The first picture shows the particular area in the dunes where I have seen the Twite flock on previous years. Its a longish walk, but has been worth it in the past. It was certainly worth it this time too. Once again, we managed to locate the flock right in that area without much difficulty, flushing them up with in a couple of minutes. Twites, of course, aren't the most beautiful of birds, but quite tricky and therefore very satisfying to see. I was actually caught by surprise when I spotted them, as they rose from the ground right in front of me (where they had been completely camoflauged) very abruptly, calling their sweet but rather worried sounding call of 'Twite' as they rose to the air all together. There was about 35 of the birds, and they appeared flightless and restless. We had to do quite a lot of walking to track them down, and flushed them up several times, only for them to move to other parts of the area. Eventually we were fortunate enough to see them feeding on the ground, although we had to be very quiet so as not to scare them off. The views were fantastic as we were incredibly close, no more than a few feet. I clearly noted the buff breasts and pale bills on many individuals, and they appeared very dark and grey in comparison to a Linnet or any other finch. I tried to get some pictures, but unfortunately they flew off when I moved to get the camera out... oh well! Nonetheless they were nice birds to see, and bought my 2009 year list to 178. They were the only notable birds that I saw on that brief morning outing. 3 weeks later, on 12 December I was out birding again after what had been a rather busy period of studying for school. Winter had really now. It was very cold (at best a few degrees above freezing) now, and all water sources were basically frozen. Ice was also at large too, so it was quite tough to walk about the place without feeling as if you were going to slip over. Anyway that winters day I planned to spend the majority of my birding time in Loch of Strathbeg, as I hadn't visited the reserve since seeing the Glossy Ibis all the way back in early October and I knew the winter waterfowl would be in abundance. I was particularly keen to see a Long-tailed Duck, a bird that was managing to elude me that year. I had discovered a few days earlier that this species had been reported on the reserve, so there was a good chance of seeing them. Strathbeg wasn't my only port of call, however. I firstly stopped off at the Ythan Estuary, which was actually really worth it.
Before going to the main part of the Estuary, my Dad and I took a brief stop at the edge of Newburgh, where the aforementioned village opens out into the countryside and the beginning of the estuary. On most of our trips to the estuary my Dad and I will stop off at this little beginning part of the Estuary, not normally for long, but it sometimes proves useful, as it did that December day. As my Dad and I were watching some waders, we heard a high pitch, loud whistle. This call I had only heard once before, back in July at Meare Heath, Somereset; the whistling 'Ziii!' of the Common Kingfisher. It was instantly recognisable, and as we heard it our attention was instantly turned towards locating the bird. Sure enough, pretty close in, there was the beautiful, jewel like azure flash of a Kingfisher. It was flying incredibly fast, and because we were in the car, we could only turn so far before it went out of view. We maybe only saw it for about 10 seconds, but nonetheless was a brilliant sight though. You can rarely beat a glimpse of a Kingfisher; in my opinion its one of the greatest bird spectacles to observe. This was my second Kingfisher ever (and my first in Scotland), with my first being down in Somerset as I've said. For a long time it had been a bogey bird, but you'd be surprised that they're not so common in Scotland. Also at the Ythan of note was a group of 5 Little Grebes and good numbers of winter ducks. You don't normally see Little Grebes on the actual estuary itself, so I presumed that these grebes, as well as the Kingfisher, had been brought down to the estuary due to the hard weather.
From the Ythan we headed up to Strathbeg. Arriving at the Visitor Centre I could sense that the place was abandoned. There was no-one watching the area. However this was rightly so. The pools in front of the Visitor Centre were completely frozen and devoid of birdlife; nothing at all. I had never seen the area like this before. My Dad and I concluded that all the birds would be on other parts of the Loch, so we left the Visitor Centre and headed to the hides round the main part of the Loch. And we were right. Arriving at Bay Hide, there were big concentrations of winter wildfowl of which you couldn't see at the Visitor Centre, including many species of duck, 2 species of Swan and 4 species of geese. I was interested in noting the amount of birds in this concentration of wildfowl. I managed to come to the conclusion that there were well over 400 birds in the goose flock (a majority of them Pink-footed with a couple of Barnacles amongst them), 20 Greylag geese, 300 Wigeons, 100+ Teals, 50 Mallards, 5 Goosanders, 20 Tufted Ducks, 15 or more Pochards, a few Pintail, 30 Goldeneyes and up to x60 Whooper Swan, the latter of which was probably more common that day than Mute Swan which was also present in fairly large numbers. However, there were no Long-tailed Ducks presebt amongst this mass of wildfowl. Despite Long-tailed Duck's absence however, it was lovely to sit there watching all these birds as they communicated to each other and got on with their lives, the loud whistle of the Wigeon and the whooping of the Whooper Swan particularly prominent. As I watched these birds I could think of no other location that matched the sheer density and variety of bird species of Strathbeg. It was just fantastic! After spending a good hour or so at Bay Hide, we decided to go over to Fen Hide at the otherside of the Loch for a different perspective on things. Here the big concentrations of winter wildfowl remained. I managed to get a better look at the goose flock which had been distant at Bay Hide. A few days earlier a couple of Snow Geese had been reported amongst the flock, a fairly regular visitor in the early/later months of the year, so I was specifically looking for these now I had a far closer view of the flock. Unfortunately, despite a good scour of the flock, there were no Snow Geese to be seen. Futhermore there were no Long-tailed Ducks at this side of the Loch either. However, I was about to see something that would make my day that bit more enjoyable than it already had been.
As I sat munching on my slightly late lunch, I heard a bird call like that of a strangulated pig coming from the reeds right in front of the hide. To any birder this is an unmistakable call. It was that of a Water Rail. Because the call was coming from the reeds right in front of us we knew the Rail was in there, and were eager to locate it. We had to be patient; we even heard it scuttling in the reeds as we waited, but we got our reward. Eventually the small, plump, long-necked form of a Water Rail appeared from the reeds, walking slowly and cautiously across the ice no more than a few feet away from us, its distinctive long grey neck and red bell showing beautifully in the winter sunny. It was just great to watch it! Coincidentally, the first Water Rail I had seen was also at Meare Heath, Somerset in July of that year just like that of the Kingfisher, and was also my first for Scotland and my second ever. This pretty little bird stayed out on the ice for a half a minute before suddenly taking to the air in a low weakish flight across to the otherside of the reedbeds, where it disappeared again. The beauty of me and my Dad seeing this bird was partly the experience of watching it alone. It truly felt like our bird. Not only that but I think Water Rails are the most striking and nice-looking of the rails and crakes, excluding that of the Corncrake. The others tend to be rather more dull I think. Not long after the Water Rail had disappeared did a couple of other birders come along. We told them of our sighting and they were eager to see it. However by the time we left it hadn't appeared again. We spent the rest of that day just looking around other parts of Strathbeg. By the time we were finished it was nearing sunset, so we headed back home. It had been a lovely winter days birding.
By the time I was out birding again Christmas had passed (bird-wise for Christmas I'd got a cracking Moleskine pocket notebook to write my birding days out in and a subscription to Birdwatch magazine). My Dad and I had chosen the 27th December to go on a trip in search of one particular bird; a rare bird that had been reported for the duration of December at Burghead in Morayshire. This bird was a drake King Eider. I had seen two King Eiders before at Girdleness back in 2006, but they were both females. Seeing a drake would be an entirely new and exciting experience for m, although we'd have to drive a long way to have any chance of seeing it. The nearest big place to Burghead is Elgin, which is about 95 miles or so north of Aberdeen. Its a long drive, and would take even longer to get to due to the snowy weather that took place over that period. The hope really of this day trip to Morayshire was to reach 180 species for the year, which happened to be my target. If I saw the King Eider the list would go up to 179, and from there Long-tailed Duck (good numbers are seen from Burghead and up and down the Morayshire coast) would then make 180. That was the aim really, and of course to get fabulous views of both species. So, early that morning we left for the long drive up to Burghead. On the way we decided we'd stop off at Peterhead where 2 Iceland Gulls had been reported in the harbour there. Iceland Gull in actual fact was a bird I hadn't seen before, so seeing it at Peterhead would not only be an extra bird for the year list, but would have the satisfaction and exciting feeling of being a bird I had never seen before. At Peterhead Harbour we had a good scour for these two gulls but unfortunately despite the huge amounts of herrings and black-headeds there were, we couldn't find two white-winged gulls amongst them. We even went round towards Battery Park and the Ugie in search of them, but still only the more common gulls were present. This was a tad disappointing, but it wasn't our main stop for the day and it was still possible that I'd see both the drake King Eider and Long-tailed Ducks at Burghead.
The drive to Burghead was annoyingly long at an hour and a half from Peterhead (a good 50 or 60 miles). We took a small and quite snowy route towards Elgin which made us take longer. The weather was generally pretty good though and there was a clear melt in the snow of the previous week or so; it was more icey now really. It was around midday when we reached Elgin, and Burghead was about 10 miles north-west from there, so arrival time was at about quarter past 12, leaving us with plenty of time to birdwatch. The small town is basically built on a Peninsula which projects north-westwards onto the Moray Firth. To get to where the King Eider has been seen you have to progress through the town until you get to what appears to be a dead end. At this dead end however, there is a small track which you take down to the waterfront, and then a track from there that takes you to a place where you can park the car and look out at sea. My Dad and I didn't have much trouble finding this, but getting across the small track without the car slipping off the road due to the ice was difficult. Eventually we managed to get across however, and managed to start looking for the King Eider. 'If it is there' I thought, ' Then it should be fairly obvious'. Like all previous records of King Eider in Britain, this bird was being seen amongst a flock of Common Eiders. Once we found the Eider flock, it was either a case of it being there or not being there. And oh, it couldn't have been more satisfying! The Common Eider flock was very close in, no more than 50ft away, and amongst them was one of the most stunningly colourful ducks I had ever seen, the drake King Eider, showing absolutely superbly! It couldn't have been better for us! We didn't have to put any effort into finding the bird whatsoever, it was just there for us to see, and we didn't even have to get out of the car either. We had fantastic views. Just seeing it through the bins gave great views, but seeing it through the scope was just undescribably brilliant. As I watched I made notes of the birds stunning plumage. It had a scarlet bill, pale grey nape and almost black back, the latter of which was distinctly different from that of its common relatives. I also noted that it didn't have the sloping forehead of the Eiders. What really struck me though was how small it was in comparison to the Eiders. It was no bigger than a large Velvet Scoter, and the Eiders looked proportionally massive in comparison. Some of the time when watching it had its back to us, but regularly you could get perfect views of the whole of the bird in the slanting afternoon sun. Watching it through the scope was like being right beside the bird! It was just a magical experience. At one point it flew a little way, and during the time of absence (yes, it hadn't gone far but we really couldn't be bothered getting out of the car due to the bitterly cold weather!) we had a look out for other birds at sea. I had a possible Great Northern Diver a long way out, and, I'm very happy to say, we had a flock of 4 Long-tailed Ducks, which meant we had achieved the target of 180 species for the year! Eventually the King Eider returned and the small portion of the Common Eider that had flown off with it returned to where they had originally been, yet again giving superb views. I couldn't have been happy with the outcome of the day! After an hour or two of watching from Burghead we decided to have a quick check off the beach at the nearby village of Findhorn. Here the only birds of note really were 4 Golden Plovers in the car park and a single male Stonechat. I was absolutely delighted with the outcome of the day and went home happy and feeling that it was worth the drive all the way to see it. I wasn't expecting the fabulous views I got of the drake King Eider, so it was well worth it for that reason! Here is a couple of pictures I took when I was at Burghead, one of which you can faintly see through my camera the Eider flock the King Eider was amongst. I also have a beautiful picture of the actual King Eider itself, courtesy of Marcus Conway ebirder, who took the photo. Thank you very much for the photo Marcus!
And that, my friends, took me up to the end of the 2009 birding year. It had been absolutely fantastic year. I had achieved my aim to the exact number, and seen some quality birds! In the next entry I will be doing a Review of the Birding Year explaining just why it was so fantastic, and then after that, will get on to talking about this years birding so far. Yes, I'm slowly getting up to date!
Thanks for reading folks,
Joseph
When we arrived we saw around 6 birders with their eyes on the area pictued above. We walked up to them, and got some information as to the pipit's exact whereabouts.
The pipit stayed in the long grass by the derelict building for a good half an hour. On a couple of occasions it flitted up on to the wall, giving better views than in the grass, but it generally spent most of its time in the grass, meaning we weren't watching it constantly for half an hour, just every couple of minutes appear above the grass. When the bird did show it was so satisfying to watch; it was my first rare pipit ever, and its general behaviour and plumage patterns were interesting to study. It was funny to think that it had come all the way from Siberia, and was now flying about just outside Aberdeen! Presumably it had also been brought in by the nasty weather that had occured that week. When a group of boisterous children dressed up in their halloween costumes waded through the grass, shouting their heads off, the pipit took to the air. It stayed in flight for a while, but was tracked by each and every birder until it landed on the other side of the road. Watching it whilst in the air was interesting. The flight pattern was undulating, yet another similar feature it had to wagtails. In flight the longness of the tail was also more prominent, and it really just looked like an oversized wagtail. It was a good distance away when it was re-located (on the grass near a muddy pool on the other side of the road from the derelict building and the golf course) so views weren't really as satisfactory as before, despite the bird not being concealed by the long grass. But you could still see it there. Eventually a few impatient birders decided they were going to try and get closer to it for some record shots and better views. This was a bad move, as they managed to scare off the bird, and from then on it wasn't relocated that day. Overall I was very happy to have seen the Richard's Pipit, and it was great just to hear the bird reported and drive down to see it straight afterwards. It was also a life tick for me. I guess you could call that outing twitching, but hardly extreme twitching when it was basically in my local patch just a 15 minutes drive away and a few miles from my house in the centre of Aberdeen! The pipit would later be seen by other observers, and stayed around for another few days after my sighting.
I sat there by the birds for half an hour, just admiring them. I must admit they are one of my favourite species of passerine. My Dad watched them from the car whilst looking for other things in the bay. I eventually joined him in the car, where he pointed out a Black-throated Diver pretty close to the shore, a good year tick for us. There were also a few Red-throated Divers close in shore (the Black-throated clearly much darker than these birds), the albino oystercatcher known to Ness birders as The Freak, and a count of 18 Purple Sandpipers. We decided, having had very satisfying views of the Snow Buntings and having checked the rest of the area that we would push off from Girdleness and get on with the rest of our day as we'd planned. However, just as we were leaving, we saw Andrew again. As he saw us, he walked over to the car. He had something to tell us. What was it? 
As you can see here though, the bird was fairly knackered, all fluffed up in a ball like shape, looking very sleepy. Now I could see its whole body it was clear just how brown it was; it was way darker than any Turtle Dove I had seen previously. It stayed there for a good half an hour, with many people getting record shots of the bird. Unfortunately my camera was out of battery due to all the faffing about I had to do to get pictures of the Snow Buntings I had seen earlier that day, so I wasn't able to get any pictures of my own. Eventually, it took off from its shelter area and headed seawards. Having now had much better views, we decided it was time to head off, as it was near to getting dark. The original plan for the day, which was to check all three of my patches, had clearly not gone through, but for good reasons. Seeing that the Rufous Turtle Dove I was watching was a mega rarity and the 8th bird to ever have turned up in the UK, it was well worth staying to see the bird at Collieston, despite the amount of time that was wasted looking for it! I also love doves in general. I think they are beautiful birds, with some exquisite plumages. It was just brilliant watching it as it was a lovely looking bird and I knew it was the rarest bird in the country at that point So, very satisified, we headed back to Aberdeen, dropping off Andrew at his home in Torry on the way. 
7 Red Kites, 1 Grey Wagtail and 3 Dartford Warblers. I was particularly pleased by the number of the latter species that I saw, and the views I got of them. It seemed that the Dartford Warbler I had seen on my previous adventure into the maquis had got me familiar with the species, and having learnt its call was a big help too. The three birds I saw were all seen at different times, with my best view of one being the first bird I saw, a cracking which was down to 20 feet and was perched on top of some maquis, its tail cocked in that characteristic way. The last of the three birds seen was spotted in flight, whilst the second was seen from quite a distance away also perched on top of some maquis. But still Marmora's Warbler wasn't present; I hadn't even heard one on the holiday! I had lost all hope of seeing the species, until all of a sudden I heard a fairly quiet, croaky, monotone call coming from the maquis as I was on the way back to the apartment. When I heard that call, I knew it was a Marmora's Warbler, and now I just had to track the bird down and try and flush up. It wasn't coming from very far away, and was coming from the maquis heading westwards towards Calvi. I was determined, excited and eager to see the bird, so I headed straight into the maquis to roughly where I thought I had heard it. It called again once I was some way into the maquis. The call seemed louder now, and it felt much nearer. I continued, eventually arriving to where roughly I had heard it the second time. I then stopped, and looked around me, waiting for the bird to call again.... But it didn't.... All hope was now lost. Either it had flown when I wasn't looking, or it was just keeping very quiet. Whatever stopped it from calling, it didn't call again, and thus I wasn't able to get any closer to tracking it down. Exasperated, I gave up and rejoined my Mum, and together we walked back to the hotel... I was so close to seeing a Marmora's Warbler, but in the end, not quite! My time for birding was now up.... That was the last bit of birding I did in Corsica. The next day we would take an early flight from Calvi Aiport to Marseille, and from Marseille to Gatwick. From Gatwick we would then drive up to Aberdeen, taking a stop in Durham overnight (where a couple of days earlier an Eastern Crowned Warbler had been spotted, but by that time it had disappeared!). 
This map depicts the route we took to get to the Haut'Asco area. The route is actually rather annoying, as if you venture south east of Calvi Haut'Asco, our main destination, isn't actually a huge distance away from where we were staying. Just one problem; there's no road heading in that direction! Instead you have to take the N197 past L'Ile Rousse, and continue on it for some 90km before arriving at Ponte Leccia (circled in green). Just as you reach Ponte Leccia you take a right, and down that yellow coloured road going off from Ponte Leccia is the Asco Valley, with the skii station of Haut'Asco at the highest point and dead end of the road (marked in red). It is very beautiful and montainous, as you'll see in the pictures I put on this blog entry. Birdwise the Asco Valley and Haut'Asco are really the only places in the north-west of Corsica that you have any chance of seeing Corsican Nuthatch (which is of course endemic), Lammergeiers, and Golden Eagle. The main reason for me going to this area obviously was to see if I could see the three aforementioned species, as well as Corsican Citrl Finch. Wintibird of Birdforum also mentioned that in Asco village itself, which is about halfway through the valley, there is a good chance of seeing Cirl Bunting. With knowledge of these birds being in Asco I thought it only right to make them target birds for the holiday. So, which of these species would I see, if any? Please read on if you want to know how I did.
We continued to drive along beside the lush, low lying fields and bushes for a good 10 minutes. The road seemed to be positively straight, and we were wondering when we'd start to ascend. Eventually we came to a bend, and round this bend our surroundings changed completely. We crossed a small bridge, and all of a sudden the lush countryside disappeared, to make way for a steep sided rocky gorge cutting in towards the mountains. At the same time the road narrowed considerably and we started climbing, being pressed up right close to the sides of the gorge. As we climbed and twisted round the many sharp bends of the narrow road, the drop to the other side of us,down into the gorge and the river below, became increasingly steep. This drop was nerve-wracking as, despite us not being at great altitude thus far, it was very sheer and to exacerbate our anxiety there were no road barriers to protect vehicles from falling off the edge and very few passing places, so whenver an oncoming car passed there was barely room to get passed. We had to reverse to let a few cars through and there was always the sense that an accident was waiting to happen (especially my Mum)! However, we managed to let those cars we did meet pass. A good way through our climb up the gorge we took a stop where there was a place to park, and I carefully took a scan of the peaks for any birds of prey. I focused mainly on the highest peaks, and to my excitement I managed to instantly catch my eye on a bird of prey raising up into the sky. However, no sooner had it caught my eye than it dipped out of sight, not coming up again for the entirety of the stop. For the split second that I saw it I must say it wasn't looking awfully big, definitely not a Lammergeier and it probably wasn't even high enough altitude for Golden Eagle. However, my view was brief and I didn't see the bird circling, so you never know. I was annoyed that it had managed to elude me, and I wished that I had seen more of it, but it was a sign of hope and possible things to come.... On the stop I also had a look for any higher altitude birds such as Blue Rock Thrush and Rock Sparrow, but no such luck; just a few Coal Tits and a party of Long-tailed Tits. Here are a couple of pictures from where we stopped. You can see that there is a road barrier in the first picture, but it is, as you can see, very small and although there is a line down the middle of the road there was no way room for two vehicles!
There were no other places to stop as we drove through the gorge, so I wasn't really able to look for any raptors. Luckily there wasn't any that I could see; if there had been we wouldn't have been able to stop for them due to the narrowness of the road! After a good 15km or so we emerged from the gorge, and we entered the small village of Asco. The scenery round it was lovely, but Asco itself was a remote village which seemed kind of closed up. It didn't seem to have any life to it; very few people seemed to live there, although we did see a few peasants tending to a litter of cats and a cow was left to wander on the road. Asco didn't even seem to have any shops; I asked the peasants if there was a boulangerie anywhere and what I understood from the reply was that a van goes all the way up the valley to deliver bread to the locals. That's how little contact the village had with elsewhere! Here is a picture of the view down towards the gorge from Asco and a couple of pictures of the village itself.
As we were heading back to the car after an exploration of the village, I found an area of bush that was full of birds. They were calling strangely; a call I wasn't familiar with at all. I scanned the bushes to see if I could clap eyes on any of the birds. I did, and oh my I was absolutely delighted! There, sitting on a bush, was a superb, adult summer CIRL BUNTING. This was the first Cirl Bunting I had ever seen, a life tick for me! I had been told by wintibird of Birdforum that I had a chance of seeing them in the village, and now I had seen one! It had a beautiful plumage, a lovely contrast of yellow, black and russety brown. The top of its head was mostly grey, and it had a wee crest. Its breast was a lemon yellow. Its face too was mostly yellow, but with a black neck and a black stripe right through its eye. The rest of its body was a russety brown/reddy colour. It was later joined by another bird of the same gender. Watching the two birds together was an experience I would never forget, not just the feeling of happiness I had from seeing them for the first time, but they were such gorgeous birds; the colour of their plumages were so defined, so perfect! The two birds eventually flew off, and that was the last I saw of any Cirl Buntings. I was almost positive there were more Cirl Buntings flying about in those bushes, but I didn't have time to look for any more as my Mum was waiting in the car, ready to take the final leg of the journey up to the skii station at Haut'Asco. Now we had gone through Asco village we were at a much higher altitude than we had been when we were driving through the gorge. A little way after Asco we took ta brief stop to take a picture of a beautiful view ahead of us, where you could see a high mountain covered in snow white cloud in front of us. I looked for a flock of birds that I had seen take off from the road. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to track down these birds. However, a male Sardinian Warbler and a pair of stonechats were seen in the bushes on the slopes, 2 Red Kites were circling above me, and a couple of Ravens flew by.
At the time I took the last of the last picture the road was winding incredibly high, and all of a sudden, just a couple of kilometres later, there was a man made clearing and the road came to a stop. We had arrived at Haut'Asco! It was an absolutely beautiful location; I had never been anywhere so high or with such brilliant views in my life. We were right up amongst the rocky and jagged peaks of the mountains. It was like being a bowl, we were completely surrounded by them and from the car park we could see absolutely miles down the valley towards the gorge. The mountains felt overwhelmingly huge, wherever you looked they seemed to be looming over you. Some peaks were higher than others, and some even had snow on them, this was due to the much colder weather, which was understandable at an altitude of 1422m (4665ft)! One thing for sure, this was the perfect location for Lammergeier and Golden Eagle! I'll let the pictures show you just how spectacular it was up there! The following are taken from the car park at the skii station, which was pretty much abandoned due to the time of year.
After getting use to the sheer beauty of our surroundings we headed away from the skii station in order to find a place to sit and scan the mountains for any bird of prey that decides to venture above the mountains. We didn't have to walk far when we came to a clearing, with closer and greater views of the peaks than we had before. It was here that my Mum and I would spend the afternoon looking for Lammergeier, Golden Eagle and Corsican Nuthatch. Here are some more pictures taken from the clearing, and a link to a video I took of the landscape.
After our exploration of Calenzana, we came to the conclusion that we'd spend the morning exploring a few of the other mountainside villages within the arrondissement of Calvi, and then spend the afternoon doing things around the hotel. Our main port of call village wise was Sant Antonino. However, we planned to see some of the villages on the way to San Antonino. So we made our way into the beautiful, lush Corsican countryside, entering the steep, winding roads with astounding panoramic views once again. Our first village stop was at a place called Montegrosso, a village quite similar to Calenzana. However, Montegrosso was perched on a hill, had better views than Calenzana, had bell tower as its defining feature and looked slightly more rugged than Calenzana. Montegrosso wasn't bad for birds either; zipping around the bell tower (see pictures below) were loads of Eurasian Crag Martins, maybe about 50 birds in all. Some were constantly zipping round and round the bell tower, whilst others decided to sit on the bell tower itself. Also sitting on the bell tower were up to 10 Spotless Starlings. Meanwhile, in the trees round the village there was a small party of Long-tailed Tits amongst the common Blue and Great Tits, and a single Sardinian Warbler was heard calling. Surprisingly no Red Kites were seen from the viewpoint at Montegrosso or flying over the village itself. Here are a few pictures of Montegrosso (one is from the viewpoint).
Sant Antonino, as you can see, is the cluster of many ancient houses clustered at the top of the hill. These ancient houses border a maze of narrow cobbled streets that ascend to the very top of the village. After our stop at the cafe we walked all the way to the top of the village, passing through those lovely streets. From the top, which is at a great altitude, the views are just astounding, far better than from the car park, you could see a very long way, right down to the coast which was further away than it had been in Montegrosso, as well as all the way down to Calvi, which was a good 25km away, and round the corner to parts of the island you couldn't see from other viewpoints. I wish I had got pictures from there, as it was so beautiful. We stayed up there and admired the view for a good 15 minutes, and then made our way slowly down to the car park again. We were quite tired when we reached the bottom again, as the climb was taxing in its way! After a little rest, we decided it was time to make our way back to the hotel for some lunch, and we did so. 
L'Ile Rousse, like Calvi, is built on a bay. Its name (The Red Isle) refeea to the rocky islets of red porphyry, a type of rock, that are bounded slightly to the north west of the town. Most people visit the town to see these red rocks. However, we didn't visit them, as we were only hoping to visit the town briefly and get some food/money there. To the south of the rocks is an immaculate, white sand beach similar to the beach in the Calvi (but with no pine forests), of which we did visit. Birdwise on the beach there was nothing; just a few Yellow-legged Gulls. I guess this is explainable, as the beach at L'Ile Rousse is literally right in by the town, whilst Calvi Beach is more extensive and continues quite a few kilometeres out of the town. Here is a pictures I took at L'Ile Rousse Beach.
It overall doesn't quite have the beauty of Calvi Beach, and the same can be said about the town. L'Ile Rousse was by no means as nice as Calvi. It didn't have the same feel to it. The town has an old and new part of it; the new town towards the east and the old town in the west. Between these two different areas of the town there is square called Le Place Paoli, named after the founder of the town Pasquale Paoli, a Corsican patriot and leader. This square was arguably the nicest part of L'Ile Rousse, very close to the beach and with some nice architecture and a very typical French market.
So, after a little exploration of both the old and new town, we headed towards the Regino Valley. The change in scene from the town to the mountainside was quick and drastic. Very soon after we left Ile Rousse we started to climb, driving up the foothills on very twisty and narrow roads. We were now in the heart of the mountains that we were seeing from our apartment at Residence Le Padro. As we made our way upwards, I had a very brief stop in search of any mountain bird life. In this stop I saw several flock Red Kites as well as 4 Ravens. We kept climbing and climbing, going through many a typical Corsican mountainside village, when we eventually reached the village of Santa Reparata. Looking down from here we could see just what were we'd be spending the rest of the day; the Regino Valley itself, covered in a mass of beautiful meditarreanean flora that was mostly dominated by chesnut, olive and oak trees, and surrounding it all, high, jagged and rocky mountains, the highest of which were snowcapped. Also from here you could see a big lake and some vineyards, both of which we would be paying a visit to, as reccomended by wintibird and the latter of which we would be visiting first. The prospect of spending time in this beautiful area of countryside was a lovely and exciting thought, so without further ado, we made our way into the valley, creeping down the narrow roads slowly and surely until eventually we were in the heart of the flora. On the way to the Clos Regino Vineyards, as they were called, we took several stops. I obviously seized the chance to have a look for birds on these stops. The first of these stops was the most frutiful. Parking the car on a little layby, we took a walk right into the trees. On this walk I saw around 30 Red Kites, all in one massive flock basically just circling the mountains and the surrounding area. I had never seen so many birds of prey together in the sky before, let alone Red Kites! It was a beautiful spectacle! In the trees and bushes themselves were plenty of warblers, and to my relief and delight I was finally able to see and identify one. My first Sardinian Warbler of the holiday! It first caught my attention when I heard it calling (a loud trilling call, trr-trr-trr-trr-trrr-trrr) nearby, and after a scan through the bins, I found it scurrying about in a bush; It was a beautiful male that was instantly identified with its fully jet black head and red eyes! The view was brief as after about 10 seconds it went out of sight, but it was enough to ensure instant identification. I must say, I was really happy and relieved about seeing this Sardinian Warbler, as from that point onwards I would know its call from having heard it call before seeing it. No doubt there were many more of them in there, and lots of other species of passerines! The area was virtually teeming with bird calls (lots of Sardinians were calling), much more so than anywhere on the island I had been thus far. During the other stops on the way to the vineyards, I didn't see anything new, just a similar variety of birds. Here's a picture of me watching the Red Kites:
So, after all the stops on the way, we finally arrived at the Clos Regino Vineyards. As we were going up the road to the vineyards, we were blissed by the closest view of a Red Kite yet. It was sitting on a post, and I managed to get a picture of it. The fact it was so close gave me the chance to study its beautiful plumage. When my Mum turned on the engine again to drive on it took off on very long wings. Previous to this it had been sitting there proudly with its head turned in our direction, as you can see in the picture. In the picture, you can't see its features so well, but from its outline you should be able to tell its one.
I searched for Rock Sparrow for about 20 minutes, but wasn't able to find one in the end. But I did have two possibles, which I flushed up from the vines but was unable to identify. They weren't calling and looked Rock Sparrow-sized, but I couldn't guarentee that that was what they were as the light was quite poor. However, there were plenty of other birds here, with several Sardinian Warblers calling, a good number of Goldcrests, a few Jays, and lots of Coal Tits and Blue Tits, as well as a Great Spotted Woodpecker, a few more Red Kites and a Kestrel. I also still had chances of seeing Rock Sparrow elsewhere, so I wasn't too annoyed. After looking for the Rock Sparrows, we then aimed to head down to the lake which wintibird had mentioned was good for all sorts of things, including 5 species of warbler (Blackcap, Sardinian Warbler, Dartford Warbler, Marmora's Warbler and Cetti' s Warbler), Rock Sparrow, several species of finch and Corn and Cirl Bunting. However, we got lost when trying to find the road to the lake, taking a big detour further into the mountains. We took a late lunch (at around 2:30pm) on our detour. A picture is below from where we had it. Here bird wise Jays were shrieking, there were several Ravens and another male Sardinian Warbler showed itself in a beautiful fashion, found without the aid of it calling.
After lunch and a good look at the map of the area, we soon discovered that we had quite obviously gone some way off course, so we set back in the direction we had originally come from in hope that we would find the road to the lake. We did, and it was hardly any distance from the vineyards, so how we had come to miss it was a mystery! Going down this road took us deeper into the valley and more amongst the flora. Eventually, the lake came into view, and we parked in a little area convieniently close to it. When I got out, I was instantly enchanted by the bird life. As soon as I got out, I could see and hear loads of birds. Sardinian and other warblers were calling incessantly, with the occasional Cetti's Warbler bursting into song, as well as many other strange bird calls and familiar British ones such as Robins, Stonechats flew from bush top to bush top (the occcasional pair seen together), and Red Kites were everywhere! It was at the lake in particular that I discovered the sheer abundnance of the Red Kite in Corsica. At one point, I had 12 birds in view at once, with half of them in flight and half proudly perched on tree tops, and this was without scan. I could see silhouttes of other birds of prey in the distance that were presumably also Red Kites. I thought their commonness was so enchanting and so delightful; it really was a lovely sight to see some of the loveliest birds (in my opinion) in such plenitude! And their, high pitched whistling call was really nice too! They were so common that I managed to video a few birds in flight. You can see the video now on this link to Birdforum TV (Blogspot can't load my videos). Apologies though, the camera shakes about A LOT! And also the program I am using doesn't have amazing quality, so apologies for that too. Note that this video takes you directly to the video window rather than opening up a new one.
