Sicily (Trapani area) October 2010 (1 Viewer)

I will add to this when I have time over the next week or so. This wasn't a high intensity birding trip, it was a family half term break. Those wanting to see accounts of Siciliian Rock Partridges, Lanners and Pallas's Gull should look away now.

Hopefully though I will be able to give some useful information to people considering an alternative to Mallorca and the like for family friendly birding, as Trapani really does have merits in that regard. Firstly it is possible to fly to Trapani at reasonable price, and transfer to Trapani itself by bus for less than a fiver. Parts of the extensive saltpan complex south of Trapani can be reached in a not very arduous walk from the town. Other sites (including the bay of Masala) are accessible by public transport, which I was pleased about as the local approach to driving was clearly robust...

We saw about 76 species whilst doing a lot of normal tourist things. I will put a full list up later, after summarising the sites we visited in turn.

More to follow...

Stephen.

Day 1

We explored the town of Trapani all day today. Crudely summarised it is an old town and port with newer development on the landward lide of this. We found it a great place to stay, with a pleasing mixture of the historic and modern.

First bird of the trip was a Grey Wagtail from our apartment (we arrived after dark the night before). Feral Pigeon, Yellow-llegged Gull, 'Spanish' Sparrow and Robin soon followed. I had permission to do a spot of seawatching at the western tip of the town, this produced no seabirds but there was a Blue Rock Thrush in the vicinity as well as Stonechats, Goldfinches and passing Skylark flocks. A rather surreal moment as well as a local emptied a bag of three octopuses on the ground in front of me, I think he may have thought the scope was a camera.

After lunch we walked along the norther shore of the Trapani peninsula. The trip list ticked over with Black-headed Gulls, Hooded Crows, Little Egrets , a Common Sandpiper, Sardinian and Fan-tailed Warblers. Near a deserted hotel we explored an area of rough ground where there were a few Crested Larks, and pleasingly a Slender-billed Gull drifted past.

Early evening we walked back to the port, where a female Redstart in incongruous surroundings was clearly a migrant. Towards dusk a huge sparrow roost gathered near the town park, they were difficult to see well in terms of Spanish versus Italian, but it was impossible not to hear them. It was as impressive aurally as any British Starling roost.

Day 2

The main part of the day was given over to visiting the ancient hilltop city of Erice. Our guide book said that it was overtly touristy but nevertheless well worth a visit, and that summed it up nicely. It is possible to drive up to the town but there is a fantastic cable car from the outskirts of Trapani which adds greatly to the whole visitor experience.

On the way to the cable car several Magpies were noted and a Firecrest was seen. On Erice itself the great elevation seemed promising for raptors, and indeed a couple of Buzzards and Kestrels were seen but nothing more interesting. After we had explored the town we walked right round its outskirts looking and istening for woodland birds. Short-toed Treecreeper was the undoubted highlight with other additions to the trip list including Blue and Great Tits, Jay, Chaffinch and Wren.

In th early evening tried another brief seawatch from the harbour, which is mentioned as an excellent seawatching site in 'A Birdwatcher's Guide to Italy'. Again it was rather disappointing, though there were a couple of very distant Cory's Shearwaters heading south.

Day 3

There are three inhabited Egadi islands off the coast of Trapani. The one best placed for mirants, Marettimo, only has a skeleton ferry service at this time of year. We decided to go to the larger Favignana rather than Levanzo of the two realistic choices. On a glorious day we chilled on and near the beach in the morning, with Linnets the only new birds for the trip.

In the afternoon we took a walk up the hillside above the main settlement, not least because the wild habitat alongside the road looked promising. This duly delivered with decent views of a Rock Sparrow on the overhead wires, as well as another Blue Rock Thrush by the roadside. A Yellow Wagtail was new for the trip but couldn't be assigned to race, other new birds were Black Redstart and Song Thrush. THere were also plenty of lizards and crickets and a single Swallowtail butterfly.

The trip out hadn't been good for looking for shearwaters because the windows of teh ferry were filthy. The boat on the way back was cleaner, but other than views of the small island of Formica there wasn't much to see.

Day 4

Headed for the Trapani saltpans on foot from the apartment today. Walking alongside a rather ordinary looking ditch on the edge of town I was most surprised to see a Corncrake move away from the water. It then 'hid' behind a tree, but miscalculated and I could clearly see its head and neck still. A real bonus. The first Grey Herons and Moorhens of the trip were also seen on this ditch.

From what I had read I thought it would be touch and go whether there would be many birds on the saltpans. I needn't have worried as there were hundreds of waterbirds within easy scoping distance of the main road, and some which were extemely approachable indeed.

There were perhaps 300 or so flamingos on view, some very close. There were also many Little Egrets, plenty of Great White Egrets and about 30 or so Spoonbills. Wader included good numbers of Black-winged Stilts, Avocets, Dunlin, Redshank, Little Stint and Ruff and smaller numbers of Curlew, Snipe and Greenshank.

Slender-billed Gulls were easily seen, always in single figure groups but a number of such groups dotted around. Several Marsh Harriers and a Peregrine were hunting over the expanse. Great Crested and Little Grebe were seen on a number of the saltpans and surrounding waters. New passerines for the trip included Serin, Willow Warbler, White Wagtail and Tree Sparrow.

The saltpan area is huge and would be a real challenge to work properly given that a lot of it is private. Given the number of birds that can be seen from the periphery though that is a minor problem.

Day 5

Caught the train to another historic town, Marsala. It was the worst day of the trip weather wise so some time was spent standing under archways and in cafes. Between the showers we saw a range of species similar to those in and around Trapani, notably Blue Rock THrush, Slender-billed Gull and several Black Redstarts.

We visited the Roman Museum near Capo Lilibeo. Capo Lilibeo is another cite mentioned as good for seawatching in the Italian site guide, and today the conditions appeared promising with squalls and onshore winds. Again though, the results were extremely disappointing.

An evening stroll to the northern fringe of the Trapani saltpans to watch the flamingos and egrets did add to the trip totals as a Sandwich Tern was found roosting with Black-headed and Slender-billed Gulls. On the way back counted the Spanish / Italian Sparrows heading over the road and in ten minutes c3000 went over, this was just one of the flight paths into what is clearly a very large roost.

Day 6

Caught the train to Mozia-Birgi to walk the edge of the Bay of Marsala, known as Marsala Pond, to view the historic island of Moxia and hopefully see some birds also. Or to be more accurate caught the train twice, after it reversed back into Trapani station and everyone got off before being allowed back on after a short delay. Also spent several miles trying to shake off a dog which adopted us for the day...

The Marsala Pond is highly praised in Ruggieri and Festari's book, and sounded like a better bet than the saltpans. It is an area of sea protected from the elements by offshore islands and apparently holds good numbers of birds. In practice it wasn't great on this occasion - a Wigeon, a Great Crested Grebe, a few herons and egrets, a Slender-billed Gull and a few Common Sandpipers and waders. The day was redeemed in birding terms however by the saltpans nature reserve at San Teodoro. There were good numbers of flamingos, herons, egrets and Cormorants here and a selections of waders of which Bar-tailed Godwit and Lapwing were new. Several Marsh Harriers and an Osprey hunted in the vicinity.

Several large Starling flocks remained frustratingly distant but given their size I suspected they were not Spotless Starlings. In Trapani early evening a couple of Gannets passed distantly offshore, but no shearwaters again.

Day 7

Another visit to the Trapani saltpans in pleasant morning sunshine afforded more quality close up wader watching from alongside the road. The first new bird of the trip on the day was a drake Mallard, followed more satisfyingly by a Black-necked Grebe.

Subsequently large numbers of ducks were seen along a major channel between the saltpans. As well as more Mallard and Wigeon four more which were new for the trip were added. These were a single drake Tufted Duck, 3 Gadwall and numbers of Shoveler and Teal. Took down four flamingo rings from three schemes - Italy, France and Algeria.

We arrived at Birgi airport in plenty of time for the flight so had a wander round the car park in the hope of a Spotless Starling. In the event a tremendous Starling roost formed in the pines in the car park itself, all the ones seen well were normal Starlings and presumably they all were. There were also large numbers of Spanish / Italian Sparrows roosting in these pines, as well as Tree Sparrows though apparently in lesser numbers. Wildlife can of course thrive in unlikely places but I was nevertheless surprised to see such a large roost of birds in the grounds of an international airport.

Conclusion

If you are looking for family friendly birding at affordable cost then Trapani is worth considering if Ryanair fly from near you. If anybody reads this in future and wants further information give me a shout.

Stephen.

Nice write-up, my trip to Sicily many years back resulted in a mere fraction of that lot!