Hoopoe: Last week I took Dawn away for her birthday, we decided on visiting Rome but staying outside of the city in order to see more scenic places and have our own pool and stayed in a place called Bracciano.
Bracciano is a small town in the Italian region of Lazio, 30 kilometres northwest of Rome. The town is famous for it's large volcanic lake and for a particularly well-preserved medieval castle Castello Orsini-Odescalchi.
We stayed in a beautiful little Villa called Country House Due Miglia with our own private pool, surrounded by olive groves.
It was here right next to our hire car where I spotted a couple of Hoopoe foraging, I saw these in the area a couple of times but on our very last day the birds came particularly close.
The gardens had plenty of Sardinian Warbler, Barn Swallows, Serin, Hooded Crow and Kites over head.
Black Kite: One afternoon while Dawn spent the day sunning herself beside the pool I decided to leave the Villa and go explore. I followed a small dirt track and meandered around the wheat fields and olive groves.
It was here I got up close and personal to a Black Kite which spent an hour or so circling over a nearby Villa, it was soon joined by a second Black and then a Red Kite.
Hooded Crow: Back at the Villa I spent some more time getting some shots of the local Hooded Crows.
Brilliant mini-break, good birds albeit not a birding holiday, great sights and Villa. Seeing the Colosseum was a big highlight, that place is breathtaking.
