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| 30th May - 4th June 2006 |
| Corsica & Sardinia Trip Report 06 |
| © Will Bowell |
| Thursday 1st June 2006 The strong winds continued through the night and it seemed unlikely that any early morning wanderings would produce much of interest, so the majority of the group had a lie in. Richard and Will, however, decided to brave the winds. There wasn’t really anything new to report from the previous morning, though a pair of Peregrines fighting in the sky was quite impressive as they got swept along in the wind. The Tawny Pipit was still displaying well and as was as a Raven and a Carrion Crow flew by. The population of this latter species must be somewhat limited here. A couple of ‘Scopoli’s’ Cory’s Shearwaters sliced through the winds, offshore. |
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| Spanish Sparrow. © Will Bowell. |
| GPOG Corsica & Sardinia |
| The
journey from Su Pallosu to Oziari via Monte Paidorzu, took us right
through prime Roller country, unfortunately we didn’t strike it
lucky and non were seen on the wires, where you would expect. The
weather approaching Monte Paidorzu, deteriorated rapidly, and as we got
higher up low cloud cover meant visibility was virtually non existent.
Thankfully before things got too bad we happened across a Barbary
Partridge running on the side of the road, before
running up a track, where it paused giving one car load good views as
it cowered under a gate before heading deep into cover. On the flat top of the mountain, where the visibility was extremely poor (viewing was often restricted to just the ditches each side of the road) there was an abundance of Corn Buntings and 1 male Cirl Bunting was a nice glimmer of brightness in the dreadful conditions. Our target here was Corsican Citril Finch, but viewing was near impossible, however just as we started to speed up and loose all hope of seeing them, a small finch, popped up on a fence by the side of the road. It was a stunning male Corsican Cirtril Finch. Back on to us, it’s brown mantle was extremely obvious as well as greyish nape; it then turned revealing a lovely yellow front. After posing for a bit, the bird flew, deep, into cover. The first target of the trip successfully ticked, we all breathed a deep sigh of relief, though there was no doubting this was perhaps the easiest of the hat trick to find. Our first search of the trip for Little Bustard produced a blank in the Tula area, with highlights from here including 1 Stone Curlew, 1 Cetti’s Warbler, several displaying Calandra Larks, 1 Woodchat Shrike, 1 Hoopoe, several Bee-eaters, 1 Sparrowhawk (wolterstorffi), 1 Turtle Dove and a singing Quail. The drive though the mountains to Santa Teresa was extremely tedious, as the roads are winding, with very few opportunities to overtake or go fast. The only birding highlight from this journey was a pair of Lesser Kestrels. We didn’t have too long to wait in Santa Teresa before the ferry arrived, with just enough time to grab a bite to eat and drink some excellent coffee from the café. Yellow-legged Gulls were the dominant species here with a Peregrine over head flushing them briefly. Neil picked up a single Audouin’s Gull from some distance, sat on a rock at the entrance of the bay. Eventually, it flew closer and into the bay, passing the ferry, settling several times on rocks on the shore. From the outstanding, close views in flight we got some reasonable images which are displayed below and on the following page. |
| Audouin’s Gull. © Will
Bowell. The brownish tones and lack of white on the primaries indicates this is a 3rd summer bird. |
| Above
Corsica, an impressive thunderstorm was brewing and heading in our
direction. It wasn’t long into our Ferry journey before we hit
our first ‘Scopoli’s’ Cory’s
Shearwaters, but the storm stopped play and we were
forced into shelter half way through our journey. By the last quarter
the rain had cleared though, and we enjoyed some excellent, reasonably
close views of the ‘Scopoli’s’, as they
followed the storm. Getting off the ferry was a reasonably smooth operation, and it wasn’t long before we had our first Red Kite of the trip, over the cars. There was also good numbers of Spotless Starlings recorded on the journey to Vignale. The weather really was a treat; with the evening sun being the warmest it had been all day. The heath across the road from our accommodation at Vignale, looked promising, and although there were a few bits and pieces of interest it didn’t really do the business for us. |
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| The team at Vignale. © Mac Bell. |
| A
pair of Dartford Warblers played hard
to get as they collected food for the their young at the nest and a
female Spectacled Warbler showed only briefly, but gave tremendous
scope views for those who got onto it. A single Zitting
Cisticola held territory in the area, but no hoped for
Marmora’s or Subalpine
Warbler. In the pines of another local caravan site, a couple of Serin sang among the Greenfinch (madarszi), Goldfinch (tchusii) and Chaffinch (tyrrhenica) present in the tops of the pines and a Great-spotted Woodpecker (parroti) was a missed photo opportunity, as it paused in a tree next to us for a few seconds. After an excellent meal outside, at a local restaurant, we came back to find two calling Scop’s Owls, one of which eventually was seen flying to and from the top of a tall pine above our chalets. It eventually landed on one of the chalets give excellent views in the half light from the outside lamps. This actually turned out to be a highlight of the trip for some. There was also a Nightjar churring from somewhere nearby. |
