{"id":3029,"date":"2010-05-16T05:02:59","date_gmt":"2010-05-16T12:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/?p=3029"},"modified":"2016-02-05T07:31:40","modified_gmt":"2016-02-05T14:31:40","slug":"birds-and-art-in-tuscany-day-zero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/16\/birds-and-art-in-tuscany-day-zero\/","title":{"rendered":"Birds and Art in Tuscany: Day Zero"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wow, it’s a long ways from Vancouver to Rome! But my flights–there were, blessedly, only two, from Vancouver to Toronto and Toronto to Rome–were no more harrowing than I suppose they had to be, and we landed at Fiumicino on time–and in rain. It had let up by the time I got to the waiting area for the hotel shuttle, which is, of course, outdoors and uncovered. So I stood there in a light mist, watching Italian Sparrows <\/strong>and European Starlings<\/strong>–and then getting absolutely dumped on for the last twenty minutes of the wait.<\/p>\n

When the shuttle did finally leave (it was my fault for having missed the first one by five minutes; far better to have missed it by 55!), we made great time along the highway to the hotel, an enormous Holiday Inn in a business park dominated by the United Nations’ World Food Program.<\/p>\n

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We have a nice view, and a nice room, too; sometimes Holiday Inn is just what you want after a long trip.<\/p>\n

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They even put up a sign so Marco<\/a> could find me this evening when he arrives from Arezzo.<\/p>\n

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Well, maybe it isn’t just for him, but it will do.<\/p>\n

Ever since my first summer in Europe, a quarter of a century ago, I’ve been very good about making sure that I stay up the first day, and so this morning, after washing up and rearranging my gear to be more convenient in the minibus, I set out for a walk. Not much happening around here on a Sunday, which was nice; and the birding surprised me. Even before leaving the room I’d had the usual Serins<\/strong>, Greenfinches, European Blackbirds, Hooded Crows, Blackcaps, Italian Sparrows, Yellow-legged Gull, <\/strong>and so on–common birds all, all to be found, mutatis mutandis<\/em>, in any big western European city.<\/p>\n

As soon as I stepped out the door, I heard the peeved ticking of Sardinian Warbler<\/strong>, and soon enough found a pair feeding in the umbrella pines; at one point the male landed nearly at my feet to pick something up he’d knocked out of the tiny male cones. The same pines had Wrens, Firecrests, Long-tailed Tits<\/strong>, and a Eurasian Nuthatch.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A nice start! This office park is laid out in concentric rings, with apparently only one entrance (and thus only one exit); I wandered around in it like a rat in a maze, bouncing from one dead end to another until I finally figured out that I needed to leave the same way the bus had come in. Maybe I should have got a degree in geology, or psychology, or psychogeology, whatever field teaches you how to get out of the labyrinth.<\/p>\n

In any event, I quickly found a trashy little road running along the railroad tracks, and walked it slowly through the mist. Cetti’s Warblers <\/strong>and a couple of Common Nightingales <\/strong>were noisy in the wet ditch, where I also saw the first mammal of the trip (disappointingly, an introduced muskrat). Orchard remnants had several European Turtle Doves<\/strong>, and at least two European Bee-eaters <\/strong>were hunting on the other side of the tracks; as I watched, they were interrupted by a very snazzy Hobby<\/strong>, which flashed past, then flared to join the House Martins <\/strong>and Common Swifts <\/strong>for a moment before disappearing behind the hill.<\/p>\n

Not bad for a few mid-day hours on the outskirts of Rome! I can’t wait for the tour to officially start tomorrow morning; we’re headed first to Tarquinia and then to Manciano, right in the sweet heart of Tuscany.<\/p>\n

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An unexpectedly lousy Serin photo–but look at how crisp the focus is on those pine needles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wow, it’s a long ways from Vancouver to Rome! But my flights–there were, blessedly, only two, from Vancouver to Toronto and Toronto to Rome–were no more harrowing than I suppose they had to be, and we landed at Fiumicino on time–and in rain. It had let up by the time I got to the waiting … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Birds and Art in Tuscany: Day Zero”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,50,45,1,2,41],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3029"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3029"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10489,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3029\/revisions\/10489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}