Italy day 9

Another day of walking and creepy-crawlies. It was nice to see a Bee Fly today, although it was immensely difficult to photograph. Here's some of the pics. I'm spending the day in Venice tomorrow so there'll probably be some architecture oriented pics here shortly.

Italy day 8 (a good'en!!!)

After a drastic change of plan, I went up Monte Baldo behind Malcesine today and saw a stunning pair of Black Redstart. Other pics are of Crossbill, Chough, Wheatear and a Marmot. I've got a fairly free day tomorrow so fingers crossed the weather is nice for Moths, Dragonflies and Butterflies...

Italy day 7

Bit of a cheat with this post as it's general scenery shots from the holiday so far. I'll be spending the day in Verona tomorrow so the next post may be similarly themed. All of these were taken on my mobile phone so please forgive the distortion and vignetting.

Italy day 6

I walked up a mountain again today and saw more of the Hummingbird Hawk-Moth. A stunning Bee Hawk-Moth was an exciting surprise though! I suppose I'd better post a couple of bird pics too (albeit boring species).

Italy day 5

As predicted yesterday, today was pretty much a non-photographing day. I popped outside briefly but only got shots of another Hummingbird Hawk-Moth and a Kestrel. A male Redstart and a Firecrest was also nice to see (will post pics at a later date if I get any which are less awful). Here's some of today's pics along with some from yesterday. The large bird of prey is a Black Kite.

Italy day 4

Another great day, and probably the last with half decent weather for a while. I spent pretty much all day out with the camera and saw more of the same; the only new species of interest was a medium sized (unidentified due to distance) Falcon. Here's the pics of Butterflies and Moths. There's some of birds too but I'll post them tomorrow as it'll probably be an indoors day and I want enough content for a blog post every day! The Hummingbird Hawk-Moths and Swallowtails were stunning; I hope to get some better shots of these before heading back to the UK.

Italy day 3

Another brilliant day from a wildlife sightings perspective! After the disappointment of missing out on pics of a self-found Short Toed Eagle yesterday due to a flat battery, I was pleased to see a Golden Eagle and a Goshawk soaring in the Dolomites area. Pics aren't blog-worthy as I shot them through double glazed windows. I also found 2 stunning Ring Ouzels and a few Redstarts. A single Fieldfare was also nice to see.

Chough

Redstart

Ring Ouzel

Ring Ouzel

Fieldfare