Lesvos day Two 20/04/26

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A lovely day with unbroken sunshine and light winds.

The birding began on the beach in Kalloni Bay with several Black-necked Grebes offshore plus a single Great Crested Grebe.

Then to the mudflats opposite the Aegian hotel, which held up to 15 Gull-billed Terns, a Whiskered Tern, Glossy Ibis, a couple of Little Ringed Plover and numerous Kentish Plovers. A distant Long-legged Buzzard sat atop a telegraph pole.

Red-throated Pipits were heard and five sat on telephone wires though were backlit by the sun so their detail was less than ideal.

Then to the Kalloni Saltpans with extraordinary numbers of birds on the adjacent freshwater marsh. An Eurasian Bittern, at minimum of five Purple Herons, three Squacco Herons, three Black Storks, two Dalmatian Pelicans, and two Collared Pratincoles were among the birds present.

The saltpans had three first-summer Little Gulls, three Slender-billed Gulls, and a Marsh Sandpiper, together with many other birds. Two Whinchat sat on a wire fench.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped off to admire a Scops Owl at the traditional site known as the mini-soccer pitch.

Little Ringed Plover and Crested Lark

Little Ringed Plover

Gull-billed Tern

Red-throated Pipits 

Yellow Wagtail 

Eurasian Bittern 

Purple Heron 

Male Whinchat 

An impressively large Orthopteran

Beach Poppy 



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