Sardinia Day 7 - Nature on St Pietro Island

The mission on St Pietro was to visit the cliffs that have a large population of Eleanora's Falcon. We achieved this though mostly distant or much too rapid closer views to photograph. We had close views of Flamingos and distant view of Kentish Plover A few other bugs/flowers etc that took my eye. Gradually identifying the insects; for instance , the green bug is Southern Green Stink Bug Nezara viridula.

Sardinia Day 7 - Visit to San Pietro Island

The a beautiful sunrise over the lagoon from our hotel started a very colourful day. We visited San Pietro Island by car ferry (40 minute crossing). The island is of volcanic origin with very interesting rock formations. The  coasts are mostly rocky; the western and northern part includes some natural grottoes and is very steep, rocky. The eastern coast, on which the port of Carloforte lies, is more protected low and sandy. The town of Carloforte is very attractive - we only had a short time there - in retrospect it would have been good to spend the afternoon there after successfully tracking down Eleanora's Falcon (next blog)

 

 

Sardinia Day 6b - Various Sites Travelling to New Base near Cagliari

On our travels south, we visited three locations Arrubia Lagoon, Quartu Saint Elena Salt Pans and Assemini and found various birds, dragonflies and other creatures to keep us amused in the 28 degree sunny and very windy conditions. Birds were mainly a bit distant for my lens but idenitifable Fan-Tailed Warbler, Flamingo, Slender-Billed Gull and Black-Winged Stilt. The third venue looked very unpromising but produced sightings of Sardinia's (?Europe's) largest Dragonfly the Bladetail, unfortunately on the ground so difficult to make a good pictorial image..

 

Sardinia Day 6a - Early Morning at Su Baione

I went out early to revisit the stream near the hotel. The sunrise was unspectacular and the sun remained behind a cloud until I just got back to the hotel. Some interesting subjects - Tiger spider catching and eating a damselfly and another eating its mate, strange earwig and other species to be identified including a wasp species confronting a Mullein caterpillar

Sardinia Day 5 - Various Locations

A varied day visiting Omodeo Lake, Su Gologone Spring, Su Oche Caves and the bronze age Muraghe Losa. Dragonflies included Banded Groundling and Blue Damselfly with diamond-shaped markings on abdomen. Also Swallowtail, Skink, Locust, Tyrrhenian Lizard and Black Hornet