Hi all from Italy !

[foxsparrow]

Hello people.

My name is Menotti Passarella, gull fan from NE Italy (South of Venice).

Our recent local rarities: Pygmy Cormorant, Lesser-crestd Tern, Red-necked Phalarope, Broad-billed Sandpiper, Marsh Sandpiper.

Our recent national rarity: a Dowitcher (probably Long-billed Dowitcher).

Cheers

[Steve]

CIAO FOXSPARROW (nice name)

steve

[birdman]

Hi foxsparrow,

A very belated Welcome to the BirdForum from me.

I confess I have only spent the briefest of times in Italy on the way to Slovenia, but I hope to spend more time there in future.

I would love to hear about your local bird life!

Please check out my "What floats your boat..." Thread in Birds & Birding, and tell me about your favourites!

[foxsparrow]

Hi Birdman and all.

Some recent photo-news from NE Italy.

Brown Shrike: first for Italy if accepted (and twitchable !!):

http://www.geocities.com/podeltabirds/lanius2159

http://www.geocities.com/podeltabirds/lanius2155

White-headed Duck:

http://www.geocities.com/podeltabirds/oxyura1964

Whooper Swan (very rare in Italy):

http://www.geocities.com/podeltabirds/cygnus2258

http://www.geocities.com/podeltabirds/cygnus2263

Black-throated Loon adult winter (more than 120 counted on saturday 18-jan-02 along the coast from Trieste to the Croatian border, Adriatic Sea):

http://www.geocities.com/podeltabirds/arctica2185

Cheers

Menotti Passarella
foxsparrow
menotti.passarella@libero.it

[foxsparrow]

Sorry, but probable Yahoo! don't permit to view the photos by clicking directly to the links above; so I suggest you to copy and paste the single links to your browser.

Cheers

foxsoarrow

[IanF]

Hi Menotti,

Welcome to Birdforum :t:

Great set of photos ! You obviously enjoy your birdwatching. As a matter of interest what equipment do you use ? I enjoy taking bird photos too but just use a digital camera. I haven't gotten into digiscoping yet, but there is a great forum for it on the site.

If you have any queries about the site, don't be afraid to ask as everyone is pretty friendly on here any only too wiling to help out. As you may have gathered we have members Worldwide, but I think you are the first from Italy.

See you around.

[foxsparrow]

---IanF wrote:
>what equipment do you use ?

Hi Ian and thanks for your kind message.

I use a digital Nikon coolpix 4500 with a Swarovsky scope CT-85

I live in a great place, the Po-Delta, the most important Delta of Europe for the numbre of bird species (more than 370 recorded so far). Unfortunately, I think our area is completely unknown to the birding community.

Currently we are following a desplacements of geese from the Pannonian basin (Austria & Hungary) covered by snow; a lot of them are now entering Italy, with hundreds of White-fronted-, dozens of Bean- and some Red-breasted Geese too; see photos of RBG at:
http://www.ebnitalia.it/rarities/oca_cr.htm

Ciao
Menotti Passarella

[peter hayes]

foxsparrow

Lovely to have you with us on Bird Forum. I love Italy, although I have never been birding there. If Po-Delta is unknown to birders, perhaps we should have a BF trip there one day!

Thanks for the great pictures.

[Sal]

Hi and welcome foxsparrow. Lovely pictures - thanks!

[Gaye Horn]

Bon Journo Menotti... I LOVE your country and spent alot of time in Florence and Venice...The best time I had was in northern Italy...
Great photos and I would have loved knowing about this birding area when I was last there.I went for the art, but if it were today it would be the birds... now the Pygmy Cormorant would interest me greatly!
Again from Canada WELCOME!!!

[foxsparrow]

Hi Gaye, and many thanks for your kind reply.

This is a special gift for you, the Pygmy Cormorant:

http://makeashorterlink.com/?G4A832731

I saw five of them, this evening. Last new from the area N of Venice: more than 6.000 (six thousands !) White-fronted Geese arrived yesterday, accompanying two Barnacle Geese (top rarity in Italy); the two Red-breasted are still in the country.

Cheers

Menotti Passarella
Italy

P.S. More photos of the Brown Shrike from a friend of mine today on SURFBIRDS:

http://www.surfbirds.com/cgi-bin/gallery/display.cgi?gallery=gallery11

[peter hayes]

That really is a lovely picture Menotti! Interesting to hear that Barnacle Geese are a top rarity in Italy - we get quite a few of them over here.

[Zil]

Thank you, Menotti, for your posted pictures. I enjoyed them very much!
Zil