White Wintering Birds - Part 2

The Little Egret is a very common bird in the Mediterranean wetlands and also the number of breeding pairs is increasing, fortunately. Nevertheless every time I watch one of this small herons hunting in a pond is amazing. A restless hunt with jerk movements shows great results with dozens of small fishes captured in a little time.

The Circeo National Park shows good feeding opportunities for herons despite the management of the area is weak. This Park was founded in 1934 and expanded in the '70s. However the effect of land reclaim of the early XX century and the growing number of human settlements isn't balanced by wildlife management actions. 

White Wintering Birds - Part 1

This is the first post of three dedicated to three white birds wintering here in central Italy. This winter has been short with a few very cold weeks. Ponds have frozen also along the coasts and this is not usual here. It has been fun watching black-headed gulls go ice skating on city ponds around Rome. On the other hand thousands of them went around cultivated fields looking for earthworms. When flying over fields, gulls were often drifted by the northern wind blowing continously during those days.