General Information

Well due to my company not giving me enough holiday, or was that I used it all birdwatching in ! A short pre Christmas tourist break mainly for sightseeing and socialising with a little birding squeezed in. We travelled from Stansted to Alghero with Ryan air (very cheap) and hired a car from Hertz, which although the booking suggested that CDW was included it was not. We stayed in the nice Hotel catalunya which very comfortable. The prices of everything apart from petrol was cheaper than the UK. Food and drink was excellent and we indulged. The weather was excellent hot and sunny, although a little chilly at night, we sat out drinking until about 9pm before going inside. Birding - well only 3 targets and just a little general birding while travelling the tourist sites.

Daily Guide Friday 1^st December. We arrived without problem; and settled into the hotel before walking round the old city walls, so of which are coastal. Hooded crows and collared doves were common. Grey wagtail and cormorants were on the shore, and one was watched fishing underwater. A lesser whitethroat was found in a bush but there was little else apart from yellow legged gulls, seen during our tour of the town and bars.	Yellow Legged Gull
Saturday 2^nd December. A reasonable start considering our late night drinking. We headed to Capo Caccia in search for my first target, Barbary partridge. No sign in a brief search. We headed for our first touristy visit, Neptunes Grotto. The cave system was excellent, and had a few rock doves nesting in them. The cliffs around held lots of gulls and a peregrine falcon along with loads of crag martins. Several Sardinian warblers made lots of noise but did not show and a couple of wrens were more co-operative. The next stop was the snack bar just down from the caves. Here both sardinian warblers and my second target Marmora’s warblers showed themselves by the car. The views only brief. The surrounding scrub held a couple of Marmora’s and they did show a little better. Wall lizards and locusts were seen along with loads of butterflies, some commonly recognised ones and some not identified. The second Touristy stop was Nurage Palmavera, an ancient settlement, which had some wildlife, lots of wall lizards and butterflies, and a couple of black redstarts. Porto Conte was the next stop to see the lighthouse, which again had black redstarts and loads of cats. A couple of shags and fantastic views. Fertilia was the late lunch stop, with both black redstarts, common redstarts and white wagtails in the car park / sculpture park area. A stop along the road produced a black kite, kestrel, peregrine, raven and buzzard in a thermal. We headed to Capo Falcone, the northwest tip of Sardinia, stopping at lots of places along the way for views and birds. There were lots of kestrels including a unseasonal lesser kestrel, and several buzzards. Little egrets and black winged stilts, meadow pipits, robin, stonechats, chiff chaff, great tit, blue tit, long tailed tit, common starling, and Spanish sparrow. On arrival at Stintino we headed to the furthest point to view the islands, here a barbary partridge ran out onto the road and joined two others on the verge, they flushed by my window winding down. We had a look round and headed back to Alghero for a night of over indulgence.	Kestrel Iberian Chiffchaff Shag Spottless Starling Southern Speckled Wood
Sunday 3^rd December. Again a reasonable start due to the night before as we headed south along the coast on road 49. We stopped lots along the way for serin, stonechats and our third target, Corsican citril finch. We also had good views of a golden eagle and between km marker 7 and 8 we found the griffon roost with at least 15 birds thermalling with ravens. From here we headed south past Bosa to Cabras. In Bosa we had lots of spotless starlings. At Cabras there are large freshwater lakes and salt lagoons. The first stop was a reserve Pauli’s Sali. It was difficult to find and poorly signed. And there was not much here, the hide was in poor repair and overgrown with reeds. There were lots of black necked grebes, pochard and a couple of hundred greater flamingo’s. A few marsh harriers quartered over the marsh and we drove around the tracks, which a 4x4 is recommended in the wet but my fiat Panda did manage as rain had been in short supply. Great white egrets, spotless starlings and skylarks were abundant and a kingfisher a welcome sight. We then headed to Cabras for a late lunch. Our next stop was Tharros a Phonecian ruined city, built in 8^th century BC – now that’s old. We stopped for thousands of flamingos in the lagoons on the way. In the ruins we had loads of Italian sparrows, black redstarts and Sardinian warblers. The journey back to Alghero was uneventful, where we over indulged on food and drink again.	Golden Eagle Griffon Vulture Greater Flamingo’s
Monday 4^th December. Not much but a few cattle egrets, before heading home.

Literature.

Directions and more info on the birding sites can be found in the following books.

A Birdwatchers'guide to Italy – Luciano Ruggieri and Igor Festari, ISBN 84-87334-86-5 – This book is quite up to date and most things are correct.

Michelin Map Sardegna, Italy regional 566, ISBN 2-06-100871-2.

For the tourist things we used the Eyewitness Guide to Sardinia. ISBN 1-40531-203-3.

Birds - 57 Species

Little Grebe	Black Necked Grebe	Shag (desmarestii)
Cormorant	Cattle Egret	Little Egret
Great White Egret	Grey Heron	Greater Flamingo
Mallard	Pochard	Griffon Vulture
Golden Eagle	Black Kite	Marsh Harrier
Common Buzzard (arrigonii)	Kestrel	Lesser Kestrel
Peregrine Falcon	Barbary Partridge	Moorhen
Coot	Black Winged Stilt	Yellow Legged Gull
Rock Dove	Collared Dove	Kingfisher
Skylark	Crag Martin	White Wagtail
Grey Wagtail	Wren (koenigi)	Robin
Redstart	Black Redstart	Stonechat
Blackbird	Lesser Whitethroat	Marmora’s Warbler
Sardinian Warbler	Zitting Cisticola	Reed Warbler
Iberian Chiffchaff	Great Tit (ecki)	Blue Tit
Long Tailed Tit (irbii)	Magpie	Hooded Crow (sardonicus)
Raven	Starling	Spotless Starling
Spanish Sparrow	Italian Sparrow	Linnet
Goldfinch (tchusii)	Serin	Corsican Citril Finch

Misc Animals -9 Species

Locust	Wall Lizard	Clouded Yellow
Red Admiral	Southern Orange Tip	Red Admiral
Painted Lady	Southern Speckled Wood	Large White

 
 
If you want any other information please contact me mark@hows@org.uk

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