Another spring with Ashley and Wendy and their group from the UK! Many photographers in the team this time.
Here are some record photos of mine from a week’s birding with them:
End of April, full days of birding
9,10,11 May, half-day birding
David has been to Lesvos in Spring for many years now. This was our second year out together. We spent two days in the west and one around the Kalloni Gulf.
I had the most impressive sighting of tens of Black-headed Buntings (Emberiza melanocephala) in a single flock out in the west:
Here are some more of the photos I managed to take:
Lesser Grey Shrike (Lanius minor)- one of the 4 species of shirkes we had!
Roller (Coracias garrulus)
Turtle Dove (Streptopelia turtur)
Bee-eater (Merops apiaster)
Ruddy Shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea) ducklings
Red-breasted Flycatcher (Ficedula parva)
Our black-capped Jay (Garrulus glandarius atricapillus)
Some poppies still in blossom (Papaver rhoeas)
13 & 14 May, full-day birding
Rock Sparrow (Petronia petronia)
I had two days of birding with Janet from the USA. We enjoyed finding together Squacco Heron, White and Black Stork, Pied Avocet, Black-winged Stilt, White-winged Tern, Bee-eater, Laughing Dove, Yellow Wagtail, Sardinian Warbler, Black-eared Wheatear, Kruper’s Nuthatch, Black-headed, Cretzschmar’s and Cinereous Bunting, Short-eared Owl, Short-toed Eagle and many more. Birdwatching was our main goal, so I only have a few good photos from the trips worth posting here.
Scops Owl (Otus scops)
May 7, full-day
We had a full day around the whole of the island with Paul. P from Canada, that wanted to make the best of his single day birding on the island.
Here are some record shots from our birding:
Sombre Tit (Poecile lugubris)
Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus)
Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)
Squacco Heron (Ardeola ralloides)
Little Owl (Athene noctua)
Cinereous Bunting, female (Emberiza cineracea)
White Stork (Ciconia ciconia)
Also had Kruper’s Nuthatch, Cretzschmar’s Bunting, Laughing Dove, Scops Owl, Masked Shrike, Black Stork and many more!!
May 18th, full-day around Western Lesvos
Petra and her friend wanted to get some good photos of several target species during her week on Lesvos and used my help for one day. We had a very pleasant day out spotting and photographing the usual breeders around Sigri (Cinereous and Cretzschmar’s Buntings, Sub-alpine Warbler, Rock Nuthatch, Rufous Bush Robin, Eastern Orphean Warbler etc) and discovering so many more migrants (shrikes, Rose-coloured Starlings etc).
May 12th, full-day all over the island!
Gary E. and Austin M. were excellent birders and good friends for years and the day was really enjoyable! We started very early from the central parts of the island for the Kruper’s Nuthatch and then headed West for the other island’s specialties.
You can find out more (species and photos) at Austin’s blog:
http://austinmorley.blogspot.com/p/lesvos-greese-2019.html
May 8th, half-day around Central Lesvos
Mark B. has been on the island for a few days already and had a few more species that he needed on his Lesvos list. So we were out early in the morning to find Rock Nuthatch, Cretzschmar’s Bunting and the Ruppell’s Warbler and had successfully found them by 11:00.
May 4th, half-day around Eressos
Our meeting point was Eressos village and Don M. and I had only a few morning hours available for our birding. Nevertheless, we had a great birding morning!
The great views of nest providing and singing Cinereous and Cretzschmar’s Bunting and Rock Nuthatch would be just enough for us but we got even more: a female Orphean Warbler providing its 3 recently fledged chicks, Black-headed Bunting, Bee-eaters, Eleonora’s Falcon, Crag Martin, Ruddy Shelduck, Long-legged Buzzard!
May 2nd, half-day around Western Lesvos
A lovely day in the West with Yon and Chara H. from Holland. A slow but very productive birding mostly by walking around Sigri and Eressos villages. Interesting birds we had together were: Cinereous, Cretzschmar’s and Black-headed Bunting, Isabelline and Black-eared Wheatears, Rock Sparrow, Bee-eaters at a nesting site, Golden Orioles (more than 25!), Masked and Woodchat Shrikes, Lesser Kestrel, etc.
Beginning of May, half-day trip around Central Lesvos
A fine half-day trip around Agia Paraskevi, with Rex and Hanneke, walking among pasture land and olive-groves. Here are the high-lights: a pair of ROCK NUTHATCHES providing to their nest, MASKED SHRIKES, Red-backed and Woodchat Shrikes, Turtle Doves, SOMBRE TITS, Little Owl, Peregrine Falcon, LONG-LEGGED BUZZARDS, a SHORT-TOED EAGLE resting on a small tree (!), Bee-eaters, several HOOPOES, Middle Spotted Woodpecker etc. Oh, and Persian Scuirrels!
