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Marchesi Biscardo – Corvina della Provincia di Verona (2017)

10,000 Birds

When the disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (or SARS-CoV-2) acquired the name COVID-19 (short for “coronavirus 2019”) last February, many birders couldn’t help but notice the coincidental similarity between that abbreviation and name of one of the most familiar of all passerine families – Corvidae.

2017 259
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The Red-billed Leiothrix of Tuscany

10,000 Birds

And while most of these introduction attempts failed, the species has now become firmly established as a “countable” species in several areas of France and Italy, and even Spain so far as I was able to find out. Celebrated awesomeness: Trips Europe invasive species Italy'

Italy 182
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The Hidden Qualities of House Sparrows

10,000 Birds

To us on the traditional side of the Atlantic, they’ll always belong to the family Iznogoudae , the birds who want to become warblers instead of the warblers. As we move from Spain towards the east however, it starts getting interesting as soon as we reach Italy. And do they ever try so hard.

Sparrows 225
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Quinta do Casal Branco: Lobo e Falcão Reserva (2016)

10,000 Birds

After three visits to southern Italy, followed by a lone excursion to Belgium, we’ll head back south to end our month-long “Grand Tour” of falconry-themed wine and ales in Portugal. Quinta do Casal Branco has been in the family of winemaker José Lobo de Vasconcelos for over two centuries, since 1775.

2016 132
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Jochen’s Top 10 birds of 2016

10,000 Birds

My trips abroad were limited to short family vacations to the Cote d’Azur during the first days of January and a week-long vacation to northern Tuscany / Italy in May. Scopoli’s Shearwater , Tuscany, Italy. Great Spotted Cuckoo , Tuscany, Italy. Northern Gannet , Liguria coast, Italy.

2016 101
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“One for the crow”: Dancing Crow Vineyards Zinfandel (2017)

10,000 Birds

As the story goes, the family that first planted the vineyard that became Dancing Crow were working their land in the shadow of Mount Konecti in the 1850s, painstakingly marking the spacing and orientation of their future vine rows using straws stuck into the earth.

2017 161
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Castellare di Castellina: Chianti Classico (2019)

10,000 Birds

In fact, the family name Lanius derives from a Latin word for “butcher”, though the “butcherbird” was a butcher long before humans even developed the language to describe these activities. Who knows – perhaps early humans got the idea of cutting and hanging meat by watching these shrikes at work in their arboreal abbatoirs?

2019 231