, and several ‘Scopoli’s Shearwaters’ the name given to the Mediterranean form of Cory’s Shearwater.
The barren west end of the island tends to be where the most dramatic falls of migrants occur, so I try to get there at least three times in our week. Here we were treated to telescope views of stunning Golden Orioles, a Wryneck (a new bird for the list) foraging on a recently ploughed field among dozens of Yellow Wagtails, a gathering of 34 Lesser Kestrels, most of sitting in a single tree, and a male Nightjar, another species we have not recorded on any previous trip.
No trip to Lesvos would be complete without an observation of one of the most colourful spring migrants that arrives in good numbers at this time of year, the European Bee-eater. Like last year, however, Bee-eaters were unusually late, with virtually none reported during our week. It wasn’t until the morning of our fifth day that an excited cry from Hinke, who was sitting behind me, alerted us to the fact that I had just driven past a BEE-EATER! Fortunately it remained on its perch as I slowly reversed and we were able to watch it from just 10m away. It was the only one we saw and represented a perfect example of the collective benefit of birding as a small group.
- Killian Mullarney
Updated: January 2012