Glass-like lake

An egret flying over a quite glass-like lake in winter in a grey day is a neat representation of a christmassy mood. Moreover the black & white choice amplify the feeling of a monochromatic, wet and cold morning waiting waterfowls on the lake shore. Wish a happy new year to all the blog readers.

Wintertime

There will be quiet... after the storm

A walk in the wood in early autumn

Enjoying a walk in a wood at the beginning of autumn can imply some more or less unexpected meetings with animals. Wild-boars or small frogs, in any case unforeseen gatherings are always nice. Here below some shots of four common species (wild boar, fallow deer, jay, Italian stream frog) in woods and forests of central Italy that are not hard to meet inside the protected areas

Spring migration 2015

This is a hard hot Mediterranean summer. It's started earlier than ususal, in May. In that period I was at the Strait of Messina studying raptor migration with radar equipment together with my collegueas from Ornis Italica. Since it was hot, birds passed moslty very high gaining altitude thanks to the strong thermal currents. However the migration had some impressive days with a lot of raptors passing over our watchsite. Some more than 15.000 raptor have been counted from a single point. Here following some pictures of raptors and of the Strait that I have taken last spring.

The falcon's lunch

In the small Mediterranean islands there is often a high density of breeding Peregrine falcons. Probably this is due to different factors. First of all twice a year it occurs a huge passage of migrating passerines representing a food source of paramount importance for falcons. Moreover in the last years the anthropic pressure was reduced (not everywhere) thanks also to the conservationist measures. Therefore at the island of Marettimo in autumn it's easy to see up to five falcons hunting together. In this island there are only few breeding pairs of Eleonora's falcons and therefore peregrines are the commonest breeding raptors in the island. When they hunt they form like a barrier and several passerines become food for falcons. Here below some shots taken in Marettimo il late autumn. An adult Peregrine falcon, his lunch and the sunrise from the island.