After Vienna, my next opportunity to take pictures of the local fauna came this morning in Shkodër, “the fifth-most-populous city” of Albania. The sky was dark and rainy this morning, but the air was a heck of a lot warmer than in Estabrook Park, or so I hear, and the Ebu Beker Mosque, across the street from our hotel, is surrounded by nice, garden-like grounds.
My first treat of the morning was getting my best picture yet of a black redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros), which we first saw last summer in Vilnius. You can really see its red “start”, and its behavior reminded me of the bluebirds I see in Estabrook Park: perching in a tree to look for morsels to eat and then swooping down to the ground to grab them.
The Eurasian blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla), which we already saw in Delft three summers ago, were a lot more shy, and that’s just how I remember them.
Finally the trees were full of Eurasian collared-doves (Streptopelia decaocto), which we first saw on the outskirts of Delft three autumns ago, and here are a pair squinching their heads down so that you can just barely make out their black collars.
The Albania leg of our trip, combined with the weather, didn’t leave a lot of time for taking pictures, but I did get to see my first ever Dalmatian pelicans (Pelecanus crispus) soaring over Rozafa Castle from Lake Shkodër yesterday. Now we are in Budva, Montenegro, on the Adriatic coast for a couple of days, and if the weather cooperates, I should have many more opportunities. I’ll keep you posted.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 