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!

Sardinia birds 2

There are a lot of suitable sites to watch birds in Sardinia but you have to travel to get a wide range of species. And travel takes time in Sardinia. We could only find 1 to 200000 scale maps (OS maps are 1 to 25000 in the UK) and these weren't that helpful by not showing all the roads!

When the map indicated that the route we wanted to take was going straight on through a town, we often found that due to chaotic one way systems, the actual route was far from straight forward. The lack of signs at major junctions was also not very helpful. And I don't recommend short cuts as you'll soon find yourself lost!

Wildlife tourism here is possible, it's just that signage, directions in literature and information are often hard to come by. Knowing enough Italian to ask for directions & understand them is essential!

Species such as Spanish Sparrow and Hooded Crow were very easy. But Crag Martin and Citril Finch took some travelling to find (slow going up & down those mountain roads) although this may have been just a result of the places we chose to travel to!



Above: A Woodchat Shrike.



Above: Spotted Flycatcher. Whilst sitting in the picnic/cafe area of a 'cultural location', a pair of Spotted Flycatchers were flitting around very close by. It was rude not to take a photograph!



Above: A Wheatear. I only saw this species above the tree line whilst walking up to the top of the highest mountain in Sardinia.



Above: Citril Finch. Again, only recorded above the tree line whilst walking up to the top of the highest mountain in Sardinia. It took us a long time to drive there, but once parked, it took only a minute to find these small finches.



Above: Funny story - the first species I saw on the holiday was a Starling. The plane had been on the ground less than a minute! But it was bothering me for several days. I kept on seeing Starlings but in my mind, I was questioning this ID. "They're a bit black" I was saying to myself. "They can't be blackbirds can they? No, I'm sure they're Starlings." But I'd not seen them up close because when I saw them, I/we were driving and they were at a distance. Anyway, when I finally looked up Starling in the book I found there was such a thing as Spotless Starling! My mind was easier but it still took a day or two to 'spot' one and confirm their spotlessness. The photograph (above) doesn't really show it very well.



Above: Hooded Crow. My holiday was punctuated with many shouts of 'what's that Edward?' My standard reply was - another Hooded Crow dad!



Above: Jackdaw. Whilst the hooded crow was common, this was only one of 2 Jackdaws seen (the other being at the same time as this one). The Hooded Crow (pictured above) and this Jackdaw were vying for position on the telegraph pole.



Above: Spanish Sparrow - this bird was one of many nesting in the roof of our hotel. They were everywhere and were by far the most recorded species on the holiday.

More to come yet!

Menorca Birds 2010 Edition 1

I've just got back from a holiday in Menorca. There were plenty of highlights and I am really happy that I had a scope and camera (with attachment) to record some of these.



Above & Below: A Woodchat Shrike near Son Parc.



I waited quite a while for this bird to turn to the side or the opposite way round to get more images but to no avail.



Above: Before we found the Woodchat Shrike in the other images, my dad found this partially eaten, dead bird, skewered on a branch right next to the path we were walking along. Did it end up as a meal for a Woodchat Shrike? It certainly ended up as a meal for ants!