Report from 14 to 20 August 2022

Due to a little mishap, my travel plans went awry, and I ended up spending the Ferragosto holiday at La Cassinazza. I was richly rewarded with a new and most unexpected species for La Cassinazza: a Red-necked Grebe! This juvenile, which was swimming in one of the impoundments, was unfortunately quite wary, and rapidly disappeared into the reeds, never to be seen again. Another unusual encounter was with a Bluethroat, a species with only a handful of previous records here. The commonest migrants today were Garden Warblers, Pied Flycatchers, and yet more Bee-eaters. The first Ruff of the fall put in an appearance, and a single Pochard was in with the commoner ducks.

The Lang’s Short-tailed Blue Leptotes pirithous is a small butterfly in the family Lycaenidae, with two characteristic thin ‘tails’ on the hindwing. It is present in southern Europe and the Mediterranean. I had only seen it once before at La Cassinazza, three years ago, and did not manage to photograph it. This time I succeeded.