Hi all.
The Po Delta, NE Italy, is an extraordinary mosaic of land and water, offering good conditions for feeding and nesting to many waterbird species. The natural heritage is protected by two parks, covering an area over 65,000 hectares. Before flowing into the Adriatic, the Po divides into a multitude of branches; land and sea embrace each other to form woodland and pinewoods, "bonelli" (areas of shallow water with huge reed beds) and fishing basins where the silence is unexpectedly broken by various birdsongs. At the easter end of the province of Ferrara, after a journey of more than six hundred kilometres in which the great river has crossed the entire Po Valley, it arrives within sight of the sea and here gives rise to one of nature's most beautiful spectacles: its main course until now slow and majestic, divides to form its Delta: an enormous hand with its fingers open penetrates into the sea. The Po Delta Regional Park protects and enhances these environments which are among the most beautiful in Italy and are hardly known to the european public. The Delta territory constitutes the largest and most complex of Italy's wetlands and is internationally recognised as a strategic point in the migration of numerous species of birds and a nesting site for many others. It is a composition of natural and modified environments, modelled over the course of decades by man and the forces of nature, where naturalistic phenomena alternate with man-made ones. These wetlands represents a real paradise for birdlife, where a total of 376 species were recorded so far.
From 3 to 6 May 2006 I guided a group of birders coming from Switzerland, organized by the tour operator Arcatour:
http://www.arcatour.ch/
among some of the most representative habitats like the nature reserve of Valle Mandriole and Punte Alberete, with the famous watchtower of Valle Mandriole, the Valli di Comacchio, the ricedields and the heronry of Jolanda di Savoia, the dunes of San Basilio, the Po di Volano area with Valle Bertuzzi and the Lago delle Nazioni, the Sacca di Goro and the Valli di Gorino.
We were able to find a total of 135 bird species in four day. The following is the bird list for the area during those four day.
---Species account:
Little Grebe
Great Crested Grebe
Black-necked Grebe
Great Cormorant
Pygmy Cormorant
Bittern
Little Bittern
Black-crowned Night Heron
Squacco Heron
Cattle Egret
Little Egret
Great Egret
Gray Heron
Purple Heron
White Stork
Glossy-Ibis
Spoonbill
Greater Flamingo
Mute Swan
Black Swan
Graylag Goose
Shelduck
Gadwall
Mallard
Garganey
Northern Shoveler
Red-crested Pochard
Pochard
Ferruginous Duck
Black Kite
Marsh Harrier
Montagu's Harrier
Sparrow hawk
Common Buzzard
Kestrel
Red-footed Falcon
Hobby
Quail
Pheasant
Moorhen
Coot
Oystercatcher
Black-winged Stilt
Pied Avocet
Collared Pratincole
Ringed Plover
Gray Plover
Lapwing
Little Stint
Temminck Stint
Curlew Sandpiper
Dunlin
Ruff
Common Snipe
Wimbrel
Curlew
Spotted Redshank
Redshank
Greenshank
Green Sandpiper
Wood Sandpiper
Common Sanspiper
Ruddy Turnstone
Mediterranean Gull
Little Gull
Black-headed Gull
Yellow-legged Gull
Slender-billed Gull
Gull-billed Tern
Caspian Tern
Sandwich tern
Common Tern
Littele Tern
Whiskered Tern
Black Tern
White-winged Black Tern
Feral Pigeon
Turtle Dove
Wood Pigeon
Collared Dove
Cuckoo
Long-heared Owl
Swift
Kingfisher
Bee-eater
Hoopoe
Wrineck
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Skylark
Bank Swallow
Barn Swallow
House Martin
Tree Pipit
Meadow Pipit
Yellow Wagtail
Winter Wren
Robin
Nightingale
Black Redstart
Winchat
Stonechat
Northern Wheatear
Blackbird
Marsh Warbler
Reed Warbler
Great Reed warbler
Melodious warbler
Common Warbler
Blackcap
Bonelli's Warbler
Willow Warbler
Spotted Flycatcher
Bearded Tit
Long-tailed Tit
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Golden Oriole
Red-backed Shrike
Lesser Gray Shrike
Jay
Magpie
Jackdaw
Hooded Crow
Starling
Tree Sparrow
Italian Sparrow
Spanish Sparrow
Chaffinch
Serin
Greenfinch
Goldfinch
Siskin
Reeed Bunting
Cirl Bunting