Back in June, I decided to escape our wettest spring since 1905 by organising a short, last-minute trip to Corsica. This was one of just two places left in Europe where I could reasonably expect to find more than one new bird, the other being Spain, and I hired a local guide to maximise my chances. This proved to be a wise move since, within the first couple of hours of my first morning on the island, I had already seen all three target species. The first, and my 2800th species in the world, was this handsome Corsican Finch singing all around us, closely followed by a distant Marmora's Warbler giving a brief burst of its scratchy song. The final new species of the morning and my most wanted of course, was Corsican Nuthatch up at the Col de Sorba.
With another three full days left on the island, I could then relax and enjoy some of the butterflies of the island, including a couple more endemics like this Corsican Heath.
I ended up seeing 31 species of butterfly including the extremely rare and critically endangered Large Blue, as well as my first Cleopatra and Cardinal Fritillary.
