Chasing Flamingos Part I: Notteri, Villasimus, Sardinia

As soon as I discovered Villasimius had its own flock of non-migratory flamingos, I knew we had to track them down! The problem is these creatures are quite shy and don’t want human contact. That’s a problem when you want to take photographs of them and although our boy devised a cunning way of spotting them we were still too far away to get decent photos.

The boy’s cunning plan on spotting flamingos at Notteri

Stagno di Notteri

If you’ve been following our journey around Sardinia you’ll recognise this lake from our Porto Guinco photos where it was nestled in the middle of the ‘three seas’.

The blue stretch in the middle is the lake of Notteri

The Stagno di Notteri (Lake) is an ornithology wetland and covers a vast area of about 34 hectares. Not only is the ‘pond’ a striking natural beauty but its also a protected park! This means no getting in the water with the birds.Bah humbug!

The flamingos of Notteri

The lake receives no water from either the sea or streams and consequently can dry up in the summer months. Owing to its isolation from water sources and closeness to the sea, I am informed that the pond water tends to be very salty. Although it cannot be too salty because there are large numbers of fish living in it.

Once upon a time the peninsula where the Porto Guinco tower sits used to be an island but geologists believe that sand bars drifted in causing it to become part of the mainland and in the process creating the lake of Notteri.

The boardwalk

There is a boardwalk which leads onto Notteri beach (Spiaggia di Notteri) and then keeping left we were able to walk around the peripheries of the lake.

The boardwalk at Notteri

The water

The water is crystal clear and so appealing. It is tantalising not being able to just wade in, especially as those pesky flamingos stay right in the middle and that lake is BIG!

Clear waters

The waters from Stagno di Notteri

The fish

As we were walking along the banks of the pond, being careful not to distrun anything, we disturbed huge shoals of tiny fish that were basking in the sun. They moved so fast and collectively that we weren’t able to actually see or identify them. As we walked past though the noise their movement made was loud enough to make us jump (the first time).