FORWARDED MESSAGE:
Subject : Tuscany and hunting, your e-mail re Malta refers
Hi David
I've just arrived back from Tuscany, where the wine is OK, but a lot more
expensive and not as good as ours, candidly, but keeping to birding;
I was alarmed to note that there was an almost complete lack of birdsong,
even at dawn. I know that it is early autumn, but I stayed way out in the
country with all these beautiful woodland areas, the silence in the woods
was eerie. In two weeks 22 species was all I could raise, including three
lifers. Lots of Jays, Magpies and Carrion/Hooded crows, but the other
species were conspicuous by their absence.
This compares with thirty eight species in the UK two years ago, without
trying!
Despite the signs "Divieto di Caccia" (Hunting forbidden), I certainly both
saw and heard plenty of hunting going on! Maybe that's why birds and
birdsong are so few and far between, pehaps. (The birds have got their heads
down)....
I think that it is an object lesson for us not to screw up our environment
and also not to treat songbirds as an extra item on the menu, which I noted
on one menu in Siena.
Good birding
Max
========================================================
david camilleri
Please now go to < http://proaction.tripod.com/malta/ >
Why don't you join < http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Eurobirder > and
< http://proaction.tripod.com/team/
< http://www.MaltaTouristAction.org
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