Peterborough Bird Club :: GPOG Corsica & Sardinia, 2006

Peterborough Bird Club

30th May - 4th June 2006

Corsica & Sardinia Trip Report 06

Saturday 3rd June 2006
The male Scop’s Owl was still calling at dawn, making several visits to the nest hole and spending quite a few minutes in a small, low tree in the middle of the chalets, calling. It then made a visit to the nest hole and flew off not to be seen for another 15 minutes. At about 5.35 it reappeared causing a nearby Great Tit to get extremely agitated and alarm called constantly.

Seemingly unsure where the call was coming from, the Owl remained outside it’s nest hole on top of the roof for some minutes, allowed Richard and Will to obtain superb views as it moved about, on the roof, looking for the source of the noise.

Scop’s Owl. © Will Bowell.
This bird gave excellent views in at dusk and particularly dawn, when this photo was taken.

GPOG Corsica & Sardinia

As the morning went on several male Serins started to sing and show well at times in the pines. A quick walk round the nearby heath before the fine start gave way to heavy rain again produced little more than a single Zitting Cisticola.

With heavy rain setting in from the north, covering the mountains we decided to give the lowland wetlands a try at but unfortunately the rain soon hit us here as well. A large piece of wetland at Casamozza, looked excellent habitat and no doubt does well during migration times but we decided in such conditions in early June it probably wasn’t worth the walk, so quickly retreated to the hire cars.

A single Nightingale and Cetti’s Warbler were singing heartily in the cover and a Zitting Cisticola showed extremely well here. Two Corn Buntings were also noted.

With the rain seeming to clear in land and up the mountains the team decided we should go back to our original plan and hit the highland areas of Col de Bovella on the way to the ferry. As we made our way up the winding roads, highlights included two male and a female Red-backed Shrike all very close to each other and a Turtle Dove.

‘Mediterranean’ Shags. © Will Bowell

Back in the harbour of Santa Teresa on Sardinia, the 3rd summer Audouin’s Gull was still present at the harbour’s entrance, along with several Yellow-legged Gulls.

Our next destination was a return trip to the Tula area, for another go at Little Bustards. Unfortunately we drew yet another blank, but some compensation came in the form of a very late passage Black Kite which moved quickly through the area. Other birds of note in the area included shed loads of Spanish Sparrows, 2 Calandra Larks (including one posing nicely), 2 Buzzards, 1 Tawny Pipit and several Bee-eaters.

After checking into our accommodation at Fertilia near Alghero, where there was little of interest other than breeding colonies of House Martin and Spanish Sparrow, we moved on to Lago Baratz. The wires on the minor road to Lago Baratz were aligned with the usual Bee-eaters and several Turtle Doves, which had proved to be a scarce bird on our trip thus far.

Lago Baratz proved to be one of the more productive sites of the trip, with the lake teeming with birdlife and plenty to keep the team interested. The almost instant highlight was a stonking Purple Gallinule which was sat out on the edge of the reeds along with Coots and several Moorhens.

Red-backed Shrike. © Will Bowell.

A rather long but entertaining wait (largely due to the arrogance of one of the drivers getting on board) for the ferry to depart back to Sardinia, from Bonifacio, saw the sun finally come out properly. Some fine adult Yellow-legged Gulls showed well allowing for some shots on the water to be taken.

Yellow-legged Gull. © Will Bowell.

The first quarter of the crossing was seeming a bit dead as far as birds were concerned, which was particularly disappointing because this was the part of the crossing that had given us our best views of ‘Scopoli’s’ Cory’s Shearwaters on the journey to Corsica. Thankfully, things soon started looking good again when a few ’Scopoli’s’ were picked out distantly and a few hoped for Yelkouan Shearwaters were also picked up (if a little distant at first).

‘Scopoli’s’ Cory’s Shearwaters. © Will Bowell.

Yelkouan’s Shearwaters. © Will Bowell.

Half way through the journey things really started to hot up when several ’Scopoli’s’ decided to follow the back of the Ferry; eventually one even got up and started circling with the group of Yellow-legged Gulls that were hanging in the wind just off the back of the boat. This of course allowed everyone to get staggering views and some good photographs (see page 21 & 22).

A Yelkouan’s also decided to follow the ferry at one point and gave stunning views. Compared to the ’Scopoli’s’ this favoured hugging the waves much more tightly, making it more difficult for any photographs to be taken.

Trevor, Neil and Will all went to about as far back in the Ferry as was allowed to try and get some decent shots of the ‘Scopoli’s. Whilst down here several groups of Yelkouin’s (probably around 70 birds in total) fluttered by giving excellent views especially as one group seemed to do a circle round the boat.

Rather kindly one of the ferry workers allowed us access to the very end of the Ferry; unfortunately most of the action had passed us by but his generosity was still most welcomed. Other highlights from the ferry crossing included a Common Tern and several groups of Shags flying by.

Two Marsh Harriers were hunting the reedbeds and at one point a large, brown falcon came to join one of the Marsh Harriers, and those who saw it agreed there was little size difference between the two. Unfortunately it disappeared shortly after being located and was never seen again by any of the group.

The air was alive with Barn Swallows and Swifts, with Common Swift being the main species present with a few Pallid and Alpine Swifts also giving breath taking views as they flew low over our heads. They proved rather difficult to photograph, often coming just too close for the DSLR, amazingly though, shots with just the Canon Powershot were more successful (by Trevor).

With the evening sun starting to go down, we decided to head back to Fertilia for our last evening meal of the trip, which was most enjoyable and a fine way to (nearly) finish the trip with one last prospect of birding to come, the next morning.

Up on higher ground the sun finally started to poke through and up high above the mountains we picked up several groups of Alpine Chough another lifer for several members of the group, circling round. Several crests were calling though, frustratingly non were actually seen and a few Coal Tits were also calling.

At another stop we had excellent views of a male Cirl Bunting singing from the top of a pine tree. Unfortunately and rather typically the bird disappeared as soon as the cameras were out. A Spotted Flycatcher also showed well in the tops of a group of pines and a male Blue Rock Thrush was located singing on top of a crag.

The highlight of this stop though came in the form of a pair of adult Golden Eagles which performed beautifully, often going in front of the mountains showing off their mixtures of gold, tawny and white in the plumage. Whilst watching the Eagles a group of 6 Alpine Swifts made a low fly past and circled round for a bit and 2 Ravens also circled round. Magic!

30.05.06 | 31.05.06 | 01.06.06 | 02.06.06 | 03.06.06 | 04.06.06
Trip Species List