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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Selsey Birder" data-source="post: 1489779" data-attributes="member: 42221">Well everyone here is another update, i shall now start to post some of the photos over the next couple of daysMay 7thSo it was back to a 5.30am start as we headed firstly for Kalloni Pool, well at least i did not need to change the setting on my alarm! We were really just stopping here on our way to Metochi Lake, but managed to add a bird to the holiday list with a beautiful male Garganey sat in the small amount of water that is now visible here, as with our previous visit there was also a Squacco Heron and the nesting pair of Black-winged Stilts. We had been told that crakes had been seen here early morning, but nothing was on show, so off to the Inland Lake.Now again we had heard reports of Baillon’s Crake being seen here intermittently, but again we drew a blank. We did find a male Little Crake this time and 10 Little Bitterns, together with a very obliging Great Reed Warbler. We stayed for about 45 minutes, but with 8.30am approaching we decided to return to Skala Kalloni for the same breakfast as Monday (and it tasted just as good). We were now heading into the Napi Valley after Steve Dudley gave us directions for the Olive-tree Warbler. Ads had been there the previous day and had fleeting views, for the rest of us we knew this could be a long wait. We decided to drive there via the Lower East River and that decision was quickly vindicated, we accessed the river from the seaward end and immediately spotted a few feeding terns, amongst which was a Gull-billed Tern. We drove along the bank slowly until we reached the ford, where we again stopped. There was a pair of Little Ringed Plover and a Wood Sandpiper feeding in the shallow river and the Little Owl was again sat on the opposite telegraph pole. We quickly found a Bee-eater flying overhead and then a Marsh Warbler singing in the bottom of a flowering bush. We drove slowly along the bank towards the main road, finding a Masked Shrike in the small orchard.Now we set off through the villages to reach the upper Napi Valley and an olive grove almost beneath the radio mast, parking in a convenient pull-off about 100 yards beyond the site. As we drove past we saw three birders already looking down into the trees. We strolled down the road from the cars (it was already hot and it was about 9.45am) and to our horror realised that the three individuals who were stood by the crash barrier were the remnants of a French group of birders, the remainder were in the olive groves! Now the stupidity of this is hard to explain, especially as my French did not contain sufficient expletives to detail my thoughts. The remainder of the group wandered around, clearly looking for the warbler, for the next 30 minutes whilst all we heard were a couple of short bursts of song. What was even more galling, i had let the leader of these idiots look in my telescope the previous Monday to see a Little Crake!Well, whilst we had no chance of finding the warbler we made good use of our time locating Woodchat Shrike, Sombre Tit and a pair of Long-legged Buzzards meanwhile Paul verified his status as our Hoopoe man by locating another distant bird, if only that was his speciality at home imagine how popular he would be (in the UK it is Stock Doves, as he demonstrated at the weekend whilst watching the Black-winged Pratincole!). Once the French had decided to leave the olive grove, miracle of miracles, the bird started to sing. Now for those of you who have never searched for this large warbler, despite its size, it is one hell of an elusive bird. It was calling almost continuously, but from different locations and it was moving without being seen. However, we had been told that with patience this bird would show itself at the top of the oak trees which ran along the back of the field. After 75 minutes of waiting, and many people have to wait a lot longer, the bird appeared on top of the oak trees on the left of the field. It became quite showy now and over the next thirty minutes it appeared fairly regularly on and off, on one occasion however it showed whilst calling from a different location. As we had suspected earlier there were clearly two Olive-tree Warblers in the field. That was my fifth lifer of the trip and there was still one more to come later in the day.We now headed back out of the valley and returned to the Kalloni Salt Pans, as we descended from the valley we realised that this visit was going to be a little different since the Greek Army were practising their parachuting into the marsh. Now my initial trepidation as to bird disturbance was outweighed by the entertainment value. We watched as two soldiers nearly came to blows after colliding just above the ground and then, they were jumping in groups of 7 or 8, i looked up to see three small packages falling during one jump. Closer inspection demonstrated that these small packages were actually three of the soldiers’ helmets which clearly were not securely attached to their heads when they jumped!New birds were naturally becoming more difficult to locate, but Ads located 2 Mediterranean Gulls as they flew distantly over the pans and a White Stork flew along the entrance drive. I really was surprised at the paucity of sightings of this spectacular bird, we certainly saw more Black Storks every day, and again there were five here today around the pools. Confession time here, as we approached the sheep field a sandy coloured bird flew onto the path, near to where we had seen the Tawny Pipit on Sunday – yes i made the mistake, opened mouth before checking everything – it was actually a Short-toed Lark and Paul’s run to get there was a waste of time. Well at least it was better than the call 5 minutes later when somebody identified a Black Stork as a Marsh Harrier.Wader numbers were definitely up on the pool here, if not the diversity, there were in excess of 80 Little Stints, but not a single Temminck’s amongst them, Ads had managed to see one the previous evening on the Lower East River. There was also 14 Kentish Plover here and what was that sat at the back of the pool, time to redeem myself, a pair of Collared Pratincole clearly identifiable despite the awful heat haze as it was now just after midday and as mentioned earlier it was very warm. When the birds were flushed ten minutes later it transpired there were actually three birds there, the other bird must have been hidden somewhere. Our attention was now drawn to a distant Cormorant (my 140th bird of the trip and i must say more than i expected to see) and a selection of different races of Yellow Wagtail (mainly blue-headed on this occasion) which were flitting around the grass and small pools. Then another addition to the trip list appeared, flying and calling along the beach, a pair of Stone Curlew that presumably somebody had disturbed on the beach.The time was now 1pm and with the whole afternoon still before us we decided to drive up to the bandstand and spend some time raptor watching, we did stop at the mini soccer pitch, but the actions of the photographers had definitely done their damage, there was no sign of the Scops Owl. Oh and before my friends accuse me of ignoring my own stupidity, on the way up the mountain to the bandstand, whilst trying to get a view of a distant raptor, I stuck my head out of the window and then realised that baseball caps don’t stay on in those circumstances! A brief halt whilst I ran back to retrieve the said headwear and allegedly provided a good impersonation of Forest Gump (i am still talking to the other car occupants, but I am definitely waiting for my chance to retaliate).We arrived at the Bandstand at 1.30pm to discover that nobody else was there, not really that surprising since Thursday is the major changeover day in Lesvos. This is one of the best spots on the island to raptor watch and you have an excellent field of view, a little patience will nearly always produce something of interest. The three hours we spent there that afternoon (sheltering from the heat under the bandstand on occasions) produced the following raptors; 2 Peregrine Falcons, 6 Short-toed Eagles, 6 Eleonora’s Falcons, Common Buzzard, 3 Long-legged Buzzards, a female Goshawk, a female Sparrowhawk and the bird that appeared at 2.20pm from the North East of the Island.It was Paul that found the bird as it appeared over the hills, on its own and fairly high up so with nothing else to compare size. However, amid a lot of language which will not make its way into this report, it was immediately evident that it was huge and clearly one of the Aquilla Eagles, the problem was which one? As the bird came closer more and more detail became apparent as everybody got the bird in their telescope and started to shout out identification details, the initial (incorrect) prognosis was Lesser Spotted Eagle (possibly because we all knew it was the most common). Here it must be said that the importance of writing down what you see and better still having a reference book with you, despite any level of experience you may have, is paramount. Sam had his “Collins” with him and over about 5 minutes it became apparent that the bird was a sub-adult Imperial Eagle. An immediate text was sent to Steve Dudley, who advised me in his response that he had seen a sub-adult of this species fly in off the sea on the north coast of the island the previous week, i must say that made us feel a whole lot better and seemed to validate our identification.Incredibly fifty minutes later at 3.10pm, amid another torrent of invective, Sam found the same bird approaching us again slightly lower from the North East of the island again. On this occasion the bird was flying with a Short-toed Eagle above it and a Long-legged Buzzard below allowing us to get a great comparison of size. The Imperial Eagle truly was huge and this time it drifted directly over our heads, despite the fact it came from the same direction, this was definitely the same bird as we had seen 50 minutes earlier (or there were 2 sub-adults on the island). Steve Dudley then arrived, having seen his last tour party off the island that morning, and we spent a happy half hour exchanging stories and discussing the benefits of the excellent Island of Lesvos.When it became apparent that we were heading back north he enquired if we would be visiting Kavaki, which was actually our next destination. He had received reports the previous evening of a possible Pied Wheatear on the headland that could be reached from the second lay-by and enquired if we would mind checking this to ascertain if the bird was still present. Sam dropped Alan and Yvette at the apartments as they were now tired and we all met up at the lay-by at 5pm. I have already mentioned the heat and Sam came up trumps when climbing out of his car he held 4 cold bottles of drink obtained from a small shop in Petra en route.We made our way carefully out to the headland, being extremely careful not to disturb any breeding birds and consequently walking a very circuitous route to reach the location where the wheatear had been seen. We saw a male Red-backed Shrike on the way out there, then amongst a clattering of wings a pair of Chukar exploded from the undergrowth. For Ads and Paul this was another lifer and a bird that had looked like eluding us all week. It was certainly ironic that we found this pair purely whilst checking out a report of a different bird. What about the Wheatear i hear you ask? Well we could not find it, we did find a female Black-eared Wheatear with an all dark (brown) back, but i have no idea whether this was the bird that had been reported from there the previous day. Whilst searching for a Masked Shrike seen flying into a bush on the way back to the car, Paul stumbled across a Lesser Whitethroat.We again visited the Petra Reservoir, with nothing seen that we had not already seen there earlier in the week (5 Alpine Swift and a single Pallid Swift were there) and then returned to the first lay-by at Kavaki where a Lesser Kestrel cruised along the cliff edge. The final day total was 96 species which we considered to be quite good considering the time spent waiting for the French to leave the olive grove and the bandstand vigil.So just one whole day left on this beautiful island</blockquote>

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