Day 1: The tour begins this evening at Mytilene airport on the island of Lesvos. Night at Skala Kalloni.

Days 2-8: Since we are located at the same hotel for the whole week, each day’s itinerary will be flexible and the pace relaxed.  We can expect to see about 140 species of bird and most of them very well, and for those who wish, there will be plenty of informal guidance on improving identification skills.

Our ideal location also gives us great scope for optional pre-breakfast birding as the extensive Kalloni salt pans are just a short drive away. These are alive with birds and we are bound to return here on numerous occasions. At this time of year Black-winged Stilt, Avocet, Wood Sandpiper, Little Stint and Ruff are the predominate waders, but Curlew Sandpiper, Temminck’s Stint, Stone-curlew, Collared Pratincole and Marsh Sandpiper all occur, and Spur-winged Plover is a possibility. The salt pans are ideal as well for groups of feeding Greater Flamingos, and Slender-billed or Mediterranean Gulls can drop in at any time, as can Whiskered or White-winged Black Terns, often in impressive numbers. Any flooded grassland is likely to attract squadrons of Glossy Ibis while overhead both Black and White Storks are usually present in good numbers. Nearby, the cultivated fields and rough pastures adjacent to these pans are excellent places for migrant Red-footed Falcons and we can expect to see small gatherings of these attractive birds perched on the telegraph wires. The early morning can be an especially good time for observing newly arrived migrants and on the best days the bushes in this area can almost be jumping with warblers, chats, and shrikes.  

After breakfast each day we’ll travel further afield to one or more of the island’s particular birding localities, few of which are more than an hour’s drive away. Most days we’ll take a delicious packed lunch of local produce – there is no shortage of shady spots to have a picnic. On one or two days, especially if it is very warm, we may return to the hotel in the afternoon and, after a break, go back out for more local birding before dinner.

During the course of the week we’ll undoubtedly make several visits to the Tsiknias River, only a few minutes’ drive from the hotel but one of the best birding spots on the island. The elevated tracks that run alongside the river on both sides provide an excellent vantage from which to view the abundant birdlife. Squacco Herons, Little Bitterns, Purple Herons and Little Crakes lurk in the thickly vegetated margins, while dazzling Yellow Wagtails of various races feed along the water’s edge. The bushes surrounding the scented wild-flower meadows on either side are liberally scattered with Woodchat Shrikes, Whinchats and other migrants, while the background sounds are dominated by the ‘fuzzling’ song of numerous Corn Buntings.

When we feel like a complete change of scenery we can visit the shady pine forests around Achlederi, a stronghold for one of the island’s specialties, the handsome Krüper’s Nuthatch.  This can be a difficult bird to locate but we should find plenty to interest us while we search, including Short-toed Treecreeper, Masked Shrike, Subalpine Warbler, Serin and the distinctive local race of Long-tailed Tit.  And when we visit the western end of the island around Eressos and Sigri we’ll notice that the habitat is distinctly more barren, but no less beautiful and every bit as exciting for birds. This is good wheatear country with Black-eared Wheatear being abundant, and a few pairs of the more discreetly plumaged Isabelline Wheatears here and there. Rock Nuthatches, singing Woodlarks, pastel Cretzschmar’s Buntings, and Rock Sparrows provide added interest while we look for that other island specialty, Cinereous Bunting. This handsome soft grey and yellow bunting is best located by its distinctive song echoing out across the hillsides. A narrow fertile strip just north of Sigri has proved to be an excellent migrant trap, and there is a good chance of finding some of the scarcer species such as Roller and Collared Flycatcher here.

The northern parts of the island around the picturesque towns of Petra and Molivos present yet another habitat and some interesting birds that we may not encounter elsewhere.  Here we’ll look for Rüppell’s Warbler, Blue Rock Thrush, and early-returning Eleonora’s Falcons.  We’ll keep a close eye on the gulls as we follow the coast east of Molivos as this is the best place on the island for seeing Audouin’s Gulls, as well as Yelkouan and Scopoli’s Shearwaters. And of course there will be chances to call in at the odd shaded taverna overlooking some quaint harbor bobbing with fishing boats for a cool drink or perhaps an ice cream.

Perhaps the most appealing aspect of birding on Lesvos is the volume of migration and the variety of species, which at its height is quite spectacular and all the more impressive for the splendid uncluttered surroundings.  Every spring produces its own mix of species and includes one or two unexpected rarities. Nights at Skala Kalloni.

Day 9: Early this morning we’ll transfer to the airport where the tour ends.

2024 Narrative

This year, I decided we should ‘hit the ground running’, so to speak. With the only reliable site on the island for the exquisite Rüppell’s Warbler nowadays being a short distance away from Mytelini Airport–and this being at the end of the island we have little reason to visit for any other birds–the scrub-covered hillside near Charamida was our first stop, just fifteen minutes after meeting outside the Arrivals hall! We didn’t have to wait very long in the warm evening sun for a male Rüppell’s Warbler to alight in full view at the top of a small pine tree and start singing. Having failed to see the species the previous year, this was as good a start as I had hoped for, and it was followed by an unexpected bonus: while scanning the habitat, and looking beyond the male Eastern Black-eared Wheatears that flitted from bush to bush, a fishing trawler came into view on the sea just below us, trailed by a cloud of gulls. It wasn’t until I took a look through the telescope that I noticed a good number of Scopoli’s Shearwaters mixed in with the Yellow-legged Gulls, the shearwaters staying close to the water surface, with some plunging below, in pursuit of whatever discards were being thrown their way. We don’t often see this species as clearly as this, as usually they are more distant, and greatly outnumbered by Yelkouan Shearwaters. We took a more scenic route back to our hotel that evening, making a stop along the way at the village of Loutra, where Palm Dove, a bird that is colonising the eastern Mediterranean, was recently discovered to be breeding. We had close views of three birds, including one sitting on a nest located just over the door of a small store, and a beautifully marked male in song. It probably won’t be long before this species becomes a common sight all over the island, but for now it is still considered very special.

Usually, our first full day is spent getting to know the birds that can be found close to where we are based, at Skala Kalloni, but the forecast of heavy rain throughout our first night, and the prospect of this rain bringing down a lot of migrants, determined that we would devote the main part of the day to the west of the island, where arrivals of migrants are often in far greater numbers than elsewhere. Beforehand, there was time for a pre-breakfast excursion to the Tsiknias river mouth and Kalloni salt pans where we encountered our first Purple Herons, a lively and typically vocal flock of Bee-eaters, a pair of Spur-winged Lapwings and a bedraggled male Red-footed Falcon that was sitting it out in the rain.

The wind and rain that persisted for the morning in the west of the island meant that we observed mostly from within the vehicle, but it was clear that a lot of birds had arrived in the bad weather. At Faneromeni, beautiful male Red-backed and Woodchat Shrikes, Collared Flycatchers, Hoopoes, flocks of Yellow Wagtails and a very close Montagu’s Harrier were among the highlights, but the best of the lot was a magnificent Roller that perched in full view on a thin fence-post, occasionally dropping to the ground for a morsel of prey, when its dazzling open-wing pattern was revealed.

In the course of two subsequent visits to the rugged west of the island we had excellent views of Cinereous Bunting, Rock Sparrow, Western Rock Nuthatch, Isabelline Wheatear, Crag Martin and Little Owl, as well as many common species.

Closer to our base at Kalloni, the salt-pans and surrounding fields hosted a great variety of birds, including numerous Pied Avocets, Black-winged Stilts, Little Terns, Greater Flamingoes, Dalmatian Pelican, Marsh and Montagu’s Harriers, Red-throated Pipits, Short-toed Larks, Tawny Pipits, Ruddy Shelducks, Glossy Ibis and both White and Black Storks. A mobile flock of about 50 Collared Pratincoles gave us a bit of a run-around, but we eventually located them roosting in the middle of the saltpans.

On our way to explore the north part of the island we stopped at a small stand of mature eucalyptus trees which is a known roost site for the delightful Scops Owl, a bird we can hear calling at night from our hotel rooms, but which is not so easy to see by day. Despite the eucalyptus being a non-native tree, the owls seem to have some sense of how their vermiculated plumage affords them perfect camouflage against the accumulations of old, dead leaves and tangled growth where they choose to roost. It can take time to locate one, but on this occasion we were lucky to spot one almost immediately upon arrival, and could view every detail through the telescope.  At Kavaki, the site where we used to see Rüppell’s Warbler up until last year, we had excellent views of a pair of Blue Rock Thrushes, as well as adult and a one-year old Peregrine Falcons. We

familiarised ourselves with the salient identification features of the passing Yellow-legged Gulls, in case an Audouin’s Gull might come into view, but none came by on this occasion.

A little easy walking along sections of the beautiful ‘Napi Valley’ gave us a chance to use our ears as much as our eyes; the quiet, purring song of Turtle Doves, fluty whistles of Golden Orioles, hooting Hoopoes and chattering Masked and Woodchat Shrikes all blended with the gentle chiming of numerous sheep-bells to create an extraordinarily evocative soundscape. Here, we found the first singing Olive Tree Warbler of the season, and, unusually for this notoriously elusive species, it sat in full view on its preferred song perch for several minutes.

Every spring trip here is a little different, each with one or two unexpected surprises, but also one or two species that, lest we take them for granted, don’t show up. Perhaps it is the sheer unpredictability that makes the birding on Lesvos so exciting, and this is why so many people return year, after year after year; you just can’t beat it!

- Killian Mullarney

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