We moved to North East Italy today and called in at a couple of decent nature
reserves on the way. The first was Valle Cavanata, just east of the holiday
resort of Grado, which is an impressive site with a large saline lagoon. We
were told that greater flamingos were quite scarce visitors in the area but
today there was a flock of around 150. Most pleasing though, an unfamiliar geweck-eweck-eweck call overhead, alerted
me to a flock of 20 gull-billed terns flying over. This was the first time
that I have heard this distinctive call which apparently is unmistakable when
identifying this species. Also here, around 15 pygmy cormorants and 19
Mediterranean gulls.
After a brief visit to Grado, we stopped at a pull in on a long causeway
linking the resort to the mainland. From here we could see across
to Isola Gorgo which has a herony holding hundreds of grey herons, egrets
and two species of cormorant, greater and pygmy.
On the coast near Grado we came across this African sacred ibis. Apparently
they are considered an invasive alien species in this part of the
Mediterranean, originating from escapes, there are now around 2000 pairs
breeding in northern Italy.
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