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More and more travelers come to Italy for a walking holiday and the Natural Reserve of Bolgheri is a perfect place to combine trekking and bird watching. The Animal Sanctuary sits in along the coast of Tuscany Italy between Cecina and San Vincenzo. Only guided walking tours are allowed and you need to book with the WWF. You can stay overnight at the Agriturismo Prategiano and the staff of this nice agriturismo in Maremma Tuscany will organize a walking tour with the guides of the WWF for you. The itinerary in the protected area has tracks, huts, observation towers and nature paths. The core of the area is the wetland that stretches behind the coastal dunes. You meet a special type of wood, which has now become quite rare, formed by narrowleaf ashes, Dutch elms, white poplars and tamarisk that during some months, find themselves with their roots under water. Beyond the strip of hygrophyte wood the padule opens surrounded by a thick marsh vegetation mostly formed by reed thicket and by a strip of bulrush. The part that dries up in summer is replaced by a beautiful meadow, where many animals graze. In the padule you can witness during the year the turnover of thousands of birds. In winter, surface ducks, wigeons, shovelers, teals and some rare gadwall find refuge here. At the begin of spring, they are joined by the small garganeys, migrating to the north. Diving ducks are rare due to the lack of deep water. Along the shores of the clearances and in the reed thickets, grey herons and egrets move in search of the fish that populate the marsh. During migration, other rare ardeids such as the bittern arrive, camouflaged in the thick marsh vegetation. Every year, wild geese spend the winter here, as well as some specimen of crane. Less often, you can observe flamingos and storks. With the coming of the hot season, the birds that inhabit the wetland fly somewhere else and are replaced by nesting species such as the bee-eater, arrived from Africa. The stretch of beach within the protected area is still untouched and it is characterized by the pioneer species of the dune vegetation. On the sandy downs, home of the wild rabbits, you will see juniper that moving inland, leave their place to the pine forest, formed by umbrella pines and by maritime pines, where a thick undergrowth of evergreen shrubs grows. Among the many mammals, you find porcupines, boars, foxes and martens . In summer, the majestic short toed eagle flies over the sanctuary looking for snakes, reptiles as common as the tortoise and the pond turtle. For more information about walking holiday in Tuscany, please contact the Agriturismo Prategiano and join the wonderful tours in the Natural Reserve of Bolgheri.
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holidays, Tusany, walking, Maremma, Toscana, Italy,
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