4th - 11th October - San Lorenzo, Sicily, Italy

Back in June, Helen and I had a week in Sicily, the trip then had two objectives, one to visit the eastern side of Sicily, an island of Italy we had both always wanted to visit, the other to check out the area we would be staying with the extended family later in the year.  Fast forward and Friday the 4th October saw us setting off at an unholy hour to arrive at Gatwick around 5.00 am where we met the family and flew to Catania.  The morning was not without its struggles but we finally arrived at our beautiful Villa in a little urbanisation close to the fishing village of Marzamemi and about 25 minutes from the city of Noto, both of which we visited in June.

I didn't have my camera but was able to capture some of the wildlife around the garden of the villa with my phone camera and record some of the interesting bird sighting in and around the villa.

The days are much shorter than they were in June and the sun being lower in the sky meant that the sunsets were going to be quite spectacular and this was certainly the case on our first evening.

As the light of the day ebbed away the wailing of Stone Curlews could be heard from the adjacent fields.

The following morning the sun was rising at just around 7.00am, and very quickly things warmed up and the lizards came out on the wall in the sunshine.  These are Italian Wall Lizards, there is a sub-species known as the Sicilian Wall Lizard.

You could hear them as they scurried about below the bushes and as they dropped from their sunny spot on the leaves.

In this light they look brown, but in certain angles they could be seen as a green.

There were plenty of butterflies about, mostly blues flitting around the flowers.  But the first good picture I could get was of a Small Copper.

Finally managed to get one of the blues, this one a Long-tailed Blue.

There were also good numbers of Painted Lady butterflies.

Birds around the villa were mostly identified by song and call.  Behind and by the side of the villa were vineyards and Crested Larks could be seen singing from the fence posts and in the air, while Spotless Starling and Jays were around the wires and conifer trees.  I also missed a fly past by a Greater Flamingo.

The other blue butterfly in the garden were Lang's Short-tailed Blue.

The underwing is very distinctive, even if the picture is a little blurred.

The best image of one of the Italian Wall Lizards.

Late afternoon, Yellow Wagtail were calling and flying around the vineyard, while Swallows were moving through heading south.  The Stone Curlew were wailing once again after sunset and later in the evening there was a Caspian Tern calling overhead, curtesy of the Merlin app.

Here a 360 degree video clip of the garden and villa accompanied by the end of a "Certain Romance" by the Arctic Monkeys

The following morning the sun rise was challenging the sunset for the best colour.

I had hoped I would see a Swallowtail on this trip and I was duly rewarded when this individual arrived.

I was also able to get some video.

A Bath White had teased me for a few days but I finally managed to get an almost acceptable image.

Back in June we came down to the area to check things out, we also had lunch in the little fishing village of Marzamemi.  We went back for lunch with the family.  Walking around the square I picked out these two images.  A Prickly Pear Cactus that resembled a rabbit!

And a new piece of glassware mounted on the wall, the afternoon sunshine sending a nice shadow.

We had a couple of days on the beach, exploring the rock pools at low tide there were small fish and shrimps and hermit crabs amongst the rocks.  Around the beach and rocks there were also Wall Brown butterflies but they would not stop.

Our last day on the beach the sea was calm and warm, the colours in the sea really had to be seen as they were beautiful.

The last day saw high level dust in the sky that finally produced another stunning sunset.

So the end to another wonderful week in Sicily.  Our trip home was no less eventful, finally ending with one of our bags left in Catania, hopefully it will catch up with us soon.