LESVOS BIRDS 2 0 1 2 written and compiled by Steve Dudley LESVOS BIRDS 2012 written and compiled by Steve Dudley www. LESVOS BIRDING .com l small group bird & wildlife day trips with Steve Dudley, author of the highly acclaimed Text © Steve Dudley | Lesvos Birding, 2013 Photos © photographers as credited, 2013 A Birdwatching Guide to Lesvos l sets new standards in ‘where to watch’ guides Cover photo: Glossy Ibis, Alykes Wetlands l details over 60 of the island’s best birdwatching sites l checklists for birds, butterflies, dragonflies & orchids © Erwin van Laar l the only guide book you will ever need l where to stay, where to eat, where to watch birds — all in one book! Steve Dudley is author of A Birdwatching Guide to “ Short of taking the author with you in your Lesvos, runs Lesvos Birding and is a member of the rucksack, there seems little more that you could Lesvos Birds Records Committee possibly need ” Alex Lees, British Birds, Jan 2010 WWW.LESVOSBIRDING.COM l free online resource for birding on Lesvos l daily bird summaries posted during spring l trip reports, site info, species checklists, etc l species checklists for birds, butterflies, PO Box 417, Peterborough, PE7 3FX, UK dragonflies and orchids Tel/Fax +44 (0) 1 733 844 820 l free annual bird reports Email [email protected] Web www.lesvosbirding.com Lesvos Birding | PO Box 417 | Peterborough PE7 3FX | UK | +44 (0) 1 733 844 820 WWW.LESVOSBIRDING.COM free web resource & guided day trips supporting responsible tourism on Lesvos with Discount car rentals when you mention Lesvos Birding Lesvos Birds 2012 CONTENTS Introduction 4 Bird records used for this report 4 Birding coverage in 2012 4 Submitting your bird records 4 Key to status codes used in the List 4 Bird information when on the island 6 Driving on the main roads 6 Trespassing and disturbance to breeding birds 6 Notes on birding sites (featured in A Birdwatching Guide to Lesvos) 7 Additional birding sites (not in A Birdwatching Guide to Lesvos) 11 Maps of Lesvos 14 The 2012 birding year 14 Weather summary for 2012 18 Back home – the Lesvos Birders Facebook group 18 Lesvos bird names in different languages 18 The Lesvos Birding website – www.lesvosbirding.com 18 Acknowledgements 19 Introduction to the species accounts 21 Key to status codes used within the species accounts 21 Taxonomy and nomenclature 21 Place names used within the List 22 Notes on the List 22 The Lesvos Bird List 22 Species accounts 23 Gamebirds 23 Wildfowl 24 Black-throated Diver 30 Shearwaters 30 Grebes 30 Flamingo, storks, herons and allies 32 Pelicans 37 Cormorants 38 Raptors – Osprey 40 Raptors – Honey-buzzard 40 Raptors – kites 40 Raptors – White-tailed Eagle 41 Raptors – vultures 41 Raptors – Short-toed Eagle 42 Raptors – harriers 42 Raptors – accipiters (hawks) 44 Raptors – buzzards 45 Raptors – aquila eagles 47 Raptors – Bonelli’s and Booted Eagles 49 Raptors – falcons 50 Rails and crakes 53 Common Crane 55 Waders – Stone-curlew and Oystercatchers 56 Waders – Black-winged Stilt and Avocet 56 Waders – lapwings, plovers and Dotterel 57 Waders – snipes 60 Waders – godwits and curlews 61 Waders – shanks and Tringa sandpipers 62 Waders – Terek and Common Sandpipers 64 Waders – Turnstone 65 © Steve Dudley | Lesvos Birding 2012 1 Lesvos Birds 2012 Waders – Calidris sandpipers 66 Waders – Broad-billed Sandpiper and Ruff 68 Waders – phalaropes 69 Waders – pratincoles 69 Gulls 70 Terns 73 Arctic Skua 76 Doves and pigeons 76 Cuckoos 78 Owls 79 Nightjar 80 Swifts 80 Roller 82 Kingfishers 82 Bee-eaters 83 Hoopoe 84 Wryneck and Middle Spotted Woodpecker 84 Shrikes 85 Golden Oriole 86 Crows 86 Waxwing 88 Tits 88 Larks 89 Swallows and martins 91 Cetti’s Warbler 92 Long-tailed Tit 92 Warblers – Phylloscopus leaf warblers 92 Warblers – Acrocephalus reed warblers 94 Warblers – Iduna and Hippolais tree warblers 95 Warblers – Locustella grass warblers 97 Warblers – Zitting Cisticola 98 Warblers – Sylvia scrub warblers 98 Crests 102 Wren 102 Nuthatches 102 Short-toed Treecreeper 104 Starlings 104 Thrushes 105 Chats – Robin and Bluethroat 106 Chats – nightingales 106 Chats – White-throated Robin 107 Chats – Rufous Bush-robin 107 Chats – starts and chats 108 Chats – wheatears 109 Rock-thrushes 111 Flycatchers 111 White-throated Dipper 113 Sparrows 113 Dunnock 114 Wagtails 115 Pipits 117 Finches 118 Buntings 121 Appendices 1 – Unproven records (recent decisions) 125 2 – Records pending 125 3 – Species formally rejected or unconfirmed 126 © Steve Dudley | Lesvos Birding 2012 2 Lesvos Birds 2012 4 – Escapes 130 5 – Dates of summer and passage migrants 130 6 – Dates of winter migrants 133 7 – Other notable wildlife 134 8 – The Lesvos Bird List 135 9 – A list of Lesvos dragonflies 141 10 – A list of Lesvos butterflies 142 11 – A list of Lesvos reptiles and amphibians 144 12 – A list of Lesvos orchids 145 References 147 Citation Dudley, S.P. 2013. Lesvos Birds 2012. © Steve Dudley | Lesvos Birding 2012 3 Lesvos Birds 2012 INTRODUCTION Welcome to the fourth annual bird report for Lesvos – Lesvos Birds 2012. The report has been collated, written and edited by myself. BIRD RECORDS USED FOR THIS REPORT I remain very impressed by the response in recent years for more records. Following last years already impressive 22,000+ records, I received over 26,000 records for 2012. As usual, Lesvos resident Terry Robinson’s records make up a considerable amount, but as a percentage this is slowly decreasing as more visiting birders submit records. From 48% of records submitted last year, Terry’s share reduced to 42% despite maintaining roughly the same number of individual records. Terry submits his records via the OrnithoTopos, the Greek online recording section of worldbirds.org operated by BirdLife International. Observado (http://lesvos.observado.org) is another popular online submission website, especially for Dutch and Belgian birders, and this source again contributed a significant amount (20%) to the 2012 dataset. I’d like to again acknowledge Steven Wytema’s help in first setting up the Lesvos section of Observado and assisting with the management of the records submitted. The remaining 38% records were collated by myself, from my own records, the Lesvos Birding log books at the Hotel Pasiphae and Taverna Dionysos (both in Skala Kallonis), records sent direct to me or gleaned from reports I have come across on the internet. I’m sure I have missed more than a few. Thank you to everyone who has contributed one way or another. A list of all those I known appears under acknowledgements below (page 19). BIRDING COVERAGE IN 2012 The main arrival of spring visitors began on 16 April and the first UK charter arrived on the 21 April. The coverage remained high through the main birding weeks up to 19 May. To give you some indication of the drop off in coverage after the main spring weeks, the period 16 April to 20 May takes up 100 pages of the A4 Lesvos Birding log in the Hotel Pasiphae. The period 21 May – October runs to only three pages! Several birders visited in June and July with numbers picking up through August and visiting birders present into October. There remain relatively few resident birders on the island. The most active is of course Terry Robinson who covers the Polichnitos Saltpans every day. The rest of the island is pretty neglected outside the weeks visiting birders are present, but recent arrival Jelle Delavez (a Belgian bee researcher based at the University of the Aegean in Mytilini) started to travel around the island in 2012. Late on in the year the now very active Lesvos Birders Facebook group (see below) started to see lots of images being posted by several resident bird photographers – Petros Tasmiakis, Pantelis Thomaidis and Ermis Psomos. Between them they contributed some interesting records, none more interesting than the potential first records of Steppe Buzzard and the first winter record of Rose-coloured Starling (from 2008!). SUBMITTING YOUR BIRD RECORDS I will continue to collate records (as detailed above) for future years. All records of rare and scarce species (see key to the Systematic List below) will be followed up and passed on to the Lesvos Birds Records Committee (LBRC) or for Greek national rarities, forwarded to the Hellenic Rarities Committee (HRC). Please remember that records are of little value if they do not provide the key information of species, number © Steve Dudley | Lesvos Birding 2012 4 Lesvos Birds 2012 of birds, date and location. Additional information on age/sex (particularly for raptors) and behaviour (especially for breeding records) is also very welcome. You can submit your records as follows – 1. Direct to me – lists, including date and location of observations to myself via the Lesvos Birding website (www.lesvosbirding.com). 2. Trip reports posted on the web – please send me the URL for your report and I will link to it from the Lesvos Birding website (now over 100 reports listed to the end of 2012). 3. When on the island, by entering your records in the Lesvos Birding Bird Logs situated in the reception of the Hotel Pasihae on the outskirts of Skala Kallonis and the Taverna Dionysos by the harbour in Skala Kallonis iself. Could I please urge all contributors to the bird log to write legibly (I’ve been unable to read several names from the 2012 log), give your full name (not just nickname or initials) and if possible, leave an email contact address for me to follow up any sightings with you. 4. There are also logs at the Pela and Kalloni Bay (formerly Kalloni II) hotels – but these receive much fewer records than the Lesvos Birding Pasiphae log.