It's taken a while, but I've finally got some photographs to show of the birds I saw in Sardinia. Eventually I realised I'd taken the pictures in .RAW format (rather than .JPeg) and they needed converting before I was able to view, edit and present them.
So, without further ado...
Above & Below: A male Subalpine Warbler.
The Subalpine Warblers were very elusive. I only saw 2 and they both showed briefly deep in scrub. I was lucky to get photographs of this one, but what a stunner!
Above: One of my favourite pictures from the holiday shows a female Pied Flycatcher (I only saw 2).
80 + species were seen on this holiday (starting & ending with Flamingo's!). There was only one species I had never seen before (photographs of this bird to follow later), but as I'd been to Sardinia before, this wasn't a great surprise.
Reflecting on the quality of birding in Sardinia, I think it is a country well worth visiting however a hire car is essential and to see a wide variety of species, you'll need to visit a good variety of habitats including costal sites, lakes (however many of the lakes seemed largely devoid of birds), scrubby sites, high mountains and urban areas. There were interesting species everywhere - including in unexpected areas. Our tactic was to go on walks (rural and urban), visit tourist places, visit lakes (mostly costal inlets & small estuaries) and stops at random places.
The south east coast was good, but there are key species that we weren't able to catch up with as the north and north west are better areas according to other information available online (however this may be because it has had better coverage from serious birders). Perhaps we will go back in a future year to try and catch up with some different species (Golden Eagle, Ibis, Little Bustard) but we're thinking it will be the much cheaper option of Majorca next year.
Finally, I have to apologise to my regular readers for a glaring error on my part relating to a previous post of mine (here) where I told you about the 'parental abuse' pace I set whilst walking back from a Gorge in Sardinia. I was reminded and chastised by my father for failing to mention that I also forced him to carry the rucksack all the way back to the car. My shame is now complete.
However, in response, I say boo hoo! You'll have to imagine the appropriate sarcastic gestures! To complete the full picture for my readers, I will have you know that I carried the bag all the way there (uphill) & around the gorge (whilst climbing rocks!), for a much longer time and with full bottles of water + binoculars and camera!
It's back to photograph editing now for me (holiday & ringing) and crunching the numbers from this weekends ringing sessions (highlights being a control Whitethroat, an unseasonal Lesser Redpoll and a couple of longevity records for the site).
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