Pescasseroli
3rd
– 13th September 2008
by
Bob Shiret
Introduction
This trip was a walking
holiday in the Abruzzo National Park where my wife and I hoped to see some
interesting birds in the mountain scenery as well as enjoying real Italian food!
The
Place
Pescasseroli (see
picture below) is a small town in the Abruzzo National Park of around 2,000
inhabitants where in summer hikers come for the good walking and in winter
becomes a ski resort.
This
National Park is the biggest in Italy covering an area of 130.000 hectares of
high mountains and forest, no hunting is allowed. The
area contains Bears, Wolves,
Lynx and Chamois
as well as many interesting birds, more of which later. Our holiday was booked
through Inghams and we stayed at the Villa Mon Repos in the centre of town which
was really excellent. The weather on our trip was 75°F most
days with no rain. We walked over 100 miles in ten days without doing the same
walk twice but the walking is quite strenuous due to the mountainous terrain.
Birds
Birds we had hoped to see included; Golden Eagle, Alpine Accentor, Snow Finch, Middle Spotted and White-backed Woodpecker, I have to say from the outset that none of these were seen although others saw three Golden Eagles and we saw definite signs of White-backed Woodpecker activity (large deep craters near tree bases).
Birds seen in the town
environs were; Black Redstart,
Grey Wagtail, Siskin,
Redstart, Coal Tit, two
Common Sandpipers on migration, Bullfinch,
Tree Sparrow, Hooded Crow, Lesser
Spotted Woodpecker, Swallows and
House Martins.
Black
Redstart
Redstart
Birds seen in environs
of the hills around the town were; Collared Flycatcher,
Cirl Bunting, Serin, Red-backed
Shrike, Buzzard, Jay (common), Nuthatch
(common), Tree Pipit, Yellow
Wagtail, Spotted Flycatcher, Northern
Wheatear,
Willow Tit, and Green
Woodpecker (common). One point of note was that all the birdlife was very timid,
even Blue Tits diving
for cover at 50 yards! It is
possible that we visited at the wrong time of year to see more birds, but many
areas where birds were expected i.e. glades full of insects, were completely
barren.
Cirl
Bunting
Tree
Pipit
Yellow
Wagtail
Willow
Tit
Butterflies
One
of the real surprises of the holiday was to find that the area around
Pescasseroli was fantastic for Butterflies,
pictured below is a selection I managed to photograph.
Not pictured but seen included; Clouded Yellow
(common), Silver-washed Fritillary and
Swallowtail.
Common
Blue
Large Wall Brown
Painted
Lady
Grayling
Berger’s
Clouded Yellow
Queen
of Spain Fritillary
Great
Banded Grayling
Other
Wildlife
Brown
Marsican Bear – this is a largish bear (see picture from travel
guide) of which only about fifty still exist on the planet and this is their last
refuge. They are nocturnal so we
did not see any but they were heard calling in the forest when walking at dusk.
We did see signs however and pictured below is my wife’s foot alongside
bear prints in the mud.
Wolves
– apparently there are about six wolf packs totalling about forty animals in
the park. We did not see any but a Bulgarian (?) hill shepherd told me
he had lost six sheep to wolves recently, this was in spite of having ten large
dogs protecting his herd.
Wild
Boar – we saw many areas where these animals had turned up large area
of turf looking for roots/bulbs etc (see picture below).
Apennine
Frog – passing a tiny pond in the middle of a large filed we heard a
series of "plops" and on close inspection came across several of these ugly
beasts.
Trip
Tips
No hire car is needed
here as all the local walks are from the town itself or a short local bus ride.
The organised "bear watching" trips are quite expensive (£50) and
frankly you stand more chance of an encounter late evening on your own.
Sturdy walking shoes are required for almost all the walking.