As reported here Italy has seen a massive influx of Rosy Starlings over the past week or so.
They were reported in northern Tuscany the other day, so, presuming that they were expanding southwards on Sunday afternoon we roamed high and low through the Val d’Orcia area (our local patch) looking for suspect flocks of starlings, but we had no luck. In fact yesterday was a very quiet day on the bird front with few interesting sightings: a single Black Kite, one male Montagu’s Harrier, 2-3 pairs of Roller, a few Bee-Eaters, a lone Kestrel (no Lessers and no Red-footeds) and the usual Corn Buntings, Turtle Doves and Crested Larks. It was a bit better down at our local heronry, with Little and Cattle Egrets, a few Night Herons, a couple of Grey Herons and also a pair of Grey Wagtails.
This morning, checking Ornitho.it we found out that 250 of the pink birds had been seen yesterday and 50 this morning near Lake Montepulciano. We checked the exact location with a few acquaintances and set off after lunch, aiming for a track lined with mulberry trees, where the starlings feed. We drove up and down the track and adjoining ones a few times, seeing only a few “regular” starlings, plus a Marsh Harrier, Cattle Egrets, one Squacco Heron overhead, two Yellow Wagtails and legions of Italian Sparrows. We also met two German birders, but they hadn’t seen anything either. We were just about to give up, since we had to be back home in the early evening to attend the school concert (delights of the end of the school year!) when something light-coloured, with a black head flew across the road in front of us, from a mulberry tree into a thick cluster of scruffy cypress trees. I yelled “stop!” and soon after another one did the same thing. Looking into the darkest depths of the cypress trees we could make out around a dozen ROSY STARLINGS, which soon went back to the mulberry tree to feed. Truly fantastic. We spent some time looking at them then headed home with a spring in our steps (or rather in our tyres!) o
They were reported in northern Tuscany the other day, so, presuming that they were expanding southwards on Sunday afternoon we roamed high and low through the Val d’Orcia area (our local patch) looking for suspect flocks of starlings, but we had no luck. In fact yesterday was a very quiet day on the bird front with few interesting sightings: a single Black Kite, one male Montagu’s Harrier, 2-3 pairs of Roller, a few Bee-Eaters, a lone Kestrel (no Lessers and no Red-footeds) and the usual Corn Buntings, Turtle Doves and Crested Larks. It was a bit better down at our local heronry, with Little and Cattle Egrets, a few Night Herons, a couple of Grey Herons and also a pair of Grey Wagtails.
This morning, checking Ornitho.it we found out that 250 of the pink birds had been seen yesterday and 50 this morning near Lake Montepulciano. We checked the exact location with a few acquaintances and set off after lunch, aiming for a track lined with mulberry trees, where the starlings feed. We drove up and down the track and adjoining ones a few times, seeing only a few “regular” starlings, plus a Marsh Harrier, Cattle Egrets, one Squacco Heron overhead, two Yellow Wagtails and legions of Italian Sparrows. We also met two German birders, but they hadn’t seen anything either. We were just about to give up, since we had to be back home in the early evening to attend the school concert (delights of the end of the school year!) when something light-coloured, with a black head flew across the road in front of us, from a mulberry tree into a thick cluster of scruffy cypress trees. I yelled “stop!” and soon after another one did the same thing. Looking into the darkest depths of the cypress trees we could make out around a dozen ROSY STARLINGS, which soon went back to the mulberry tree to feed. Truly fantastic. We spent some time looking at them then headed home with a spring in our steps (or rather in our tyres!) o
