The Standlake Birder

   Black-winged Stilt   Our fabulous Tuscan host, Fabio, organised an excursion for us to the Oasi WWF Padule Orti-Bottagone only some 30 minutes from our villa.     The reserve is a     hot spot for Black-winged Stilts and Greater Flamingos. Our arrival we met local birder and reserve volunteer Stefano who was unlocking the gates - it was now obvious that we were going to get a private tour of the reserve! The location, I have to say, was not picturesque! The reserve was bisected by a motorway and a large factory belching out something horrible from a high chimney was on the boundary. I had read a review before we visited which said that the surround location was hardly pretty but the reserve itself was top notch for birds.   Stefano explained that on one side of the motorway was a freshwater marsh with a saline one on the other side. We made our way to the fresh marsh via walking under the motorway. We could immediately see Black-winged Stilts feeding and snoozing in their characteri

Hoopoe Sometime in January we decided enough (rain and mud) was enough and to preserve our sanity we booked a spring holiday in our favourite part of Europe, Tuscany. The lack of blogs in the past month or so reflects the fun I’ve been having recently starting with an horrific dental abscess resulting in a late night visit to an emergency dentist. The dentist sorted out the abscess but in return seems to have given me some horrific bug which was the worst I’ve had for many a year and laid me low for two weeks. Three covid test were all negative so perhaps it was just a dose of flu followed by a chest infection – man flu is a truly terrible thing! Luckily, I had just about recovered in time for our Tuscan holiday.   A two hour flight to Pisa with BA followed by  a two hour drive delivered us to our villa on the outskirts of Castagneto Carducci at mid-afternoon on Monday 15 th  April. This is going to sound very snobbish but it was the first time for at least 20 years that I had flown in