We had a walk around the grounds before breakfast, seeing a brief Moltoni’s Warbler, Sardinian Warbler, Eurasian Hoopoe, Italian Sparrow & Cirl Bunting. After breakfast we drove up into the mountains to a different area in the forlorn hope of seeing Lammergeier. Sadly nothing doing with the big bird, however we managed excellent views of Corsican Finch, with a pair feeding right beside the road and the male literally filling the view in the scope.
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| The scope views were much better than this photo shows - Corsican Finch |
We also had a pair of Golden Eagles, Common Cuckoo, Northern Ravens, very distant Alpine Choughs, and a superb sighting of a singing Marmora’s Warbler right in front of us. We also enjoyed further Corsican Finch sightings later in the morning as well. We then drove to the rather picturesque Gorges de la Restonica and saw another pair of Golden Eagles, had the most bold Firecrest imaginable, along with a fantastic experience watching a White-throated Dipper repeatedly bringing food to its nest somewhere below us. Watching it going underwater in the crystal clear mountain river and finding food was incredible.
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| A Firecrest - everybody loves them.... |
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| Marmora's Warbler |
I always like to try and incorporate some habitat around the birds I photograph. Well, that's my excuse as I don't try and get too close to the bird.....! And to be honest, i generally don't put too much effort into getting a shot. But i've upgraded to a new camera setup and it really is making it easier to get better shots now. I'm using Nikon Z8 with a Nikon Z 600mm pf lens, thanks to a suggestion from my friend Eduard Sangster.
The following morning we had a rare 8 o’clock breakfast being something of a luxury on a birding tour and nothing planned before this, some of the group checked out the local area and found 3 Whinchats had dropped in overnight, and a Corsican finch was also seen. We headed 20 minutes drive down to the coast and checked out various lakes for most of the day and added some padders to our list. Nothing special really but birding to the backdrop of numerous Common Nightingales and Cetti’s Warblers is really something special…! We added Common Shelduck, Red-crested Pochard, Mute Swan, Mediterranean Shag, Stone-Curlew, Common Tern, and a heard only Common Reed Warbler to our list. We also spent some time trying to get a few photos of a large flock of European Bee-eaters perched on telegraph wires close to the road. As well as enjoying a fine lunch in a local restaurant before heading back to our cabins, where there were now 8 Whinchats and a pair of Corsican Finches, plus a Moltoni’s Warbler seen in a light drizzle. After a fine evening meal we finally made a successful attempt at seeing the noisy Eurasian Scops Owl before the heavens opened and we hit the sack!
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| Moltoni's Warbler |
We headed up to the Vallee d’Asco with the main aim of finding a Lammergeier, after our previous failed attempt. Only just over an hour’s drive from our cabins we were soon driving through an impressive gorge on our way ever higher to a ski resort. At the first stop we had some incredible luck with a very confiding Moltoni’s warbler giving us our best views so far – and the previous ones weren’t too bad either! Over the course of the rest of the day we scanned from various vantage points, looking up at ever impressive craggy peaks for Lammergeier, interspersed with a couple of stops for coffee at the ski resort – well it was pretty chilly here! We drove lower down at one stage and had further views of an aggressive Corsican Nuthatch, whilst back up higher we came across a small group of 4 Corsican Finches feedig on the ground and later calling away from the conifers next to the car park. Eventually we picked up a Lammergeier soaring across a ridge above us, and relief all round. It was a lifer for one of the group and reason enough to have a few beers this evening with our dinner.
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