{"id":10496,"date":"2016-02-11T05:09:33","date_gmt":"2016-02-11T12:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/?p=10496"},"modified":"2016-02-11T05:09:33","modified_gmt":"2016-02-11T12:09:33","slug":"venice-city-of-canals-and-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/2016\/02\/11\/venice-city-of-canals-and-birds\/","title":{"rendered":"Venice, City of Canals and Birds"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Our friend Marc Chelemer was kind enough to report on a recent visit to one of our favorite cities in the world, Venice. Everyone knows Venice for its exotic architecture and spectacular art treasures — but not everyone knows that the Lagoon is also one of the most important wintering areas for wild birds in all of Europe. VENT is\u00a0heading back to Venice and the Po Delta<\/a> in October for another in our series of Birds and Art tours. Meanwhile, here’s what Marc found on a quick visit this winter:<\/em><\/p>\n

Whenever I\u2019ve traveled, I\u2019ve tried to find a way to go birding, even if birding isn\u2019t the principal purpose of the trip. My recent visit to Venice was no exception.<\/p>\n

Venice was first settled three thousand years ago\u00a0by fishermen and salt collectors. In the Middle Ages, the Venetians created large circles of wooden piles around hummocks in the huge lagoon, then backfilled the spaces to create flat, stable, habitable islands. Over time, those islands grew in size until they were separated only by narrow, easily navigable canals. Venice now is a city of 117 islands, dozens of canals, and more than 430 bridges.<\/p>\n

Passerines and doves\u00a0in\u00a0Venice\u2019s parks and gardens in December were those typical of\u00a0southern European cities: European Robin, Eurasian Blackbird, Great <\/strong>and Blue Tits, <\/strong>the occasional Chiffchaff, Wood Pigeon, <\/strong>and\u00a0Eurasian Collared-Dove<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"European<\/a>