Guernsey

In April last year I went to Jersey just to see what it was like. Very nice as it happens. That was just a day trip, an early start, a wander around, and then an afternoon flight back. This year, last month in fact, I went to Guersey for the same reason. I was there for approximately the same amount of time but the flight times required an overnight stay which pushed up the cost a bit, and whereas on Jersey I had walked everywhere as I had no luggage, this time I did need to bring a bit more stuff and so hired a car. And this time my travelling buddy Mick came along as well. He pops up on here all the time as, like me, he thinks travel is great and so is almost always up for a trip. Far more fun than mooching around in London. We have been all over the place over the years, to virtually all continents. South Africa, The Gambia and Senegal, Brazil, Mexico, Hawaii, contintental America, the Middle East, Thailand and of course all over Europe including lots of islands. Guernsey was a first for both of us.

We arrived just after lunch and picked up the car. We paid a nominal amount for fuel up front, barely any of which we used as the island is so tiny, were told that junctions were whoever got there first and that there were no parking charges anywhere on the island. Perfect. Let's go birding.

First stop La Clare Mare on the west side, where there is a hide overlooking a small reed-fringed pool. It was a nice way to get a feel for the kind of birding we would experience, with a handful of Mallard, some Stock Dove, lots of hirundines and a few other bits and pieces. Nothing rare or exciting, no large numbers of anything, but Guernsey isn't about that and we knew before we came that we were unlikely to come away with a massive tally. It was all very pleasant in early May, felt very green and verdant, and indeed everywhere we went there were lovely gardens and frankly enormous greenhouses, greenhouses that put mine here in London to shame. They can also grow Araucaria heterophylla outside (the Norfolk Island Pine) which made me insanely jealous. I suppose it won't be many years until I can too...

We had a look at the coast, the tide was out and there was a huge expanse of rocky shore. Waders were thin on the ground, just a few Oystercatchers and six Whimbrel. We drove up to Pleinmont to gain some height and have a look at the sea. I don't think either of us had been expected to see Manx Shearwater from here, but there was a reasonbly sized flock feeding with Gulls some distance out - good that I had brought my scope. We also picked up some Gannet and a single Fulmar. Linnet and a single Whitethroat were in the Gorse, and the cliffs had a large Herring Gull colony.

Some locals we met directed us to Rue Des Bergers NR, another small pool. Here we picked up a few more passerines, including Cetti's Warbler, a Greylag Goose, Moorhen and Coot, but we were beginning to understand that we were not going to be seeing a ton of birds everywhere we went and that it would instead be a series of nice rambles in the sunshine picking up singles here and there.

We turned to eBird for assistance. What had been seen recently? This took us to Le Grand Pré NR, a miniscule reserve where a full circuit took under five minutes! Various good things had been seen here over the past few days but they had all departed. We added Great Tit and a Dunnock I think!

Out on the coast at L'Ancresse we explored another series of bunkers and bits of old concrete. In addition to greenhouses Guernsey seems very keen on bunkers, the result of rapid fortifications by Germany when the islands were occupied during the Second World War. Many of these still exist today. One of them had a Wheatear perched on all these years later. Probably Wheatears perched on these in the 1940s as well. Our first Stonechats were seen here, the habitat looked absolutely perfect for them to be fair, and Whitethroats and Linnets were also here.

At Vale Pond we looked for Cattle Egret without luck, but joy of joys two Barnacle Geese were present. Ahem. We put them on the list with a question mark and the eBird police have not yet been in touch...

At last knockings we went back the where we had started, Clare Mare NR, this time finding a Snipe that had no doubt been there the whole time but only ventured out in the evening. After this we also went back to Pleinmont for the sunset where the Manx Shearwater were still present in the bay and a Marsh Harrier quartered the fields. What with all this birding we arrived in St Peter Port so late that we missed all food options and dinner was a pack of crisps, half a bag of peanuts and a pint. Nice. Hopefully breakfast would be better.

Les Hanois Lighthouse

The next day...

Up early to bird St Saviour Reservoir before said breakfast. This was great, with Firecrest and Short-toed Treecreeper in the mature trees on the western side of the dam. By now and getting a feel for Guernsey birding we were just playing the numbers game, how many species could be get before we had to leave. When we got back to the hotel a couple of hours later there was a Firecrest singing outside it....

After breakfast we followed a lead to some extreme island rarities, Blue Tit and Long-tailed Tit at La Mare nature trail. This is a small woodland nestled between houses and a school, and a short walk netted them both! We were on fire! At nearby Fort Hommet we found Meadow Pipit alongside Wheatear and Stonechat, again favouring WW2 era fortifications. Back at La Clare Mare we found a Sparrowhawk, and scoping out towards L'Ereé Headland found a Peregrine on a rock spire. If you think I am hurrying, I am. We had a flight to catch! 

And so at lunchtime on Sunday we departed having seen a magnificent 61 species. This is comparable to my Jersey list of 53 species. Ie not many. But it was as much about exploring a new place as birding. They're funny places, both remind me strongly of a posh Isle of Wight, but with French names. But they're miles away from being French from what I could see, it was all about pubs, fish and chips, cobbles, neat gardens. Then again the landscape reminded me (unsurprisingly) of Normandy and Brittany, huge expansive beaches, rocky shores, rolling hills sloping up from the shore. Nice place, might go again in winter.

Off to Wales with my colouring pencils

You may or may not have read that my last twitching attempt was a complete disaster. I did not know it at the time but I also managed to pick up a speeding ticket from the Norfolk and Suffolk Constabulary whilst I was at it, which given how little I drive these days and how much frankly bonkers driving I see (and hear, from the A12-North Circular racetrack late at night) felt highly unfair. There was no arguing with it though, I did the awareness course offered and moved on, and barring a couple of trips to the dump I have done no driving in the UK since. No driving licence points, but a few Schadenfreude points...

The bird, a Black-winged Kite, resurfaced a few weeks later, and has been hanging around at more or less the same place ever since, months at this point. I have not felt motivated to give it another go. Is my twitching career over? Well...

A Western Reef Heron has been in Wales for a couple of weeks. This is an African bird - Egretta gularis gularis - I've seen it in the Gambia, as well as its cousin - Egretta gularis schistacea - in Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Initially I ignored it, I mean I knew it was rare but it was just in the periphery. It came sharply into focus when my son saw it! Like all my kids he likes birds more than he lets on but he isn't a twitcher whatsoever. He just happened to be passing Caernarfon on his way to a music festival, and having seen a segment on BBC Wales about twitchers flocking etc had decided it would be rude not to. Two other guys in the car now have a UK list of one, a Western Reef Heron. Nice. 

The following weekend I did nothing, as usual. Pottered around the greenhouse, did some weeding and watering, cleaned up the front garden so it looks slightly less shit, that sort of thing. Another week at work, woe is me, and with this weekend approaching and the Heron being reported every half an hour I decided something had to be done and put out feelers to the local birders. Busy. Wren Wildlife Weekend. A Wedding.  Eating out in London. In Switzerland. Was one of them washing their hair, I can't remember? So another weekend bumming about Wanstead then, fair enough. It's 525 miles and nearly ten hours in the car, what a thankless day that would be on my own. I mean, I have done that on occasion, most recently in 2023 when for reasons that still escape me I got in the car and drove to St Govan's in Pembrokeshire for a Magnolia Warbler that somehow during the journey subdivided itself into a Canada Warbler as well. That was slightly further in fact, but as each year passes the dread of those types of day seems to increase. 

On Friday evening Rob got in touch? Was I still going? Well, no, I mean maybe, why? Well his plans had changed a bit and now this was his chance. Should we do it? Should we? I looked at Mrs L across the garden table and the glasses of Rosé. We had made plans to sort out the cupboard under the stairs, a job we have been putting off since about 1857. Should I postpone that yet again and go out for the day instead? Wouldn't she miss me I enquired? She virtually thrust the car keys into my hands. Similar conversations were happening in Ilford. Should Rob abandon marital bliss for the day and bugger of twitching? By way of reply Mrs S had dashed into the kitchen and started preparing a packed lunch for both of us! Mrs L and Mrs S would get on well I think, a common understanding. So we were going then. Pick up 5am.

It was a long drive, enlivened by learning that the Heron had flown off somewhere at 8pm the previous evening and not yet been refound. We thought about stopping and waiting but ploughed on when I discovered that we would be driving through Shropshire and Cheshire and that just a single Woodpigeon would allow me to colour in these areas on the eBird map that I am so obsessed with. Fortunately the Heron was refound, and so at not too far beyond 9am we were rolling into the car park at RSPB Conwy. Affirmative nods from returning birders, the target was still just around the corner feeding on the estuary with Little Egrets and Herons. 

Conwy

We missed it by five minutes, it had flown off over the causeway to the beach. Half of the birders there had not noticed and were still scanning... We returned to the car and scooted over to the beach. The massive beach. We followed the shoreline a fair chunk of way around and into the mouth of the estuary from where the Heron was now being reported from in front of the marina mid-channel. No sign. To cut a long story short we walked two and half miles and at the furthest point from where we had left the car found out that the Heron was now back in exactly the same place we had started. Yay! This time it had the decency to stay put and so after a good two hours of runaround we finally set eyes on. Feeding actively with Little Egrets it was a good few inches down in size but despite its smaller stature pushed the larger birds away on occasion. Plenty of food in the Estuary, it fed constantly, getting up and flying to a new spot before flying back and seeing off a Little Egret on the prime spot before  starting again. 

A distant phone scope shot. Despite the Western Reef Heron looking bigger here, I am convinced that it was smaller.

The sense of wonder and relief that accompanies all successful rare bird twitches began to sink in. Tucking into a packed lunch fit for a king we congratulated ourselves on mission accomplished, and that depite a long walk along the estuary for no reason that it had all worked out. We now had the rest of the day to pootle around. I got my colouring pencils out.

The coast of North Wales in interesting in that it is not very far from one end to the other yet east to west takes in Flintshire, Denbighshire, Conwy where we now stood, Gwynedd and Anglesey. I'd been here before as in my youth I'd climbed Snowdon with Mrs L, starting from Warrington the same day, but as far as eBird was concerned the saying "Here be dragons" could not be more appropriate. Rob was game, he is an eBird map afficionado. And anyway I had the car keys. 

We carefully picked an eBird hotspot in each preserved county, or principal area or whatever they are and off we went. First of all a nice little reserve near Aber to sort out Gwynedd, and then to the wonderful Cors Ddyga RSPB in Angelsey where we walked a full circuit and so now this county is my top one is Wales by virtue of a single checklist with 43 birds on it. Having missed out Denbighshire in our single-minded need to get to Conwy as soon as possible we stopped by the river at St Asaph for Grey Wagtail and a much deserved ice-cream, and then as luck would have it our route to home via Venus Pool NR in Shropshire took us through both Flintshire and Wrexham. Some scanning as we traversed the A55 and A483 pulled out the desired Jackdaws and so on, and so by the time I arrived home I had not only increased my UK list by one, I had also birded (of sorts) eight new eBird areas. A bit gutting that I didn't notice we were so close to "Halton" on the west side of the Mersey and which appears on my map as blank, but I am glad that I did not pursue it as it turns out it is some kind of eBird geoboundary gremlin which means it both exists and does not exist simultaneously. I have seen American Wigeon on the Wirral at Heswall Fields, and recorded it there, but all the data has been claimed by Merseyside which seems very shady. Who is the eBird reviewer for "Halton"? Tough gig that one.

Cors Ddyga RSPB. Lovely.

Venus Pool NR was one of those hidden little gems that you would never find by yourself, but is one of Rob's prior stomping grounds. It was an excellent little break about a third of the way home and upped my Shropshire list from five on the Newport bypass earlier that day to a whopping 38... I got home just before 11pm, a long day by my standards and a very long time behind the wheel but this morning, and with the bird not present, I am very glad I went. A grand day out!

Lazio - April 2026 - Trip List

Other than for a break for lunch on Saturday as we were so tired we birded pretty intensively. Once it became clear that getting decent photos of the sort we liked wasn't really on the cards we switched focus to seeing as many species as we could. The amount of effort I went to to find a Robin for instance.....it had been so long and I had been trying so hard I essentially forgot what one sounded like and when, finally, there was a Robin my brain refused to believe it. 

We were stymied at what seemed like every point by fences, closed reserves and blocking vegetation. It was as if there was a sustained campaign of wanting to prevent access and viewing, I just don't understand it. It makes the RSPB and other organisations here look wonderful frankly.

Despite the challenges we ended on 112 species, at this point more than in any other area of Italy I've been to, albeit that those trips have been either family holidays or very wine-centric. And the birds were good - things like Hoopoe, Nightingale, Bee-eater and Alpine Swift, tons of Corn Buntings and Whinchat, Shearwaters and Pratincoles. Maybe it is simply because it is different, and in a UK birder's mind things like this are rare and to be cherished, and so hen in Europe the cup runneth over.

What is for certain is that I want to go back to Italy, and I am already plotting how and when that might happen. On the other hand another opportunity to fall behind, but I am feeling more positive about where I am at. I have three more to get through before I am fully caught up - a weekend in Guernsey, a week in Burgundy, and then a monumentally good birding trip to Georgia - as in Caucasus Georgia not Atlanta Georgia.

Lazio - April 2026 - North of Rome - Marsh, salt pans and woodland

At 7.30 the next morning Mick and I found ourselves at the Torre Flavia, a tiny area of marshland adjacent to the town of Ladispoli and literally a two minute drive from our hotel. It was another beautiful day in central Italy. The layout of this place was a little confusing - from the air it looked like a decent series of pools, and it may well have been, but there was no way to see into about 80% of them. There seemed to be a path into the centre of the reserve but it was locked. The tactic it seemed was to hang around the edges and hope that something moved, and so in addition to doing a full circuit of the perimeter this is what we did. 

Teal

Garganey

The full circuit takes no more than about fifteen minutes really, but we got very lucky indeed with a Quail in off the sea, straight over the top of us and into the reserve, and as we were looking for where the path went a Stone Curlew exploded from some cover just over the ropes and flew up the beach before dropping in. Mick also saw a Bittern emerge from the reeds, fly a short loop, and drop back in before I could even react! In addition to these good birds we found three Garganey on a pool we actually could see, a Glossy Ibis, a single Flamingo, a few Stilt, a couple of Ruff and a Little Ringed Plover, and off the beach as well as commuting flocks of Yelkouan Shearwater there were also smaller numbers of Scopoli's Shearwater. I won't list every species we sawy, but a two hour session here netted 50 species which for such a small area, most of which we couldn't see, was really very good. At some point my glasses fell off my head, never ideal, but I lucked out and found them in the sand on the beach where we had been scanning for seabirds.

Sacred Ibis

Our next stop was about an hour away, the Saline di Tarquinia to the north. Another confusing site, we did not realise that the vast majority of it was closed, and only discovered this at the furthest point from the car, at which point we had to turn around and walk all the way back and attempt to approach from the other side which was only partially successful. There is only one option at the moment and that is to walk north to south along the paved track with the salt pans to your left, and scan through the fence when you are able. Mid morning on a hot day the light and haze were awful, but we added some Avocet, Grey Plover, Whimbrel, Little Tern, Common Tern, Slender-billed Gull and a couple of Spoonbill. At the decaying and fenced off central buildings we heard Turtle Dove purring, heard our first and possibly only Chiffchaff, and then on the walk back some Bee-eaters flew over. We heard them before we saw them and were alert enough to realise and look up. Overall we actually saw very little and what we did see was a long way away!

Returning to the car and driving a big loop south around the lagoons we approached the Saline from the southern coast from the area known as San Giorgio. This is a decent hotspot in its own right, but we were not able to dig out much in the heat of the day. Of note were a field full of Whinchat, a Whitethroat, lots of Corn Bunting, and on the lagoon we finally reached only to discover that views were severely restricted yet again we picked up a Black-necked Grebe and another Caspian Tern. We declined to walk any further. Anyway, if you visit the Saline the best bet would seem to be to take the path between the beach and the salt pans from where I think you would get much clearer views and be able to see a lot more.

The Saline di Tarquinia. We took the blue route, which was barred where you can see the buildings. As you can see you lose sight the water about half way along and in fact never see it again, which we did not expect. We then went all the way back and approached from the south along the beach before giving up. What we ought to have done is taken the red route. So now you know.

It was time to start heading back towards Rome. We had a few sites earmarked, one we couldn't find, and the second was surrounded by a fence with a big padlock on the gate and we couldn't get in. This seems to be the story of bird reserved in Italy. Closed. We finally found a site we could access called the Oasi Castel di Guido, a woodland area, and did a big loop that took an hour or so. Eastern Subalpine Warbler were quite common here, and we also finally found our first and only Robin, hurrah! Short-toed Eagle was overhead and just as we reached the car a single Alpine Swift cruised over among the Commons. 

Back near Rome we just had time to make it to the Centro Habitat Mediterrraneo in Ostia, braving increasingly heavy traffic to reach this wetland site. Closed. The opening hours are from 10am to 1pm, and like most of these sites it is completely fenced off and there is virtually no way to see in. Seriously Italy, what is going on? Most reserves were locked, and the one nearest your capital city is open for just three hours a day on five days of the week, and thsoe hours are esentially the worst ones for birding. Pretty pathetic. We saw a Redstart from the car on the way back. 

So that was it. 112 species, pretty decent. Lots of nice birds, good food, lovely weather. Ideal weekend. Trip list to follow. 

Lazio - April 2026 - South of Rome - Coastal Lagoons

The Tyrrhenian Sea

We had arrived at about 1am, and found the hotel key left outside for us exactly as arranged. What I had not arranged was a double bed in the room the key unlocked... At 1am you just have to roll with these things and we were so tired I don't think either of us noticed the other. It may just have been the added incentive we needed to get up especially early however, and as such we were birding outside the hotel - the Miramare, Lido di Latina - well before 7am. We walked to the edge of the Lago di Fogliano where we kicked off with a Redshank and a Greenshank, and keen as mustard we continued to strain every sense to try and start building a little list. Lazio ticks came thick and fast, with Mute Swan, a Moorhen and several Cetti's Warbler in the same area, Hooded Crow, Barn Swallow, Italian Sparrow and Serin back at the hotel, and just before we went in for breakfast we noticed a large flock of birds flying south on the horizon. With the scope in the hotel room a quick grab shot was taken and we were suprised to see we had been looking at Yelkouan Shearwater, the only small species here in any number.

Restored with some coffee we drove the short distance to the north-east corner of the lagoon and started birding the track west. A handful of fishermen were here, and a photographer sat under a tree hoping a Sacred Ibis would come within range on a small flash set back from the lagoon. This was a great little walk, less than a mile there and back, and we added birds at every step. In the same pool as the Ibis were five Wood Sandpiper, and four Common Sandpiper were feeding along the edge of the main lake. Green Woodpecker called, so did Cuckoo and Hoopoe, and there were at least four Nightingale singing from cover. Past the small pools the view opened up to a nice meadow, and on the fences were Crested Lark and Whinchat, with Zitting Cisticola pipping from long grass, and a single Corn Bunting in a hedge. In contrast the water didn't actually have a lot on it - the only ducks on the lagoon were a small flock of Wigeon, a single Teal, a couple of Mallard, Great Crested Grebe, the same Swans we had seen from the other side, and then a couple of Cormorant. The scope also pulled in Little Egret, Cattle Egret and Spoonbill on the far side - very glad we brought this as the lagoon was much bigger than I had thought.

Meadows behind the lagoon

Further south at the Pantani di Cicerchia we found a defunct hide facing the bay, and although loads of waders had been recently reported at this hotspot we could only find the same species we had already seen. Whiskered Tern was new, as was Kingfisher, but best of all were a pair of Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in the mature trees behind the hide. 

We carried on birding the east side of the lagoon where access allowed, and at around midday found ourselves at the very southern end of the third lake down (Lago di Caprolace) at the Pantani dell'Inferno. This was also allegedly excellent for waders and we were disappointed to find only a single Common Sandpiper, though we did manage Squacco Heron and Great White Egret along the western edge. Behind the causeway here is what looks like a nice marsh, but there does not seem like any easy way to actually view it. We were able to see a small slice from the tops of the dunes along the coast, in this way adding Pochard, Ferruginous Duck, Coot and Marsh Harrier, but all in all it was a bit frustrating. Sardinian Warblers called from the dunes, and there was a Chaffinch in the woodland by the road.

Needing a plan we stopped off by a small bridge over the Rio Martino on the edge of the Lago di Caprolace, scoping Shoveler, Black-headed Gull, Yellow-legged Gull, three Gull-billed Tern and, on the far side, a small flock of Greater Flamingo, all asleep. A bonus Wheatear, presumably a passage bird, was perched in a tree here, and Swallows fed low to the ground.

At around 2pm, exhausted from so much birding, we stopped for lunch in the village of Borgo Grappa. And I mean a proper lunch with a glass of white wine and some proper local food. House Martin were above the village, and some Parakeets turned out to be Monk Parakeets - I knew they didn't sound right! Clam pasta and some Calamari fritti were simply excellent sat outside in this busy local restaurant, Europeans just do this kind of thing so much better.

Never mind the birds, look at this!

From about mid-afternoon, once we had managed to pull ourselves away from the table, we birded and area of farmland where dairy Buffalo are reared - the Bufalara. Here the wallowing pools had pulled in Snipe, Ruff and more Wood Sandpiper, and large numbers of Cattle Egret were everywhere. Looking south, back towards the lake, we realised that we could see Collared Pratincole over the fields, or perhaps the lake itself, and there were also Tree Sparrow and Yellow Wagtail along the rough track here - perfectly driveable, in fact it shows as a road on the map!

These were all over the dunes and I thought they were probably quite special so I avoided treading on them. Turns out it's an invasive species from Africa called Carpobrotus edulis, the Sour Fig.

Mick scans the empty sea

We tried the Inferno again late in the afternoon, hoping that there might have been some change-over, and birds previously feeding elsewhere may have dropped in. This kind of paid off with four Black-winged Stilt and a flyover Caspian Tern, but it wasn't until gone 6pm that things really picked up with the Stilts rising to over 20, a Little Ringed Plover showing up, some brief Whimbrel and a flock of Mediterranean Gull headed out to the shore, presumably having been feeding inland. A pair of Audouin's Gull flew up the lagoon, as did a single Greylag Goose, potentially a bit of a rarity.  Between stints here we went back the coast, literally about a minute way, and picked up more Shearwaters, Yellow-legged Gull, and three Sandwich Tern.

Black-winged Stilts

Mallard

As the light began to fade we worked our way up the coastal side of the Lago di Caprolace, finding a single Red Knot on the tideline, the only bird present, and finally in the north-eastern corner we discovered where all the waders had been hiding from us, with more Stilts, Avocet, Grey Plover, Redshank, close to 60 Ruff, and the same small flock of Collared Pratincole we had seen earlier. The final new bird of the day was a drake Pintail at about 8pm about half way up the Lago di Fogliano, almost back where we had started. We had racked up 91 species in this small area around the two lakes. And the eBird Police have yet to contact us!

We felt we had exhausted this area, and consulting the map decided to spend day two on the other side of Rome where there some more decent looking eBird pins and some slightly different habitat, including some woodland as we had still not found a Robin! Although it was already late we booked a hotel in Ladispoli, just over an hour away. It was also called Hotel Miramare and also tried to give us a double bed despite having booked a twin room - they must be trying to tell us something! We avoided it this time however, and after a quick dinner in town hit the hay for some much needed rest. Same again tomorrow!

Lazio - April 2026 - Logistics and Itinerary

Lazio, 18th - 19th April 2026

In need of a break as we don't go on enough holidays, Mick and I booked a weekend in Lazio, an area of Italy I had not previously spent a great deal of time in. We flew to Rome, hired a car, and birded a variety of sites near the coast both north and south of the city. We probably went no further than a couple of hours in either direction, Tarquinia in the north and nearly to Punta Rossa to the south. What could we see? Tons.

I cannot recommend weekend trips highly enough. Often quite inexpensive, and no holidays required, with so little time you really set out to make the most of it, every location a new opportunity to add further sightings. Birding becomes your life, your raison d'etre, the sole aim. I like a nice sit down as much as the next person, but on a birding trip measured in hours....

Logistics

• A regular weekend in April, leaving late Friday night after work and maxing out until Sunday evening.

• Flights: Direct flight from London Heathrow to Rome. Slightly awkward flight times, arriving late and thus not getting to the hotel until 1am, but the beauty of this is that you get up on Saturday with the whole day ahead of you.

• Car Hire: Bundled with the flight, cost very little.
• Weather: Lovely. Not too hot, not too cold, blue skies and sun. Why do I suffer living in the UK?
• Accommodation: Two cheap hotels right on the coast. Had to share a bed on the first night as the desk was closed and there was no one to complain to. We survived. The second night they tried it again, but this time we could resist.
• Food: Lovely. So much food at home is just an embarrassment.
• Optics: I took my scope as well as a camera - the latter got virtually no use but it was great having the scope.

Day 0 – Friday evening flight from Heathrow landed in Rome at a little before midnight. I just about had the energy to drive south about an hour, arriving around 1am. I had previously arranged with hotel for them to leave a key out for me which we found without problem. Shattering, but we would be right next to the coastal lagoons the next morning.

Day 1 – South of Rome. Started just outside the hotel, birding one corner of the Lago di Fogliano, and then spent most of the morning exploring various other bits of this lake. Early afternoon at the Lago di Caprolace, followed by a leisurely lunch. Afternoon at La Bufalara, a series of meadows and pastures at the northern end of this lake, and the rest of the day exploring the general area before heading up and past Rome to Ladispoli.

Day 2 – North of Rome. Started at the Palida di Torre Flavia, and then up to the Saline di Tarquinia. All morning here as it is quite a lengthy walk. A few abortive stops at sites where there was no access before finishing the day at the Oasi Lipu Castel di Guido. A final birding site at Ostia near the airport was also closed! Early evening flight back to London.

Catching up with Gen Z

I am not sure when it was, but for a brief moment I am sure that I was caught up. I even went as far as to change the sub-heading thing on the front page, you know, the "Latterly.... whatever" thing that you might see if you visit these pages on an actual computer. Ha! Like that was ever going to last. Clearly it did not, and so earlier this year I found myself several months behind once again. I can assure you that this annoys me more than it annoys anyone else. 

I took my laptop to Burgundy a few weeks ago intending to make at least some headway. I did nothing. Well, not nothing, I visited a lot of wine-makers, went to quite a few restaurants and so on, but did I write a single word? I did not. When I had the following weekend at home I bashed out Milan and so that dealt with March, but of course we are now in June. Do you reckon I spent April, May and what has passed of June so far at home? Of course you don't. In fact I am writing this from Budapest, albeit that this is not a jolly; I am here for work, passing on my valuable thoughts to my team in Hungary, many of whom are barely older than my children. Putting to one side that I am a dinosaur that these poor people are having to endure, this is a lovely, lovely place, a glorious European capital city, and under new management as well. 

I thought I would use the opportunity to forge ahead, to get April wriiten up and done. Hmmm, nice thought but it hasn't entirely worked out like that. On Sunday night I went out for a couple of drinks after which I could not string a sentence together, and last night I worked for so long that I came back to the hotel and fell asleep immediately. Tonight then. Yes tonight I will definitely write about Italy. 

Yeah, about that. The thing is there has to be some preamble, some lack of direction, some totally unnecessary words that are completely irrelevant. Until that I can't start. This is them, you are reading them now. At least I haven't managed any birding that would otherwise get in the way - I had planned to get up early each day and hit the Gellert-Hegy but in a rush on Sunday morning and needing to leave the house in order not to miss the flight I could not find the travel bins. A child has borrowed them and not put them back, so I am in eastern Europe with no optics which is an utter travesty. Bloody kids. 

Talking of children and binoculars, barely a day goes past without some news story about Gen Z and birds. It is the new "thing" if you would believe it. I intend to cover this more as I now believe (and deep down I always knew it) that I have done my children an incredible service by insisting that they look at birds when they were young. The journalists are not making this up, I can confirm it first hand, my kids' eyes are wide open and receptive. For years they denied it, recanted it in fact, but you can't deny this kind of deep-seated childhood memory, and it is coming back. One of my children has an eBird account.....