LUNCHTIME ARRIVAL AT MYTILINE AIRPORT – TRANSFER TO SKALA KALLONI WITH STOPS AT MESA – KALLONI SALT PANS - ALYKES WETLAND
WEATHER: terrific all day, cloudless sunny sky, with light breeze. 25C
We couldn’t have asked for better weather for our first day on this idyllic Aegean Island. I arrived at 7:30am and picked up the bus in preparation for the arrival of the group at 12:45. I took the opportunity to check out the local Ruppell’s Warbler site and got very lucky with a nice male singing to me. Other birds seen were Cretzschmar’s Bunting, Woodchat Shrike, Whinchat, Sardinian Warbler, Eastern Orphean Warbler (heard), a nicely perched Short-toed Eagle and a flyover Raven. At Chamida a little further down the road, I saw both Grey and Purple Herons, Coot, Little Grebe and I heard Reed Warblers singing.
Cretzschmar's Bunting
this bird was quite distant - Ruppell's Warbler
I collected my group of four a little earlier than expected because the flight was early. We loaded onto the minibus and set off for Skala Kallonis. We saw hooded Crow, Barn Swallow and Yellow-legged Gulls on the way into Mytiline Town.
Our first stop was at the open marshland near Mesa called Kerami Marsh. It was a little quiet there, we clocked up; Squacco Heron, Grey Heron, Purple Heron, Glossy Ibis, Yellow Wagtail (Feldegg) , Corn Bunting, Zitting Cisticola and a couple of superb male Whinchats with one female.
some of the group on the Kerami Track at Mesa
We arrived at the Kalloni Salt pans, we took the west track from the main road. Parking a few meters along the track we got out to scan ‘Stilt Corner’. We found three Temminck’s Stints with about 30 Wood Sandpipers, three Common Sandpipers and a bunch of Black-winged Stilts. Scanning the nearest salt pans we listed dozens of Greater Flamingos, Pied Avocets, some distant Little Terns and a few Ruff.
It was the Alykes Wetlands that was full birds, hundreds of them we soon listed quite a good number. A flock of 20+ White-winged Terns were dashing about, a single Whiskered Tern too. The seasonal pools were full of Wood Sandpipers, Ruff, Little and great egrets, 50+ Glossy Ibis, Black Storks (2), Grey Herons, Purple Heron, Squacco Heron, we found a male Garganey, two Ruddy Shelducks, lots of Yellow Wagtails, Red-throated Pipits and Corn Buntings.
Red-throated Pipit
A female Marsh Harrier circled in the distance and another Black Stork dropped in. A large group of birders were watching a Great Bittern, so we joined them and filled our boots, what a cracker, (apparently later on a second bird was discovered).
Eurasian or Great Bittern - not a common sighting on Lesvos
My group were getting fatigued, it had been a long day, so we packed up and drove to our hotel in Skala Kalloni. The usual Common Nightingale was singing in the gardens and a Savi’s Warbler was reeling from the Kalloni Marsh just outside the hotel gates.