Your Lesvos bird records (1 Viewer)

Nikos Probonas (Hellenic Rarities Committee) and I would like to encourage all those who visited Lesvos this year to report their more important bird records, including –

Greek national rarities
Scarce passage and breeding migrants
Out of range (for the island) breeding/territory records
Any confirmed breeding records (all species)

Greek national rarities
The Hellenic Rarities Committee have asked me to request on their behalf, descriptions of Greek national rarities reported from Lesvos this spring. All sightings of the following species (known to be reported this spring) -

Cattle Egret
Imperial Eagle
Black-winged Pratincole
Blue-cheeked Bee-eater (lots of them!)
Scarlet (Common) Rosefinch

Plus any other species listed by HRC in their previous reports (see here).

Please report your records to HRC here.

Scarce passage and breeding migrants
In addition, I am collating records of scarcer migrants. Please supply details of the following species in particular (also any species down as scarce passage migrant (sPM) or scarce migrant breeder (sMB) on the list here) –

Great Bittern
Little Bittern
Night-heron
Purple Heron
Glossy Ibis
Black Kite
All vultures
All eagles apart from Short-toed Eagle (Imperial Eagle records to HRC as above)
Pallid Harrier
Montagu's Harrier
Hen Harrier
Levant Sparrowhawk
Honey-buzzard
Lanner
Eleanora's Falcon
All crakes
Collared Pratincole
Spur-winged Plover
Great Snipe
Great Spotted Cuckoo
Roller
Wryneck
Citrine Wagtail
Rufous Bush Chat
Thrush Nightingale
(Rufous-tailed) Rock Thrush
River Warbler
Savi’s Warbler
Marsh Warbler
Olive Tree Warbler (away from known breeding sites)
Barred Warbler
Sardinian Warbler
Eastern Bonelli’s Warbler (away from known breeding sites)
Red-breasted Flycatcher
Semi-collared Flycatcher
Collared Flycatcher
Penduline Tit
Lesser Grey Shrike

Please submit these records (species, number, date, location, observer, notes) either direct to me at (steve at toadsnatcher dot com) or via OrnithoTopos.

Out of range breeding/territory records (e.g. Cinereous Bunting) or confirmed breeding records (e.g. feeding young, fledged young, etc) of any species, can be submitted via OrnithoTopos or sent to me direct at (steve at toadsnatcher dot com) .

Many thanks in advance.

Hi Steve, I really can't understand how a Cattle Egret could be on the Greek national rarities list as there are hundreds of them here on Kos!
Also some of the birds on the scarce migrant list are incredibly common including Roller, Glossy Ibis, Eleanora's Falcon and Sardinian Warbler (which is not really a migrant as they are here all year round).
Are these species I mentioned not commonly seen on Lesvos?
I have seen about half of the birds on the scarce migrant list so far this year, tho they are admittedly the least interesting species on the list :-(
Keep up the good work and I really enjoy reading your updates of the birds spotted on Lesvos.

Thanks,
Stu

Hi Stu

I dont prepare the list of national rarities, HRC do. Cattle Egret is due to come off after this year I think. I've been working with HRC this spring to work out what species need reporting so I'm just following their request.

The species listed as scarce migrants are simply at a Lesvos level. There is no formal recording for Lesvos and HRC and myself are simply trying to encourage record submission of more interesting species, scarce passage, scarce migrant breeders and any breeding records of commoner species. The hope is to try and establish an annual report for Lesvos summarising records. The more records we get the more complete this will be. Whatever summary we manage to put together will be online and I'll announce it as and when.

Lesvos is unique in its coverage each spring and presents us with recording issues which we need to resolve. The reprting and recording of these species will help us better understand individual species status on the island.

Hi Steve,
There is a real shortage of information in on birding in Greece so let me say again that I think the work you are doing is fantastic.
I am aware that different islands have different birdlife as I lived on Kalymnos, which is only a 45 minute boat trip from Kos, and there are no Jackdaws or swifts to be found there! Both species are found in great numbers here on Kos and I imagine it is because of the difference in terrain, (Kos is mainly fields, orchards and hills whereas Kalymnos is just mountains).
Lesvos is a much larger island and from what I can remember has many different habitats, I guess this is what makes it the birders' paradise it is!
I was just surprised before that many common species that are found here are on the scarce migrants list (for Lesvos as you clarified).

Best wishes,
Stu

Thanks Stu. It's taken me a few years to get round to doing something to help better record the birdlife on Lesvos. It aint easy when you dont live in the place you're tyring to promote! Its interesting to red Brook's book and the status of each species he put to together on very little info. Things have changed and continue to change and unless we document this we wont actually understand the true status of many species, including common ones, on Lesvos. Its easier to do for Lesvos of course cos of the coverage it gets in spring, but visiting birds are biased in what they report (passage birds and the rarer breeding species) which will still leave gaps.

I havent visited any of the other islands, but talking to many that have, none of the other Aegean islands has the mix of habitats that make Lesvos a birding mecca. Other islands often have a couple of interesting species, but none compete with Lesvos on breeding species or passage.