August 2016

I was in Italy between 28 August and 4 September. The return trip was a nightmare: a Turkish plane fractured its wheel landing at Bologna and scarred the runway which was then closed with 4 hours. Ryanair cancelled our flight, so we had to travel all the way to Rome for separate flights to Stansted the next day. We arrived back about 30 hours late. Bird highlights were about 20 bee eaters high over Lucie's house on 2 September, and a nightjar on a track near Anghiari on 29 August. I had only one sighting of a honey buzzard from the house. A lesser spotted woodpecker fed on the walnut tree outside my bedroom- photograph below through the mosquito netting. The camera trap captured up to 4 wild boar, a hedgehog and a brown rat.

Monterchi, and the Festival of Renaissance Artisanship, Città di Castello.