Rose Coloured Starlings.

These gregarious birds can be seen on passage through Lesvos usually from the third week of May with some, usually small numbers, seen the week before. They can be erratic in nature turning up anywhere and perching in any available bush or tree be it on a roadside or in a remote location. One thing, however, is that they are attracted to Mulberry trees, so if you know where any of these trees are it’s worth keeping an eye out during this period. I must admit to having had little luck with these birds over the years because it involves either being fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time or alternatively staying in an area where there are suitable trees and even then it’s still difficult because it may be a wait for nothing. In the previous blog I detailed our search for Lesser Grey Shrike and how we saw all those Spotted Flycatchers near to the town of Sigri. Well that wasn’t quite the end of the story, because we were parked outside what is known as the ‘Old Sanatorium’ outside Sigri reflecting on the fruitful drive through the valley when I casually looked across the fields and about 500 yds away I could see around 25 Rose Coloured Starlings land in a tree. I called to Susan to come and see because it was a rare sighting for us, they then almost immediately took flight and I remarked how typically erratic their behaviour was, but incredibly and quite astonishingly they flew across the fields towards us and perched in a small track-side bush 50yds from where we were standing. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing - we leapt into the car and drove as quietly as we could towards the little bush - terrified of flushing them. I switched the car’s engine off and took one burst of shots before they again flew off, luckily we both had good views.



This scenario typically illustrates their behaviour and what I mentioned previously about the pure luck of being there at the time. That really was the end of the journey through that valley.