Sardinia birds

Another random selection of photographs of birds from my holiday in Sardinia (mid to late April 2013).

Above: A Woodchat Shrike (commonly seen in Sardinia)

Above & Below: A Woodlark (we only saw 2 or 3 individuals)

In the top photograph, the diagnostic 'light, dark, light' patch on the edge of the wing is visible as is the eye stripe that joins at the back of the head.

Above: The Woodlark on top of the tree.

Above: A male Chaffinch. Good enough to put a bookmark!

Above: A different male Chaffinch feeding, on what I assume, are seed pods.

If you think that a Chaffinch photograph is a little out of place amongst the other photographs of birds from Sardinia, you'd be right. But I like the way birding is random activity, especially when exploring new places. You never know when you're going to get a good photograph or see a good species. One minute you could be watching a Chaffinch, next a ...

Above: Golden Oriole. This represents my best ever view of one (through the camera lens!).

Arbatax (not a place I would recommend to tourists to visit) is a port (air & sea) with a large, unkempt industrial area, next to a residential area (where we stayed for a night). A walk round the area was largely uninspiring with few highlights until, on the edge of the industrial estate, a flash of yellow flew by. This eucalyptus tree, in a car park, was its destination. This was the only photograph I got but I'm glad I got it! It slinked away very quickly.

I went with the procedure 'get the photograph and then look through the binoculars' (though in this case I was too late with the binoculars). I didn't see any other Golden Oriole's all holiday, so the walk was worth it!

There's more to come at a later date!