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Introduction
This
follows on from my week in I had done a considerable
amount of research on sites for these species and had lots of information from many
birders which I am very grateful. Targets
were Birds - California Quail, Tree sparrow (introduced to
Corsica), Red Avadavat, Golden Bishop, Masked Lovebird, Fishers Lovebird, Indian
Silverbill, Sacred Ibis, Northern Bobwhite, Pheasant,
Peking Robin (red billed Leothrix), Monk Parakeet, Ring
Necked Parakeet, Greylag goose, Ashy throated parrotbill,
Blue fronted parrot, feral pigeon. Mammals - Eastern cottontail, Pallas’s Squirrel, Finlayson’s
Squirrel, Grey Squirrel and Coypu. Sunday 7th September - We
flew from Gatwick to Figari in South Corsica
(fortunately not with XL but Thompson) and took a leisurely drive stopping for
lunch, then into the mountains, we were looking for Corsican Nuthatch, but this is not the ideal time and our view was
one very brief one, despite a few calling round and about. Endemic subspecies
were more showy, A great spotted woodpecker gave cracking views, but the Corsican citril
finch was less obliging. A few coal
tits a jay, a blue tit and a couple of great tits were feeding round the
picnic site along with several butterflies. We had to stop on the road for
feral pigs and a few cows a couple of times but no birds of note. A
final stop was made in some vineyards not for wine but for Californian quail.
We drove round the vineyards but only saw a few goldfinches and some tree
sparrows (introduced to the island and the first exotic species of the trip
1) Monday 8th September - A
day of touristy things but we did see a Wren
ssp and at a picnic spot on the beach a two tailed pasha butterfly showed for
some pics, drinking the water from a car aircon unit. We had several other butterflies and a couple
of Marmoras warblers in the scrub. We eventually
worked our way to Tuesday 9th September – The Ferry Not
content with the quail views I made an early morning return visit, just one
spotted and managed a quick pic. After some
sightseeing in Wednesday 10th September – We
eventually found the site near Thursday 11th September - After
breakfast we toured Friday 12th September – Touristy Day We had a tourist day black redstarts the only birds of note. Saturday 13th September – The day of Rain The
worst day, we woke to rain, and lots of it so we
cancelled our plans to visit Brabbia Marsh, and
instead headed to the rice fields around Bianze town.
Here we easily found lots of sacred ibis
(10) along with hundreds of little,
cattle and great white egrets
and loads of grey herons. There were
common lizards and loads of marsh frogs everywhere ideal food for
all the ibis and egrets. The only coypu found were roadkill
no live ones and I was denied permission to photograph
them – being married eh! The weather had improved a little so it was off to Brabbia marsh which took a little finding and as we did the
rain started again. I headed off anyway and entered the ringing camp which was
in use, several nets up and ringing going on. I was welcomed and they knew what
I was after, but this was “the worst day of the season for weather” and my
chances were slim, and this was from the parrotbill
expert. They had caught one in the morning and heard several but none since late
morning. They had a sparrowhawk
that they were ringing, and a reed
warbler. The latest information from the parrotbill
expert is that the ashy throated and vineous throated
are one species and they are just colour forms of the same species, this has been
confirmed by DNA analysis. I was invited to check the nets with them, it was
still raining and very muddy underfoot, a couple of reed warblers and a willow warbler was all that was there.
The weather had defeated me and I was assured they are easy to find from September
to April and had the weather been better I would have found one. A return visit
I feel is on the cards. I located some greylag
geese (11) on the lake side as we left but poor compensation. Sunday 14th September – Acqui Terme Our
first stop was Boschi del Ticino detailed in Rich Bonsers
trip report
, the only northern bobwhite (12) seen
was one flushed by a walker just as I reached the open area, but a couple were
calling from the edge of the scrub. There were signs of wild boar but none seen
and there were lots of locusts
around. After a good look round with no further sign we had to move on to Acqui Terme, the trip produced a
couple of pheasants (13). On arrival
we headed for the ice cream parlour to get ice creams to eat while looking for
the Finlayson’s squirrels (14), who was not interested in the monkey nuts but was busy
devouring some cherries on a tree. We made a couple of stops looking for eastern cottontails (15) on our way to
San Remo, only managed to find one confirmed one but
another possible, a later evening visit would probably be more productive. Monday 15th September – Wacky Races We
had to swap hire cars, it would cost 700 euros to leave our Italian registered hire
car in France (we were flying home from Nice airport) so we had arranged a drop
off in San Remo, but first we drove to Monaco to
collect our French registered car a Ferrari 360 was hoped for but an Opel Agila was the reality – and
that was a free upgrade! We drove back to What
a trip missed out on Coypu early morning or evening visits or best and these
were not possible for me. The other two dips were blue fronted parrot which we
could not find and Ashy throated parrotbill which we
got unlucky weather wise or we would have seen one. An unusual trip
particularly for a honeymoon but it was good fun and yes we are still married. The Exotics (in observed order) 19 Tree Sparrow California Quail Red Billed Leothrix Golden Bishop Red Avadavat Feral Pigeon Ring Necked Parakeet Monk Parakeet Grey Squirrel Sacred Ibis Greylag goose Northern Bobwhite Ring necked Pheasant Finlayson’s squirrel Eastern Cottontail Masked Lovebird Fisher’s Lovebird Indian Silverbill Pallas’s Squirrel Birds – 95 inc subspecies Little Grebe Great Crested Grebe Yelkouan Shearwater Scopoli's Shearwater Shag ssp desmarestii Grey Heron Cattle Egret Little Egret Great White egret Purple Heron Sacred ibis Greylag goose Mallard Red Kite Marsh Harrier Montagu’s harrier Buzzard Sparrowhawk Hobby Kestrel California Quail Ring Necked Pheasant Water rail Moorhen Northern Bobwhite Coot Common Crane Mediterranean Gull Yellow Legged Gull Black Headed Gull Audouins Gull Rock Dove Woodpigeon Feral Pigeon Collared Dove Turtle Dove Alpine Swift Swift Nightjar Kingfisher Bee eater Ring necked Parakeet Monk Parakeet Masked Lovebird Fisher’s Lovebird Great Spotted Woodpecker ssp parroti Wryneck Skylark House Martin Crag Martin Swallow White wagtail Yellow wagtail ssp cinereocaptilla Wren Wren ssp konenigi Robin Black Redstart Wheatear Whinchat Stonechat Song thrush Blackbird Marmoras warbler Cetti’s warbler Reed Warbler Chiffchaff Firecrest Goldcrest Spotted flycatcher ssp tyrrhenica Great tit ssp corsus Coal tit ssp sardus Blue tit ssp ogliastrae Long tailed tit Corsican Nuthatch Red Backed Shrike Magpie Jay ssp corsicanus Jackdaw Raven Hooded Crow ssp sardonicus Hooded Crow House Sparrow Italian Sparrow Chaffinch ssp tyrrhenica Chaffinch Corsican Citril Finch Tree Sparrow Linnet Greenfinch Greenfinch ssp madarszi Goldfinch ssp madarszi Goldfinch Serin Red Avadavat Golden Bishop Indian Silverbill Red Billed Leothrix Animals – 12, Mammals 8, Herps
4 Pallas’s Squirrel Grey Squirrel Finlayson’s Squirrel Rabbit Eastern Cottontail Beech Marten Edible Dormouse Bat sp Marsh Frog Common Lizard Wall Lizard Lizard 2 Insects – 8, Butterflies 7, Dragonflies 1 Corsican Swallowtail Two tailed Pasha Clouded Yellow Southern White Admiral Sooty Copper Common Blue Comma Red veined darter
If you would like any further information please e-mail me mark@hows.org.uk
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 California Quail
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