I'm off to Sicily tomorrow for a week . I'm looking forward to some late summer sun, great Italian food, just a little wine ... and oh yes, I nearly forgot, hopefully some birds which is the reason I'm going.
I went to Sicily in April 3 years ago which is when the unpronouncable volcano in Iceland went pop. The birding wasn't that good because the northerly winds which grounded all air flights was inhibiting the migrants from Africa. We thought we were going to be stuck there but the flight restrictions were lifted the day we were due to return. Darn it, I could have done with a bit longer there.
It will be interesting to see what the autumn migration is like. Hopefully, no more volcanic eruptions but I've heard that Mt Etna is fairly active at the moment. LOL but we are well away from it, right at the west end of the island.
Probably won't be able to communicate from there but if I see some worthwhile stuff I'll post a trip report on my return. Be good and try not to cause too much trouble.LOL
____________________________________________________________________
Tony
My Flickr Photostream
Have a good break TJ, look forward to your report when you return with hopefully loads of migrating birds to show us.
Lot to learn
Evening TJ, hope you have a great visit and get to see some brilliant scenery and also plenty of birdlife. Have a glass of red for me :) cheers mate ! ........pack the camera now so you don't forget it LOL
_________________________________________________________________________
Regards, Hazel
Was it Vesuvius TJ? Lol! We will behave, no worries, D will be in charge so we'll have to mind our P's & Q's haha!
Seriously - have a great blowout(you, not the volcano) & get lots of lovely pics for us all to share!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Have a wonderful time, TeeJay - I'm looking forward to the photos!
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.
Are you going with my old mate Brian Small ?
S
For advice about Birding, Identification,field guides, binoculars, scopes, tripods, etc - put 'Birding Tips' into the search box
seymouraves said:Are you going with my old mate Brian Small ?
I didn't see this before I went, S. Yes, Brian was the group leader and very good he is too. It's the third time I've travelled with him. He sent his regards.
OK, the trip report. From the birding point of view it turned out to be a bit frustrating. At this time of year the migration should have been in full swing but like the Spring everything was late so we had to work hard to to find the birds. I'm afraid, therefore, I'm not going to have many decent photosof birds to show you and this is going to be more of a travelogue. .
We were based for most of the time at a small family run hotel in Custonacci in Western Sicily.
They looked after us very well with five course dinners and free wine from their own vineyard so things went with a swing but it's now diet time
We made several visits to the salt pans at Trapani. Plenty of waders here including Little Stint, Ruff, Curlew Sandpipers, various Plovers etc. Slender-billed Gulls were in quite large numbers and outnumbered Black-headed Gulls The problem was that as soon as you got out of the vehicle everything moved away. It was OK for viewing through a scope but hopeless to get photos. Just one long distance photo. I think you can see the problem.
I did manage to capture a reasonably close up view of Flamingos before they all moved away.
At a small pond in quite a scruffy industrial area we discovered a lone Glossy Ibis also rather far away.
And there were a few Wood Sandpipers lurking about.
The best thing about this site was the Dragonflies. There were quite a few different species around but this was the only one I managed to photograph. I was told it was a Yellow-winged Darter and if so a first for me.
Our Sicilian guide managed to catch one and gave us a detailed explanation of its body parts and reproductive organs. Don't worry he knew what he was doing in handling it and it was perfectly happy on release.
A friendly horse which came to see what we were up to.
You can see I was getting desperate to photograph some wildlife. A couple of random critters. A sort of Mantis but I don't know what.
And a spider which was not as big as it looks. MrsT will tell us what it is and it might be the subject of her next quiz - you never know.
I'm going to pause there before I lose everything. I've had terrible trouble trying to post photos and have had to put everything on Flickr first. More to follow.
Glad you had a lovely holiday TJ
J
Lovely photos, TeeJay - the spider is brilliant!
Evening TJ, despite the lack of birds and photographic opportunites it sounds like you had a lovely holiday and I really enjoyed reading this thread and viewing the stunning photos in full screen; that's an interesting spider and you could have brought the horse home, it's a beauty but make sure the spider didn't hitch a ride in your suitcase lol Nice to have you back on the forum and thanks for sharing those wonderful photos.
Continuing my travelogue, I'm going to have to pad it out with a bit of scenery to make up for lack of wildlife. In one direction our local mountain known as Monte Cofano which is part of a natural reserve.
In the other direction the hill top town of Erice
Erice is a typical Italian walled hilltop town and quite a popular tourist spotbut nonetheless very attractive. Just a few tourist type views.
Our local Sicilian guide, Andrea Corso. Pretty cool guy.
Whilst we were there a couple of Peregrines flew over which I completely failed to capture. I did manage to get this little Spotted Flycatcher though which seemed to have quite russet coloured wing feathers.
Oh yes, and a pussy cat soaking up the sun amongst the geraniums in a window box.
One day we went to the little island of Mozia.
On this funny little boat.
While we were waiting a very tame Common Sandpiper was hopping around giving me the best photo opportunities of the whole trip. There was a little cafe at the embarcation point and it seemed to have cottoned on to the easy food that had been spilled rather like Turnstones do in the UK.
And here it had actually jumped on the side of a moored boat.
The island of Mozia was once the home of an Englishman called Guiseppe Whitaker. Apparently, he had been responsible for creating the Italian wine of Marsala and was a prominent ornithologist. His house is now a museum housing many of the antiquities which have been discovered on the island.
Birds were just as scarce here as elsewhere. We did see a Pied Flycatcher and I got this distant shot of a juvenile Woodchat Shrike.
And an equally distant shot of a passing Marsh Harrier.
I'm going to take a pause now before I lose the lot and finish off later.