I hadn't really thought about the wildlife of Italy before coming here. I especially hadn't given any thought to insect life. Sitting around by the pool on warm afternoons in Tuscany gives plenty of opportunity to get acquainted with bugs of all kinds. In Australia we have flies and in some places we also have March flies and sand flies. At night we have mosquitoes. Here they don't just have flies, they have horse flies, bees, wasps, hornets and something that looks as though it is fresh from an audition as an extra in Jumanji! This thing is huge! We inadvertently let one in to the house one evening and I found it buzzing around the ceiling beams searching for its next victim. It is easily as long as my index finger and is as loud as a chinook I swear.
The regulars around here are a kind of green skink but whereas the skinks back home will at least sit for a moment, long enough to get a photo if you're quick, these guys are gone as soon as you see them. There are also geckos blending in to the stone walls.
Another camera shy local is a really interesting looking bird that the kids think looks like a kind of woodpecker. It has a long pointy beak and a striped body but most curious is the crest of feathers protruding from the back of its head making it appear as though it has two faces or beaks. I did a quick google search and turned up something called a Hoopoe which appears to be the bird we have seen. Other birds we have spotted include swallows and magpies and an occasional bird of prey, possibly a hawk.
It wasn't until our second last night in Tuscany that we saw 'real' wildlife. Returning from Greve around dusk we turned a bend in the road and startled a deer. The kids were so excited to have seen it that we almost missed the family of wild boar about twenty seconds later! Based on these encounters we decided the next evening to walk down along the dirt road from Le Cetinelle to about the place where we had stumbled upon them. We walked very quietly, a feat for my crowd, and surprisingly met little to no traffic (I don't know why this road is so popular - I don't know where everyone is going.) We had heard that there are also hare around this area so we are feeling hopeful of spotting something. We had just about given up and were returning to the B&B when one of the girls urgently whispers us over to where she is standing. They have spotted some moving dots in a field a few hundred metres away.
I elect to wait while the rest of the family goes off to investigate. They are gone about twenty minutes. At one point I see the dots move more urgently into a cluster in a corner of the field. On their return it is confirmed that yes, they did find the family of piggies which I am told were very cute.
Go to next article: Picture Perfect Panzano
The regulars around here are a kind of green skink but whereas the skinks back home will at least sit for a moment, long enough to get a photo if you're quick, these guys are gone as soon as you see them. There are also geckos blending in to the stone walls.
Another camera shy local is a really interesting looking bird that the kids think looks like a kind of woodpecker. It has a long pointy beak and a striped body but most curious is the crest of feathers protruding from the back of its head making it appear as though it has two faces or beaks. I did a quick google search and turned up something called a Hoopoe which appears to be the bird we have seen. Other birds we have spotted include swallows and magpies and an occasional bird of prey, possibly a hawk.
It wasn't until our second last night in Tuscany that we saw 'real' wildlife. Returning from Greve around dusk we turned a bend in the road and startled a deer. The kids were so excited to have seen it that we almost missed the family of wild boar about twenty seconds later! Based on these encounters we decided the next evening to walk down along the dirt road from Le Cetinelle to about the place where we had stumbled upon them. We walked very quietly, a feat for my crowd, and surprisingly met little to no traffic (I don't know why this road is so popular - I don't know where everyone is going.) We had heard that there are also hare around this area so we are feeling hopeful of spotting something. We had just about given up and were returning to the B&B when one of the girls urgently whispers us over to where she is standing. They have spotted some moving dots in a field a few hundred metres away.
I elect to wait while the rest of the family goes off to investigate. They are gone about twenty minutes. At one point I see the dots move more urgently into a cluster in a corner of the field. On their return it is confirmed that yes, they did find the family of piggies which I am told were very cute.
Go to next article: Picture Perfect Panzano
Common Hoopoe - Photograph By Shantanu Kuveskar from Wikimedia Commons
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