TSIKNIAS RIVER AND FORD - KALLONI SALT PANS - ALYKES WETLANDS AND SHEEP FIELD - CHRISTOS RIVER AND MARSHLAND - TSIKNIAS RIVER AND FORD
WEATHER: overcast for most of the day with some sunny spells - Temp 12-20C
The first full day of any trip you make to Lesvs is always exciting, packed with a huge variety of sightings and usually includes some very special birds. Today was no exception, it was terrific from the minute we left the hotel ay 6am.
It was still quite dark at 6am so we birded from the car park and found Olivaceous Warbler, whilst Common Nightingales, Reed and Cetti's Warblers all sang to us. We found a Common Tree Frog in the Giant Fennel plants too! The short drive to the Tsiknias River was made within a few minutes, we crossed the ford and jumped off the bus on the high bank of the river.
Crested Lark - only marginally nicer than a Corn Bunting!
Within minutes we had amassed a nice list: the ubiquitous Wood Sandpiper was first on the list, followed by Reed and Sedge Warblers, Black-headed Bunting, Black-headed Yellow Wagtail, Common Snipe and a nice, But distant Spotted Crake. A large group of birders assembled on the other side of the river they were searching for the Bailon's Crake that had been seen recently, we planned to join them later.
Temminck's Stint behind the, very common, Wood Sandpiper
Purple Herons flew over, as did Red-footed Falcon, Black Stork, Grey Herons and a Common Kestrel. After joining the other birders we found out that we had missed a couple of Little Crakes and a second Spotted Crake, the Baillon's Crake had not shown. Driving back along the river we found three Pygmy Cormorants sitting aon a single log in the water, WoWza! another 'biggie'.
After breakfast we headed off to the Salt Pans, but first we stopped to scan some trees around a local school for owls. We found two juvenile Long-eared Owls and one of the adult birds flew in to join them. Our search for Scops Owl went unrewarded.
Near the main entrance to the 'pans' we stopped to scan a seasonal pool which still held water. There we found three Temminck's Stints, 20+ Wood Sandpipers and a single Little Ringed Plovers. On entering the Salt-pans we found many more species, the most of which were: Common Sandpiper, Little, Gull-billed and Common Terns, Greater Flamingos, Pied Avocets, Curlew Sandpiper, Greenshank and a lagre flock of 30+ Grey Herons flew over. In the distant we found three Dalmation Pelicans and a Ruddy Shelduck.
Spur-winged Plover or Lapwing
In a side channel near the pumping station, we found our first 'biggie' in the shape of a Spur-winged Plover, we also saw more Yellow Wagtails, another Temminck's Stint and a flock of 25 Ruff. Spanish Sparrows went onto the list as did Whinchat and Red-backed Shrike. A Red-footed Falcon flew over and the Ruff all huddled together close to the reeds, to 'hide' from the falcon, it was comical to watch.
Alykes wetlands wasn't so wet, small reed-fringed pools still existed, but the remainder of the flodd meadow was dry. We found a nice bunch of Red-throated Pipits, lots more Yellow Wagtails including Blue-headed, Grey-headed and Black-headed and to our great excitement a female Citrine Wagtail appeared a few times. A Black Stork sat in the field, White Storks & Marsh Harriers flew over, as did hundreds of hirundines such as Barn & Red-rumped Swallows, House and Sand Martins. Small flock of European Bee-eaters were ever present. We spent quite a bit of time trying to get everyone to see the Citrine Wagtail but unfortunately not everyone did.
Red-throated Pipit
two Red-throated Pipits taking a bath together, I don't know what's going on there but it looks rude to me!
We ate lunch where the supply canal joins the Gulf of Kalloni, we found a few butterflies there, Swallowtail, Painted Lady, Mallow Skipper, Clouded Yellow and Small Heath. A Greater Short-toed Lark. The day warmed up, the sun came out but the cool breeze remained. Scanning the bay we found Great Cormorant and Great Crested Grebe (2) and not much else.
a bank fo wild flowers where we ate lunch today, amazing colours.
Swallowtail Butterfly
After lunch we took a long walk in the 'Sheep Field' which backs onto the east side of the pans, we found more Short-toed Larks, Yellow Wagtails and a single Tawny Pipit which I inadvertantly flushed, oops!! Only I, saw it well, doh!
Only two small pools of water exisited in the sheep fields, around them we found Temminck's Stint, Wood Sandpiper and Little Ringed Plover, also Yellow Wagtails and some Red-throated Pipits. We scanned the eastern salt Pans through the wire perimiter fence and saw two Dalmatian Pelicans, two Spoonbills, six Mediterranean Gulls, and Lyn pulled out a male Eurasian Wigeon!! That was unexpected!
Kentish Plover
Two Collared Pratincoles hunted insects high above us, a pair of Common Buzzards circled on the thermals and another Marsh Harrier appeared. We found a single female Kentish Plover and lots more Bee-eaters.
We left the area at 3pm and drove into Kalloni Town centre where we stopped for coffee and cold drinks. A quick visit to the Marsh at the christos River, west of Skala Kalloni, produced more sightings and more species. We added Great Egret to the list and we also saw a Collared Pratincole on the ground and a little later we saw 20+ flying high above us. We notched our first Woodchat Shrike, Common Swifts, Greenfinches and Goldfinches.
Woodchat Shrike half hidden in the Giant Fennel plants
Finally we made a second visit to the Tisknias River, nothing except a Great Cormorant was on the sand bank at the mouth of the river but upstream we watched two Pygmy Cormorants fishing. At the ford we joned a group of birders still searching for the Baillon's Crake (which didn't show all day) and whilst there we enjoyed watch ing at least four Little Crakes (all females), we had short views of Spotted Crake, we watched Reed and sedge Warblers, Temmick's Stint and innumerable Yellow Wagatisl were flitting about.
Sedge Warbler watching out for a Little Crake, female
another shot of the Little Crake
It was 6pm when we gave up, our arrival back at the hotel was 6:15pm. after showering etc we met up again at 7:30pm for dinner and our birdlog, which revealed that we had seen just under 80 species.