Italy - Sicily
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Join our popular tour to Sicily - a wonderful and fascinating destination, with an easy-going lifestyle and an almost perfect combination of great birding, culture and cuisine. Each year this trip sells out early, so please book soon to ensure a place!Separated from the toe of Italy to the east by the Strait of Messina, and from the coast of Tunisia, one hundred miles to the south, by the Sicilian Strait, eastern Sicily has long been known as a hot spot for migratory birds moving between the continents of Africa and Europe. Sicilian food and wine are wonderful, and the Sicilian people as warm and friendly as the island's climate. The largest of the Mediterranean islands, first-time visitors may be surprised at just how big Sicily is! Our April tour focuses on the island's bird-rich eastern side, where we will birdwatch amidst a landscape dominated - and very largely shaped - by the immense cone of Europe's biggest volcano, Mt Etna. Here we will search for the wary Sicilian Rock Partridge (an endemic species now separated from its mainland cousin, the Rock Partridge), and the very rare European race of Lanner. To the south, the port of Siracusa is one of the most beautiful and historic towns in Europe. In April, the coastal garrigue has breeding Stone-curlews and Calandra Larks; Audouin's Gulls coast past and nearby wetlands harbour Collared Pratincole and Slender-billed Gull, Ferruginous Duck and the rare Purple Swamphen. Just south of the town, gardens and groves of almond, olive and carob are attractive to migrants including Collared Flycatcher, Nightjar and Hoopoe. West of Siracusa is the beautiful and unspoilt Iblei region: a rough, sheep-grazed limestone escarpment, cut by deep valleys such as the Cava Grande, which we will visit to look for migrating raptors and local specialities such as Spectacled Warbler and Rock Sparrow. North along the coast are several wetland sites and jutting headlands holding many exciting breeding and migrant species. In April, birds of prey on the move can include Pallid, Marsh and Montagu's Harriers. We are based throughout at a comfortable family-run masseria - the charming Pozzo di Mazza - a fully-renovated 800-year old former winery near Siracusa. Meals and hospitality are a delight. Our guide Andrea Corso lives locally. Author of the Avifauna di Sicilia and one of the leading lights in birding and conservation in Italy today, he has a wonderful sense of humour - and singing voice! |
© Rene Pop
Mount Etna
Price: £ TBC*1
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Accommodation:
We spend all seven nights at a small but comfortable family-run masseria (renovated former farmhouse hotel), the charming Pozzo di Mazza, an eight hundred year old former winery near Siracusa, in the south of Sicily. All rooms en suite.
Meals: All included in the price. Breakfast and excellent home-cooked dinners of freshly made Sicilian food, with local fish dishes a speciality of the cooks. Lunches will be picnics, with sandwiches or local pastries freshly-prepared that morning using delicious Italian cheeses, hams, vegetables, sun-dried tomatoes, olives and aubergines. Walking: Easy. Short walks over mainly easy terrain. Steeper in places on the volcanic slopes of Mt Etna, where the lava fields can be variously loose or hard, uneven and quite sharp under foot. Some participants may find walking poles useful here. We do not go to the summit area. Comfy walking shoes with stout corrugated soles are advised. Maximum elevation on this tour: approx. 2000m (6500ft).
Click here for a full, printable itineraryWhat you say:"Everything was superb; we even saw birds we did not expect to see - the Bar-tailed Desert Lark and the Atlas Pied Flycatcher were a real bonus. The island is beautiful at this time of year, the orchids, wild flowers, butterflies and birds all added to a wonderful trip. Please pass our thanks to Brian and Andrea - both excellent guides and such a laugh together. Everyone on the trip was great company." P. & V. P., Essex |
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