Saturday 21 July 2018

Sardinia 2018

Have just been on a Naturetrek trip to Sardinia with the main focus being on dragonflies but covered all other aspects of nature as well.  The island is very pleasant and the two trips to offshore islands were very good.  The food was particularly good except at the third hotel where it was a bit bland and the beer was twice as expensive as the other hotels.

The weather wasn't particularly great and on one day it nearly rained all day.

I got all the lifers I was expecting to see except for one which was a bit disappointing - Green Hooktail.  I did see Island Bluetail (you couldn't miss them), Dark Spreadwing and Banded Groundling.

From a reptile point of view I did see the very pretty Italian and Tyrrhenian Wall Lizards.

Butterflies included great views of Two-tailed Pasha and four new species for me: Corsican Heath, Corsican Dappled White, Long-tailed Blue and Nettle-tree Butterfly.

Birds were a bit thin on the ground as expected but we had a nice variety including my first Barbary Partridge (in flight in front of the bus).  The number of Scops Owls calling at the 2nd hotel was amazing.  It was nice to see Audouin's Gull again.