Hi everyone, I'm trying to plan a getaway with Mr TF next summer, possibly to Italy, I am drawn to Lake Como, it looks so beautiful. I would love to incorporate some bird watching into the holiday, along with visiting gardens and eating lovely Italian food, but I really have no idea what I am likely to see in the area. I've googled birdwatching in Italy, but not come up with too much yet, then I thought, eureka, this is where the community may be able to help. If anyone knows of any top notch birding locations in Italy I would love to know. Thanks for any info/opinion.
Carolyn
Toadflax.
Seems like a very nice place to go from what I've seen round the web, definitely better than sticky, sub-tropical Japan where I went in the summer no-doubt!
Any way, seems quite warm especially in summer, but it'd still be around 20c now! You'll have to wait for more replies regarding small passerines (song birds) in italy, but if you'd like to know what raptors you could possibly find there, then look at wikipedia "List of birds of Italy" then see what comes up.
No idea of any birding locations though, sorry!
HK.
I'm out in Como at the moment...barely a bird to be seen. Something is wrong here and I can't tell what. Not really any agriculture going but my guess is habitat, nesting places and a screwed up food chain. We've seen a few swallows and swifts. Apart from that, absolutely nothing.
Hi Toadflax, You might consider sending a Private Message to Roberto M, one of the posters on this online community forum: see
ww2.rspb.org.uk/.../default.aspx . He may have some advice for you. I say that on the evidence of his having offered to tell another poster on the forum about places to visit in Italy. Of course, he may or may not know much about Lake Como in particular but you will not know unless you ask him!
Kind regards, Ann
In June we saw lots of Black Kites but very few other birds - they'd clearly all migrated to the UK for summer.
Lake Como is just about entirely surrounded by mountains - there is barely room for any buildings around the lake (even the road struggles to be two lanes) so the mountains rise from the lakeside.
We are not expert bird watchers but we didn't see much. We had a similar problem in southern Spain when we went in the late summer and all the birds decided they'd go somewhere with some water.
Hi All,
This was a surprise! I posted that original query in 2012!
I managed to get to Como in 2015.
We travelled in May, and it was failry quiet birdwise.
We saw black kites everyday. Italian sparrows on our balcony, and
we walked the greenway path and saw redstarts.
A walk in the woodland near to Villa Balbianello produced a few firecrests.
We ventured further afield to the North of the lake and managed glimpses of hoopoe, golden oriole and turtle doves, and I think some shrike or other. I can’t quite remember.
We did see what we believed was a great reed warbler.
We drove up to a really high point on the eastern side of the lake and had views of alpine swift, and I think some honey buzzards.
I would have to find my notebook or my husbands photos to get a more comprehensive account, but this is what I remember now.
This year we went to Donana in Spain and stayed in a fantastic villa with loads of birds on our doorstep. A very different experience. So much to see, so little time; we’ve already booked for next year!
Como cannot be beaten for beauty though.
Thanks for the replies.