Ferrara and mainland Venice, Italy Oct. 2025

 

Green-backed Woodpecker - life bird #1,290!

Eurasian Magpie

a Great Tit goofing off

a little artsy European Stonechat

Common Sandpiper

one last African Sacred Ibis flew by to send me off That's all for birding in Italy on this trip.  We found 62 species, 4 of which were new for my life list.  Our next trip will be a biggie for collecting birds, so keep an eye out for new posts starting the middle of November!

Emilia-Romagna, Italy Oct. 2025

We are working our way back toward the airport in Venice after 3 relaxing days in Ravenna looking at mosaics.  We decided to revisit two birding spots before stopping for the night in Ferrara - Comacchio where we hoped to find two vagrant Lesser Flamingos but got fogged out on the first try and Ripristini Bellini where we dipped (missed) on the vagrant Sociable Lapwings on our first try.

As we were driving along on the two-lane country road, my loving husband and exceptional birding companion / valet, who is quite versed in what to do when I yell “Bird!”, went to the next roundabout, headed back to where we came from, and pulled over on the grassy shoulder at almost the precise location where I saw this Eurasian Curlew in a field.  What a team!

After a little picnic of buffalo di mozzarella, prosciutto, salami, pecorino and chocolate, I headed down the spit at Comacchio while Avi headed back to the car to get his binoculars.  Before he even got back, I had one of the lesser flamingos in sight .  It was pretty far out, but there was no mistaking the shorter stature and black bill.  Sadly, no good photos because they were too far away.

 ✅ Lesser Flamingos is my1,288th life bird!

Feeling smug, we headed straight back to the car and over to Ripristini Bellini to try our luck on the lapwing.  The birding area is a series of farm fields and it was full of birds -about 30 Ring-necked Pheasants, as many Northern Lapwings, and we flushed about 30 Gray Partridges that were in the grass by the road.  I never thought we would see a skittish Gray Partridge, let alone a big covey of them! (Of course there was no time to line up my camera for a decent shot.)  We never found the Sociable Lapwings.

✅ Gray Partridges is my 1,289th life bird!

And to top off the day, I found the first [eBird] record of a Fieldfare in the area in two years!  (To clarify, other birders may have seen Fieldfares in the area and not recorded them.  This does happen a lot as there are a lot of birders, especially outside the U.S., that keep their lists in other ways or don’t keep lists.)  It’s not new to my life list, but still exciting.

Our tally for the trip so far is 57 species of birds this week n Italy, 3 of which were new to my life list.

San Marino Oct. 2025

We stayed overnight in San Marino (the city and country).  The city is built on a rocky outcropping, Mount Titano.  I was saddened, but not shocked that there were no birds besides pigeons as it is autumn and there is very little vegetation in the city.  That said, I still had to log the one (feral) species, just to add it to how many countries I’ve birded in, lol.

I present to you, the feral San Marino Rock Pigeon

More Po Delta Birding, October 2025

 

Possibly a Long-legged Buzzard - it would be considered a "rare bird" (i.e. out of its normal distribution area), but someone else saw it a week ago in the same area and the Merlin app claims this is what I took a photo of)

If this is true, it is a new life list bird for me - #1288

Common Buzzard

Trying to find a Lesser Flamingo in a flock of Greater Flamingos in the fog is like looking for a needle in a haystack.  (We didn't find one.)

Great Crested Grebe

That makes 47 species so far for Italy - only 2 were new for my life list, but at this level, I am at the level of birding where the birds are infrequent to rare (unless I go to a new continent).

Po River Delta, Italy Oct. 2025

The Po River is the longest river in Italy.  It runs across the widest part of Italy from the Alps in France to the Adriatic Sea (where we are).  Sadly parts of it are very polluted, but the delta on coast is full of wildlife.  It's is nicknamed the Italian Camargue.

Big news - I found a new bird for my life list - the African Sacred Ibis!  I'm up to 1,287 and aiming for 1,500 by June 2026.

I found it interesting that the black on the ibis doesn't really show in flight, except for the head and beak.

It's a treat to see any rail in the wild because they are very shy and usually you only see one.  I was treated to 8 Water Rails having a meeting before heading into the reeds for the day!

Pygmy Cormorant 

Great Egret - can be found on 5 continents (not Antarctica or Oceania)

Black Redstart

Eurasian Spoonbill
There are 6 species of spoonbill in the world.  I've seen three.  I'll have travel further afield to find the other three.

I learned some new field id marks.  Is it an otter (nope, not slim/sleek enough and tail is thin/hairless), beaver (nope, no paddle tail), muskrat (nope, ears are visible)? It's a nutria (native to South America, but introduced everywhere)!  

Alaska Cruise - Fallout!

A few warblers resting on the railing at the back (aft) of the ship on Deck 17.

On May 18th took a 8-day cruise from Alaska to Seattle.  Sometimes insomnia has its benefits, especially at 2am during spring migration!  The first 3 nights of the cruise, while we were in the inside passage, the ships lights illuminated thousands of migrating birds.  Sadly, the first of the three days it was stormy and the poor birds were forced to interrupt their migration to rest (this is called “fall-out” in the birding world).

 

Here is an 18 second video showing a few of the birds flying chaotically around the sport court on Deck 17.  They are NOT getting caught in the netting, they are using the netting to rest.

Townsend’s Warbler

Yellow Warblers

Orange-crowned Warblers

Costa Rica Day 13 pt. 2

In 3rd grade I wrote an essay on the Resplendent Quetzal.  At the time I thought it was a mythical creature that the Mayans made up.  This morning, I confirmed for 8 year old Heidi that Resplendent Quetzals are in fact real.  A guide took us to an area with a known nest and we were excited to find 3 more individuals feeding in the native avocado tree - so we got FIVE quetzals, 3 males with long tails and 2 females.  We were treated to the nesting pair taking turns going into the nest.  When the male is in the nest, his long feathers stick out.  We were a fair distance away from the nest, the birds were fast and silent, and the sun wasn’t fully up yet, so my pictures are only to prove I SAW QUETZALS!!! The perfect ending to an awesome birding trip.

A few quetzal facts:

• Resplendent Quetzals are one of the only animals that can eat the native avocados - they are 90% seed.  They are eaten whole, then the bird regurgitates the seed.  The avocados are about the size of a pecan.
• The birds are generally only active at sunrise, so to see them you have to know where they are feeding and arrive at dawn.
• They nest in old woodpecker and owl cavities in dead trees.
• The male only has the long feathers - which are actually not tail feathers, just rump feathers - during mating season Jan - May.
• Costa Rica has the largest population of Resplendent Quetzals, but they can be found from southern Mexico to Northern Panama at high elevations.

male only his way back to the nest

male going in to the nest

female going into the nest - note the different head shape

male 

male peaking out of the nest, note his two long
feathers sticking out above his head

we weren’t very close

the male climbs in head first, but his two long
feathers don’t go all the way in, they bend and
always remain poking out of the hole

See the feathers sticking out? Very convenient for
bird watchers to know if the male is on the nest!