Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Day 6 Corsica

Last day today. First chance to get a photo of the flighty Goldfinches that have been hanging around the villa. These are of the race tschusii being slightly smaller than the nominate bird with darker more duller earth brown on upperparts as well as a few other things.


Now getting the hang of photographing the other local flighty finch.





A bit of a meandering drive around the area today. Quite a few Cirl Bunting around


One of the targets of the trip at last photographically caught up with, Moltoni's Subalpine Warbler. Initially heard singing whilst driving. Certainly different to the Western and Eastern in song with a much more Serin like jangling quality for me


More washed out underparts obvious here





Have already mentioned this but the scenery was stunning


Another one from the car. Had been trying all week to get a decent shot of an Italian Sparrow being surprisingly shy. This one was on a wall opposite whilst we were sat at some roadwork traffic lights.


Had another drive up the treacherous Verghello valley to get once last rush from driving along a potholed single lane road with a 300 foot drop on one side! Also to try and get better shots of the Nuthatch and Crossbills.
On the way up Crag Martins were investigating some crags


Found another one of those upside down birds at the top of the valley


and got a shot I can be pretty happy with


A few Tree Creepers up here also. Another island race corsa endemic to Corsica apparently with a song slightly different from nominate although falling within the boundaries of variation whatever they are. Didnt actually hear one sing unfortunately. Other things that cant be seen from this photograph are its more strongly streaked upperparts, and the longest wing and bill length of any of the races.



This Swallowtail looks settled but it was far from it. This shot was a complete fluke as I just fired away at it as it jinked about. None of the other shots got even close!


Catching up with this rather showy Marmora's Warbler was a great way to round off the trip although my suspicions were that it was having a nice siesta until I got my tape out!