---Original message from Bryony:
I had a chance to visit Italy for 3 days and hired a birding guide named Menotti Passarella for a day in the Po River delta. It was an absolutely wonderful time if you ever have the opportunity. Menotti runs www.birdingitaly.net, and is a great wildlife advocate and crusader for getting Italy more thoroughly on the birding map. We had a full day and nearly 70 birds in the region above Ravenna and below Venice on May 17, 2006. Amazing nesting area for lots of migrants from Africa. I'll give you that list first:
Hoopoe
Bee Eater
Roller
Italian Sparrow
Collared Dove
Magpie
Starling
Barn Swallow
House Martin
Hooded Crow
Goldfinch (very different looking than ours)
Blackbird
European Kestrel
Turtle Dove
Gray Heron
Montagu's Harrier
Stonechat
Red-backed Shrike
Great Reed Warbler
Spotted Flycatcher
Corn Bunting
Tree Sparrow
Yellow Wagtail (Italian variety)
Yellow-legged Gull
Common Buzzard
Great Cormorant
Zitting Cisticola
Serin
Cuckoo
Common Tern
Blackcap
Greenfinch
Little Egret
Squacco Heron
Great Crested Grebe
Spoonbill
Great Egret
Mute Swan
Cattle Egret
Marsh Harrier
Pygmy Cormorant
Black-winged Stilt
Purple Heron
Moorhen
Coot
Night Heron
Little Grebe
Mallard
Gadwall
Glossy Ibis
Graylag Goose
Little Owl
Little Tern
Avocet
Slender-billed gull
Shelduck
Greater Flamingo
Black-headed gull
Redshank
Reed Bunting
Skylark
Collared Pratincole
Crested Lark
White Stork
Long-eared owl
Pendulin Tit
Pheasant
And HEARD the following but did not SEE
Golden Oriole
Quail
Nightingale
The Following day in the town of Ferrara I was then lucky enough to SEE a
Golden Oriole
Blue Tit
My wife and I had a day out with Menotti last May, to be recommended. Excellent day's birding with someone so passionate about conservation in a country where there are great strides to be made. We would never have found many of the birds we saw as he knew local sights, can you ask more than a field of Montagu's Harriers as a highlight, I can't, or a bank with nestinmg bee-eaters. IT was a great day at a reasonable price.
Phil