8 Little Bitterns, 2 Thrush Nightingales, 6 Red-backed Shrikes in adjacent fields

Just 21 Ruff, 2 Wood Sandpiper, 1 Grey Plover, 1 Greenshank, 2 Black-winged stilt, 2 Shelduck

Flock of 26 Black-headed buntings and 30 flava wags (feldegg) on newly mowed meadow

5 Mute Swan, 1 Great White Egret, 35 Ruff, 4 Wood Sandpiper, 12 Little Stints

Kruper’s Nuthatch young have fledged and are hyperactive

The news from the "birdwatching circles" this season is, that various "issues" have influenced many stalwart birdwatchers (who have been using Skala Kallonis as their base year after year) to consider changing their base for birdwatching in future seasons.

Birds of prey are predominantly diurnal migrants. In order to save energy during migration, the broad winged species: buzzards, honey buzzards, eagles, hawks and harriers try where possible to soar, utilising favourable head winds and exploiting thermals that rise from the land.

In consequence migration starts typically fairly late in the day and birds as far as possible avoid long sea crossings where soaring conditions cannot be found. The major routes by which they move between Europe and Africa are well known, with Gibraltar and the Vosphorus being the most watched and understood short sea crossings. Lesvos is not on these favoured routes and one might therefore not expect to see visible raptor migration in Lesvos except when weather conditions cause birds to drift off course.

This `standard’ story needs however modifying in several respects. First it does not apply to the falcons, which are less dependent on soaring in thermals and can undertake long sea crossings. Falcons certainly migrate through Lesvos. The spring migration of red-footed falcons is well known and attracts many bird-watchers.

On 29^th September 1983 I was attending an environmental economics conference on the Chalkidiki. Finding myself with some spare time I went to Agia Kanastraeon, the southerly tip of the most westerly of the three arms of the Chalkidiki to look for falcon migration. In two hours I saw over 100 hobbies, 2 peregrines, 3 lesser and 10 common kestrels all heading ESE out to sea against a light southerly wind. But I also saw 30 common buzzards, 5 honey buzzards, 1 black kite, 4 sparrowhawks, 3 goshawks and a ring-tailed harrier go the same way. Thus the second qualification is that, while it may be true that the majority of broad winged raptors avoid the longer sea crossings, by no means all do.

Apart from the tiny island of Agios Efstratios, which may provide some interim soaring opportunities, the first landfall of birds of prey flying ESE from Agia Kanastraeon is the area of Sigri and Faneromeni on Lesvos. My observations show that Lesvos is on a migration route for birds of prey. The most obvious evidence of this to the casual observer is the numbers of harriers and falcons and occasionally other species that can be seen in the evening in spring at favoured feeding and roosting points.

The best are the open fields of Faneromeni and those between the Skala Polynichtou saltworks and Skamnioudi. The marshes between the Kalloni salt works and the Krioneri are another area although its large size means that birds are more scattered and difficult to count. In spring the point of arrival is the Cape of Agios Fokas, the nearest point to Chios, which can be clearly seen in good visibility and the point of departure is NE of Faneromeni, probably between Agia Petimos and Agia Ploridi.

In the autumn the route is reversed with arrival at NE of Faneromeni and departure at Agios Fokas. Whether birds normally go to or from Chalkidiki or the much closer Turkish mainland is not known. From limited observations the phenomenon of evening feeding in the fields does not seem to occur in the autumn.