Wildlife around north Lake Garda and surrounding peaks, photo heavy

Morning folks,

As the amended title says, I am able to answer my poser myself. We returned, last Wednesday, from a week's hiking holiday, with HF holidays, around the northern part of Lake Garda. I toted my Canon R7 and 70-300mm L lens around on various walks over seven days of hiking. The area is a mixture of farming (olive groves, vineyards, etc) and forests (mixed deciduous or mono-culture plantations) on the hill/mountain sides. Obviously, you have water environments in the form of lakes, streams and rivers. The area is crisscrossed with foot and cycle paths, all clearly sign posted (well, the official ones) that puts our foot/cycle path network to shame. Hiking, cycling and water activities are prominent in this region. There were many people cycling around the area on electric bikes (mostly rental), peddling up 1:4 slopes - cheating I call it. The size of the rear sprockets are unbelievable - especially when combined with a tiny front sprocket.

What about the wildlife? There is a lot of it. Rather less in the mono-culture plantations, than in the natural deciduous forests or farmland. The bulk of the bird species are common to the UK. Robins, Blackbirds, Song Thrushes, Great Crested Grebes, Kestrels, Nuthatches, Wrens, etc. There were, obviously, some species we do not see in the UK as well as some sub-species of birds common in the UK. I didn't see any Magpies or Jackdaws, while Wrens seemed less prevalent then in the UK.. 

There are supposed to be Golden eagles and Peregrine falcons in the area, but alas I didn't see any. It was too early in the year to see brown bears, while Pine Martens are as elusive there as here.

OK, what did I see - bearing in mind I heard more birds calls than saw them due to the thick vegetation? On one particular walk, I heard loads of Firecrests, but didn't see them. Partly, as I had to keep up with the group, and so couldn't dally.

We'll kick off with this bird. What is it? This was on our second walk. A bloody gloomy, overcast day.  I glimpsed this bird are in the distance, sort of hovering. I say sort of hovering, as it didn't, even at this distance, appear to be a Kestrel. The bird was a big one, and I figured it was a Black kite using either a headwind or updraft to hold its position.

Cropping out the bird reveals this. It's undercarriage is extended, and it looks too messy, too disheveled to be a Kestrel. The tail in particular looks wrong.

Two days later we we wandering around Torbole on our rest day. Hah, rest day indeed. It didn't stop us walking about 8 miles, in and around Torbole and Riva. Anyway, I was snapping away trying to get a decent shot of some songbirds, when I spy this beastie circling around in the distance.

Obviously a bird of prey, but which variety? Copping out and blowing up the brightness reveals this. Only, I didn't know it at the time as I only had my R7, and can't see much in its tiny LCD. Whitish undersides, blackish head, thickset.

Light conditions weren't the best. Pointing a camera at a small dot against a grey, cloudy sky will inevitably produce a silhouette. Though the R7 did reasonably well.

What normally happens with a raptor, is that it notices I'm pointing a camera at it, whereupon it drifts off lazily. Not in this instance. Hussar! The beastie, still high, flew at me then over me. It was still quite high up. This was the best my lens at 300mm could manage. It's time like this I wish I had my long lens, but carting that thing around was not on the cards with the slopes we went up and down.

Cropping out and fiddling with brightness reveals this. Still not the best of photos but enough for me and google lens to attempt a reasonable identificaton.

It appears to be a Short Toed Snake Eagle. 

I stepped off the cable car on Monte Baldo a couple of years back and the first thing I saw were two Golden Eagles drifting about.  Eagle Owls were also reputed to breed in the area.

Arrgh! I didn't need to know this. Well, actually I do. It gives me heart to know that if we go back to north lake Garda or the Dolomites (HF holidays has a walk there) then I might, just might, see a Golden Eagle.

Anyway, it is fortuitous that the Cable car up Monte Baldo came up, as this is precisely what we went up on our fourth walk. I think. The days were a bit of a blur, partly as the walk order was changed due to weather conditions, but mostly as I was suffering a double whammy of a slight cold or Covid along with terrible hayfever. I was over dosing on antihistamines in an attempt to hold myself together.

It was a relief to be up on the peaks of the Monte Baldo range as the weather was wet, dampening down any pollen that might have drifted up from the lower slopes - thus alleviating one of my symptoms.

This was the view back to the cable car, which we took from Malcesine. My cheap mobile produces high contrast images, which disguises how gloomy it was. Cloud ceiling altitude was marginally higher than the peaks, while cloud bubbled up from below. I doubt any self respecting Golden Eagle would want to fly in these conditions.

We all trooped to the end of this ridge, turned round and trooped back again.

Except me, of course. I lurk at the back of the herd. If I stop to photograph summat, I don't have to worry about a fellow walker or three crashing into me. Also, as I was up on a mountain (well, they call it that, but at 2067m it's not a real mountain) I thought I might as well play in the snow.

Ah, but what about wildlife? There was some. Actually a fair amount, considering our altitude. No Golden Eagles though.

Our walk guide, who is also a keen ecologist, said that these were Alpine crows. There were about four of them lurking around the cable car building.

Sorry about the quality of my photos. It was reasonably murky, but with a cloudy sky that produces nowt but silhouettes. I believe a feature of an Alpine crow is a yellow beak.

As usual, when I managed to get my camera focused on the beasties, they fly off. These photos are heavily cropped, with brightness turned up high.

I was surprised to see a lot of Sky Larks. I'm not sure what food there is up there to support such a concentration of them. These are the best I could manage, given the light conditions. Again, all images cropped heavily, with brightness turned up in FastStone.

And that's it from the top of Monte Baldo next to Malcesine. I did spot some fast moving small birds, but didn't have a clue what they were. We all trooped back into a cable car, which took us down to about 800m, where we all trooped out. Those on the hard walk, left those on the easy walk to partake of cakes and coffee.

We, in the hard walk, had our packed lunches, then trooped downhill. An odd walk, just walking downhill. Rather steep, a bit lethal in loose ground and slippery wet rocks. I could hear loads of birds around me, but not see them. Particularly frustrating was hearing Cuckoos and Firecrests. Anyway, as Mr Sod's law has it, the weather cleared the lower we got. I spotted this circling to my left and getting lower and closer!!!! Normally the blighters go higher and further away.

I think it is a Raven. I'll leave it to the experts to either confirm or dispute this.

Images still cropped reasonably heavily. I only had my 300mm lens.

The bird got lower and lower, circling quite lazily.

Before disappearing behind an olive tree just before it flared out arrgh!

I managed a quick set of photos when it took off a few minutes later and overtook us.

There were loads of Chaffinches. I think I was attempting to photograph this one. Not that I knew it was a Chaffinch. Just a small bird flying, but worth a shot in case it was one I'd never seen before.

I haven't cropped the bird, as I feel the overall composition looked reasonable.

Along the lines of see a bird, photograph the bird, especially if it is raptor shaped, I snapped at this one, flying high up. All credit to focusing has to go to my Canon R7 and 70-300mm L lens. I just point the thing in the general direction of the bird and hope.

I 'think' this is a Black kite. Well, actually I'm just plain hopeful it is a black kite and not a red kite. Again, images cropped heavily, with post processing brightness turned up.

The next update will be of birds I photographed as we approached Malcesine.

Looks far too energetic for me Angus Thanks for sharing 

The second pic you have posted looks like you took it from pretty much the exact spot I was standing.  The Eagles were drifting around and over the building on the right, at more or less eye level.  Best views I’ve had of Golden Eagle.  

I feel a return journey is required, with sufficient material to camp out on this ridge for a couple or three days.

I've been throwing manky photos at you all, primarily to get them out of the way with. We did have some sunny days. In fact the temperature got rather warm, nay hot even, on a couple of them, necessitating wearing nothing more than shorts and T-shirts.

We are familiar with seeing Mallards everywhere in the UK, typically having an all in wrestling match when people feed them bread. There are Mallards around north lake Garda. I saw lots in Riva, Limone and Torbole. However, their dominance has been usurped by Red Crested Pochards.

IOne memorable melee in Torbole harbour, right up against the pier wall, Red Crested Pochards out numbered Mallards 5 to 1. There were at least 20 Red Crested Pochards jostling for pieces of bread thrown in by tourists.

They were pretty tame, as these photos show. Although lens was at 300mm, the pictures are full size, apart from a little cropping to centre them.

Let's talk Great Crested Grebes. I don't know about you, but my experience of them is they are shy, wary birds. They are often solitary or perhaps with one or two other birds. Getting close to them is nigh on impossible. You think you are well hidden, they seem either to be sleeping or wafting along without seeing you some distance away. Then there is a slight, subtle change in their behaviour, a minor course correction whereby they nonchalantly drift away; all the while eye-balling you.

Image my surprise when encountering Great Crested Grebes on Lake Garda. They were not shy. They did not drift off casually. In fact they were positively tame as far as a feral bird can be.

They were in harbours, relatively close to piers and wharfs. They were along beaches populated by a fair number of people. And this...

There are seven Great Crested Grebes in this photo, all floating close to a bridge were were walking over to gain access to the Torbole to Riva cycle/footpath. There were several other Great Crested Grebes on the other side of the bridge, again, just bobbing up and down, completely unconcerned by a throng of people and cycles crossing the bridge.

And then, much to my glee and absolute delight, they did something I never expected them to do, which allowed me to get several, highly unusual shots, like this.

Yes, they cruised right the bridge and, more importantly, right beneath me, and were totally unfazed that I was leaning over the railings to photograph them. Extraordinary!

Then I noticed something about their behaviour. They were swimming with one leg. Yep, one leg. I took to watching carefully to make sure I wasn't photographing the one bird with a duff leg.

Nope, they were all at it, apart from one, who had to stand out and show off, and use both legs.

The colour of the river water wasn't too bad, either. Not the usual, manky brown of most UK rivers.

Stay tuned for more on Great Crested Grebes on Lake Garda, as well as their smaller cousins.

Oh no! Not more Great Crested Grebe photos.

Oh yes, this time from Torbole harbour, Lake Garda. Early in the morning - we had to leg it, after breakfast, to catch our ferry from Limone.

These Great Crested Grebes were calmly swimming and bobbing around in the small harbour, ignoring the weird English block photographing them. Although my lens was at its requisite 300mm maximum, the Grebes were so close to me, the photos needed the smallest amount of cropping, mainly to frame the birds properly.

I thought the reflection of the harbour buildings in the water looked rather fetching. I wonder if I should paint a couple of them?

I love those reflections