Soon after the end of the COVID lockdown we visited Italy in October 2021 to spend some time with our family in Duino, a small town near Trieste. Most of the time was spent with the family members and seeing the sights of the area, but we did find time to do a little birding around Duino, especially at the Isola della Cona Nature Reserve, a well-known wetland birding area.
A walk along the clifftops of Duino produced Eurasian Jay, Goldcrest, Coal Tit, Common Buzzard and Great Tit.
We spent a very pleasant day at the Isola della Cona Nature Reserve, although many of the birds were species that we had seen frequently in the UK.
Birds we saw included Greylag Goose, Greater White-fronted Goose, Great Cormorant, Grey Heron, Cattle Egret, Gadwall, Northern Shoveler, Common Snipe, Green-winged Teal, Common Redshank, Northern Pintail, Northern Wigeon and Eurasian Curlew.
On the central lake there were several coypu or nutria, which are large rodents that originated in South America but have been introduced into Europe.
