Last year, our son Jeremy, who works as a Foreign Service Officer for the State Department, was assigned to work in Florence Italy for two years. Needless-to-say, as soon as we learned of his assignment we began to make plans for a visit. After all, he and his wife have three of our eight grandchildren!
This past week, Gayla and I left Prescott at five in the morning to drive down to Phoenix for the first leg of our trip, a flight to Calgary, Canada. We had a long layover in Calgary, so I caught a taxi, left the airport, and went birding for several hours at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary just a few miles from the airport.
I had a great time seeing “different” birds than what I would typically see in Prescott, such as black-billed magpies, Baltimore orioles, clay-colored sparrows, and black-capped chickadees.
Interestingly, the vast majority of species I observed in Calgary are common in the Prescott area—depending on the time of year—such as killdeer, Swainson’s hawk, northern flicker, warbling vireo, white-breasted nuthatch, American robin, chipping sparrow, song sparrow, red-winged blackbird and yellow warbler.
From Calgary, we flew to Paris, where we caught a connecting flight to Rome. The last leg of our trip was a high-speed train from Rome to Florence, where we finally met up with our son Jeremy and his family just before midnight Friday night. Adjusting for the time change, our trip took about 34 hours!
The day after we arrived, we did a family outing which involved a boat ride from a port in La Spezia through the Cinque Terre region. The boat ride took us out into the Gulf of Genoa/Ligurian Sea region. On the boat ride I saw a new species for my life list—a Cory’s shearwater.
As of my writing, we are still in Florence, and I’ve actually been able to squeeze in a little birding around the city even though, “This is not a birding trip!” as my wife frequently reminds me. We are staying with our son in the Consulate compound which overlooks the Arno River. From their home I can easily see the river, and have picked up several life birds, which is always a pleasure!
Some of my new species include common kingfisher, pygmy cormorant, hooded crow, Italian sparrow and rose-ringed parakeets. I didn’t expect to see parakeets here! At some point, they were introduced into the area, as they are a non-native species.
Only a short five-minute walk from the compound is what I’m calling the “Central Park” of Florence, Parco delle Cascine. It is a marvelous park with amazing trees. As I’ve spent time in the park, I’ve seen a good variety of bird species ranging from nuthatches, woodpeckers, woodcreepers, to white wagtail, European Serin, Eurasian blue tit, Eurasian black cap, and Eurasian blackbird. Eurasian Blackbirds look like an American robin in shape and size, except they are all black, so it is a black bird but not a blackbird.
It probably sounds as if I am doing a lot more birding than I really am, but truthfully, I am on my game everywhere, all of the time. If I am outside, I hear and see birds. I cannot not see birds. It is what I do! It is part of who I am and how I am.
My heart is filled with gratitude for the unique opportunity to be here. This is my first trip to Italy, and it is pretty amazing. We hope to visit again while they are assigned here.
Until next week, Happy Birding!
Eric Moore is the owner of The Lookout, in Prescott, where you will find a Hallmark Gold Crown Store, wild bird products, and Swarovski and Vortex optics. Eric has been an avid birder for over 55 years. Eric can be contacted at eric@thelookoutaz.com.
