I had about eight or so target species for this trip to the Greek island of Lesvos, plus the hope of seeing a few eastern migrants. Unfortunately, the scarce migrants were not that forthcoming but I did manage to pick up the birds I was after with eight new Western Palearctic ticks.
My own personal highlights of the tour included Krüper's Nuthatch in the Achladeri pine forests:
Cinereous Bunting at Ipsilou Monestary:
Both Yelkouan and Scopoli's Shearwater's offshore, Olive-tree Warblers in full song in territory in the Napi Valley alongside some breeding Sombre Tits and several Western Rock Nuthatches across various sites in the north-west of the island.
Finally, a superb male Eastern Rufous Bush Robin which was holding territory:
We also managed to pick up a great supporting cast of birds, with great views of just about everything we saw. Birds such as Little Crake at Metochi Lake and Red-footed Falcon near Sigri were good finds, and breeding birds like Cretzschmar's Bunting, Rüppell's Warbler, Black-headed Bunting, and Rock Sparrow were a delight.
We were lucky enough to see large numbers of Red-backed Shrikes, particularly around the area south of Sigri, and several Subalpine Warblers with this individual showing very well at Kavaki:
Little Bitterns (below) seemed to be everywhere, plus a number of other species which would light up any birders day.
Our total trip list was 148 species, not bad for a week on the island, and we missed a few birds too!
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