WPC: Silence!

In my quest to get closer to the flamingos in Orbetello lagoon, I found some other beasts as well. 

Every time I’m grocery shopping, I throw them wishful looks and they laugh at me from too far away for my zoom. I promised them to come around and closer.

Bosco della Patanella, the map said and it sounded promising. Twenty minutes from me and yet I’ve never been. I turned off the Aurelia main road and before I could even breathe the fresh air (as if the main road doesn’t smell completely the same), I saw a creature hopping around in a field.

I swerved to the right and stopped. Silence! I said to myself, the only thing I have learned so far about wildlife photography. And yet, my camera was still in the bag and that took some fumbling, I had to open the window and I was just hoping a car wouldn’t appear behind me and honk. Luckily I left bestia at home with amore.

“Hello, bird,” I said in my mind as I zoomed in.

I have never seen something like that. It looked right out of a cartoon. The bird’s hair resembled the sparsely growing field where it was hopping.

Only at home I remembered reading about a certain bird that was thought extinct in Europe but is reappearing in some places, including Maremma.

I checked for resemblance. Oh yes, ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got a Northern bald ibis.

When I reached the lagoon, I could see – and hear, they weren’t told about the rule of silence – the flamingos and other aviators alright, but they were in the direction of the sun and still too far for comfort. You can see some of my attempts in the gallery.

But nevermind the photos, it was simply a pleasure to look at them through the zoom, since my eyesight is slowing going, and listening to their chirping and rejoicing.

Upon exit I met a man in hunter’s attire who showed me his basket with some mushrooms. Allowed only with a licence, he stressed. He also told me that the weather was changing and we agreed that around here the nature was still as it was intended all along.

Near the parking I saw the hunters’ grounds sign, which surprised me since this is a part of the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) protected oasis, after all. The season closes in the end of January. I know because bestia is not the fan of the sounds.

I will never forget that video I found online, taken on the last day of the hunting season on the island of Elba about 100 km away. Talking about in your face.

As I was driving from the parking lot, the mushroom man in front drove too slowly for comfort. I wondered why for a moment and then I saw him turn and point.

I looked sideways and there it was: quite a big boar playing tourist, prancing around the field, eating off a bush as if on holiday.

I don’t have any photo of that, my fight or flight response decided on the latter. But you are invited to view the gallery and pretend you are here.

“Who are you calling extinct?”

From the car. All alone, and the bird was by itself too.

Elaborate entrance to the oasis.

Dancing.

I have an impression that the black guys on the right were responsible for the most noise.

I hoped for a lift-off.

Bosco della Patanella. A little forest indeed.

Orbetello. On St. Valentine’s Day, a supermarket holds an organised flamingo coupling viewing from its roof. For real.

Italians must always burn something.

Here you can see how far away they really are. Monte Argentario peninsula in the background.

Particularly hunting.

The light was going and the birds acquired a shade underneath.

Ooops, my camera is lost.

This image seems so non-European.

Goodbye, lagoon, I’ll be back. And quiet.

Photo: Manja Maksimovič

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: Silence