2023 Narrative
Looking back at previous Lesvos tour reports recently I was struck by the opening line of the very first tour I led to this wonderful Greek island, which took place in April 2000. It read “This is the first time Sunbird/Wings has run a tour to Lesvos, but if this year’s experience is anything to go by, it will not be the last”. I could never have guessed that 23 years later I would still find myself looking forward to visiting the island as much as, if not more, than I did then. Few places in Europe can rival the well-established reputation Lesvos has for delivering such a diverse range of exciting migrant birds in spring, as well as hosting a few very special breeding species, most of which are found in unspoiled and beautiful habitats. The appeal is further enhanced by the colour of the wild flora at its spring zenith. It is no wonder that so many birders from all over Europe (and increasingly from North America) are hooked on visiting the island every year for a ‘fix’ of spring birding at its best. The friendships that have developed between people who only ever meet on the island, and everyone’s willingness to share the news of their finds plays a large part in so many birders deciding to come back year after year.
With migration being such a big feature of the birding on Lesvos, predicting what we are likely to see, where it will be, and when to expect it is not always easy. While we can be reasonably confident of encountering most of the species on the cumulative list at some point, there are always a few that elude us and a few others that we see much fewer of than in previous years. However, this unpredictability works both ways and can make for very exciting birding, for example the discovery of a very viewable Jack Snipe at the Tsiknias River this spring…we might wait a long time for another one of those!
The location of our hotel at Skala Kalloni is close to a number of excellent birding spots so we were spoiled for choice when it came to the optional, short pre-breakfast excursions. Within 200m of the hotel we were able to scan the Christou River mouth and watch a couple of Stone Curlews (Eurasian Thick-knees) basking in the early morning sun, while flocks of migrant Wood Sandpipers, Ruffs (alas not yet showing the elaborate ruff of colourful feathers from which they get their name – they usually don’t acquire this until they are much closer to the breeding grounds) Pied Avocets, Black-winged Stilts and Kentish Plovers were scattered over the sparsely vegetated sandy flats.
A short distance in the other direction, a small section of the Tsiknias River became a ‘hotspot’ of bird activity this year and from the elevated position on either bank we were able to view Spotted Crake, Common Snipe, singing Reed Warblers, Glossy Ibis, Black-headed Wagtails as well as the aforementioned Jack Snipe, a scarce winter visitor that has very rarely been observed in spring, when there are many birders on the island. This was an ‘island tick’ for virtually everyone who saw it!
At Metochi, a small lake just ten minutes’ drive from the hotel, the warm sunlight on the Phragmites-fringed opposite bank helps draw some usually secretive birds into full view. Here we had telescope-filling views of handsome male and female Little Bitterns as they perched motionless just above the water surface waiting for unsuspecting small fish or amphibians to come within striking range. Little Grebes, Eurasian Coot, Common Moorhen and hulking Great Reed Warblers were generally in view the whole time, while a Little Crake was more inclined to play hide-and-seek, but it too was successfully ‘scoped’. Overhead, a couple of impressively large Short-toed Eagles began courtship display, in which the birds adopt a characteristic neck-outstretched posture while calling, but on this occasion their heart wasn’t in it and they drifted away slowly. Cetti’s Warblers frequently announced their presence with a distinctive loud song, but seeing them is not so easy. Their habit of flying off immediately after delivering the burst of song often has you scanning precisely the wrong spot; for good views, we had to try to locate them before they sing!
The actively worked salt-pans at Kalloni provide refuge and food for a lot of breeding and migrant waterbirds, the most obvious being the flocks of Greater Flamingos that are never too far away, their goose-like calls forming the baseline of the soundscape. At one point, a close flock of Flamingos took off and flew straight toward us for long enough to make me duck involuntarily! Noisy flocks of recently arrived Common and Little Terns were constantly circulating here, while a small flock of beautiful White-winged Terns came and went, driven by the migratory urge to reach freshwater marshes further north, where they breed. Most years we see quite large flocks of White-winged and Whiskered Terns, but this spring they were unusually scarce, though better numbers arrived a few days after the tour ended. We were able to watch Black Storks and White Storks side-by-side on the adjacent Alykes fields floodwater, a habitat they shared with flocks of exquisitely coloured Ruddy Shelducks, and Common Shelducks. With birds like Red-footed Falcons, European Bee-eaters and Red-rumped Swallows on view it was sometimes difficult to conclude the pre-breakfast excursions, but eventually, the prospect of creamy Greek yoghourt, local honey and coffee amongst other appetising breakfast provisions would prove to be irresistible!
After breakfast we would travel further afield, in search of the various island specialities and of course everywhere, there is the possibility of encountering interesting migrant birds. At the famous Ipsilou Monastery, a beautiful old building placed on top of one of the highest points in the west of the island, we watched subtly-marked Wood Warblers, Pied, Spotted and Collared Flycatchers, song-flighting Eastern Black-eared Wheatears, Blue Rock Thrush and Wood Nuthatch, while a flurry of breathtakingly bright Golden Orioles broke cover and dashed past us like daytime fireworks.
At Makara, where a small stream reaches the sea, we watched squadrons of huge Alpine Swifts come in over the sea from the large rock a kilometre offshore where they breed, as each in turn passed a centimetre above the surface and opened their huge mouth momentarily to take a gulp of fresh water. At the same place we enjoyed very close views of a pair of Little Ringed Plovers and a Common Sandpiper while a steady stream of Yelkouan Shearwaters passed a few hundred metres offshore.
Seeing Cinereous Bunting, one of the particular specialities of the island is usually a matter of listening for their distinctive song and then searching the tops of prominent rocks or small trees, their preferred song posts. At the close range we viewed them it was possible to appreciate the subtle beauty of their largely grey and lemon-yellow plumage.
On the Meladia track, which takes us through some of the most barren landscape on the island, we encountered bold-as-brass Little Owls that would win any staring match, small parties of Lesser Kestrels joining with the Yellow-legged Gulls foraging on the cricket-like invertebrates that can be abundant at this time of year, while brightly coloured Black-headed Buntings in song occurred every few hundred metres. This is where we watched a pair of Rock Sparrows feeding their young in a disused mud nest of a pair of Rock Nuthatches, who in turn had their own nest just a few metres away from their old one. The Eastern Olivaceous, Eastern Subalpine and Eastern Orphean Warblers that all occur here are a reminder of how many ‘splits’ have been adopted by taxonomic authorities in recent decades; definitely time to replace that old Peterson field guide with a more modern alternative!
The attractive patchwork of small farm allotments and extensive areas of ‘wild’ fallow land at Faneromeni, near Sigri, provides habitat for a wide range of migrants and breeding species. Here we had almost point-blank views of a hunting male Montagu’s Harrier, close looks at nervous Turtle Doves (will they go the same way as the Passenger Pigeon if the heart-breaking slaughter for ‘sport’ continues to be permitted by various European governments?) and our only Roller of the trip, a perched bird close to the minibus.
The April 2023 tour may not have recorded quite as many birds as in some other years, but it was nonetheless as enjoyable a tour as I can remember in over twenty years!
- Killian Mullarney
Updated: June 2023