)
For the fourth time I paid a visit to Lesvos, especially
to the area of Vatera, south Lesvos. After a winter visit
in early January 2003, followed by spring (April) 2003 and
spring 2004 (10 April – 2 May) this time a flight brought
me, late on April the 27th. until May the 9th early
morning, towards this great island. As usual I was staying
at Vatera (Madonna Studios), an excellent place to
discover the rich-on-nature south of Lesvos. The first day,
28th. taught me that Black-headed Bunting arrived already
and their amounts became only higher the next days. A walk
to the river Almiropotamos (west of Vatera) proved to hold
still a lot of water, which couldn’t be said from the rest
of the island. The next 2 weeks the river held Little
Bittern, Night Heron, Squacco Heron, Little Egret, Great
White Egret, Grey Heron, Purple Heron, Black Stork, Marsh
Harrier, Little Ringed Plover, Little Stint, Ruff,
Greenshank, Wood Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper. The news
goes that also Great Snipe was seen.
Also attention was paid to something else
like dragonflies, grasshoppers etc… during the extensive
walks.
Around Vatera, the usual birds were seen.
Just some to mention: Mediterranean Shearwater, on
Saturday the 30th. of April several hundreds as a gale
force 7 was blowing. Regular also in the sky were Common
Buzzard, Long-legged Buzzard, Peregrine and Booted Eagle.
Several observations of Red-footed Falcon (1, 4 and 4) and
Eleonora’s Falcon (always 1 bird) were made. East of
Vatera you can find the river Vourkou, a river this year
with almost no water in it. A walk in the riverbed
produced Little Bittern at 5m. (see top picture) and also
the Little and Squacco Egrets. During all these walks
birding proved to be very successful as you can take time
and spot birds, butterflies and dragonflies very close.
Having decided this year to explore on
foot this southern area, it gave me big satisfaction.
Walks and short car visits around Vatera (the area
Paleochori – Raxidi – Drota - Agiossos – Skala Vasilikon -
Skamnioudi – Alikoudi – Skala Polychnitos - Nifida)
brought Garganey, Lesser Kestrel, Goshawk, Black-winged
Stilt , Avocet, Kentish Plover, Mediterranean Gull, Yellow-legged
Gull, Common Tern, White-winged Black Tern (34 near
Alikoudi-pool), Cuckoo, Swift and Alpine Swift, Bee-eater
(51 on migration), Roller (2 near Ag. Fokas), Middle
Spotted Woodpecker, Sand Martin, Crag Martin, Swallow, Red-rumped
Swallow, House Martin, Tawny Pipit (4 near Nifida), Grey
Wagtail, Wren, Nightingale, Whin- and Stonechat, Black-eared
Wheatear, Blue Rock Thrush (breeding in Vatera), Cetti’s
Warbler, Reed and Great Red Warbler, Olivaceous, Sardinian
and Subalpine Warbler, Semi-collared Flycatcher (Raxidi),
Kruper’s Nuthatch (Agiassos), Red-backed and Woodchat
Shrike, Jay (var. atricapillus) , Raven (up to 16 nearby
Alikoudi), Hawfinch, Cirl, Cinereous and Cretzchmar’s
Bunting.
This holiday was - as said - to be a relax,
a walking one with some birding en-route but also an eye
for orchids. These proved to be very well: over 15 species
and taken the time to ‘digitalize’ them.
One day I went to the Kalloni
Saltpans [39°13’N,26°16’E) the south (so called dead-end
track). After a week of quite on-foot birding it’s amazing
to see how people are birding these days. Several birders
on foot had to step aside because other birders passed by
car. Knowing that this is a dead-end track …. Yes, you’re
right … again stepping aside!!
Anyway after 1 hour I got enough of this
‘behaviour’ and went off. The result was most amazing: 94
White-winged Black Terns, and most important 3 Greater
Flamingo’s with colour-rings and also 5 cars.
A quick review of these sightings (courtesy
: Christophe Germain, Flamingo Database Manager, Tour du
Valat, Arles, France ; Özge Balkiz, Doga Dernegi Flamingo
Researches Officer ; Paolo Dall'Antonia, Istituto
Nazionale per la Fauna Selvatica, Ozzano Emilia, Italia).
* Blue ring coded IZN : ringed on 02.07.2002 as a pullus
in Saline di Commacchio, Ferrara, Italy. * White ring
coded T|AHS : ringed on 17.08.2003 as a pullus in Çamalti
Tuzlasi, Gediz Deltasi, Izmir, Turkey. None of these
two birds have been seen elsewhere since the ringing. *
Yellow ring coded CSTJ : ringed on 30.07.97 as a pullus in
Etg. du Fangassier, Bouches-du-Rhone, France. This bird
has been seen several times. Beginning August 1998 she
spent in the Algarve, Portugal; June ’99 till November
2001 she stayed near Sevilla, Spain to make a visit on the
23.04.2002 to Malaga, Spain and come back to Sevilla in
June 2002. She paid a visit to the Huelva-area in October
2003 to go back to the breeding area in April 2004.
03.05.2005: a summer on Lesvos? Even more amazing was that
none of all the birders on this spot (also a good, well
known UK photographer) spotted these birds and have – of
course – no eye for in-deep birding.
After my fourth stay on Lesvos, Vatera
this personal reflection. Birding is supposed to be a
relaxing hobby, a way to escape the daily stress from the
today world and this in a calm environment. You can do
this in Vatera. But what happens? Instead, birding in
Lesvos seems to reflect our modern world … driving around
from bird to bird. Personally I prefer less species, but
coming back home in an unstressed state and pick up my
website European colour-ring Birding (
