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.

Current Zoology

The cover of the October issue of Current Zoology shows a collage of two pictures of my friend Ugo Mellone and a picture of mine, a flying Common Buzzard (here below).

Flock of migrating Black Kites

A flock of Black Kites moving across the skies of Southern Italy over the Aspromonte mountain

The first migrant

As the the daylight decreases then raptors become more likely to start their migration. As usual, at the beginning of August the first Black Kites appear over the skies of southern Italy. This year I have catched the sight of the first one in the early morning flying over the beach. The kite was trying not to be blown off over the Ionian Sea from the strong western wind using flapping flight. 

Here in the pictures below two shots from Black Kites taken at their breeding grounds in Central Italy some weeks ago. The pictures show two different individuals close to their nests. The one flying has spent all the reproductive season defending his territory around its nest by flying over human people and calling frequently.

A wet summer

This summer (and the spring too) is particularly wet here in Central Italy and therefore the landscape is green and it doesn't looks like the usual Mediterranean summer landscape. Also the pools are still full of water. Therefore it is not unexpected that small animals like amphibians and reptiles had a great reproductive season. Here in the pictures below two of those species.