Ortygia and Syracuse 5 – 12 November 2024

A week-long winter break in Sicily was supposed to offer us some winter sun but the weather was so bad that it didn’t go to plan. Although it was warm enough – about 20 degrees most days – it rained heavily frequently. We managed to have a couple of nice birding experiences despite this.

We stayed at the Ortea Palace Hotel on Ortygia island, Syracuse which was a pleasant place and we had a very spacious split level-room. We mainly got about on foot with the occasional bus and taxi rides.

Whilst walking around the Castello Maniace at the southern end of Ortygia we saw a couple of birds that I finally managed to identify as Black Redstarts. I didn’t have my binoculars with me so I had to blow up a phone photo I managed to get of one of them. As it happens, we saw a lot of them whilst walking around the Neapolis Archaeological Park a couple of days later. Given that I think I have only seen a single Black Redstart before, I was very happy with seeing so many of them.

Whilst walking around the area of the Duomo, we started to see biggish flocks of Starlings milling around and it seemed like they were all going in the one direction – I though probably to a roost and possibly in the small park next to Largo Aretusa. We watched them for quite a while, then walked to the eastern side of the island but could not see them then. We decided to try the next day to see if we could find them.

I thought that the Starlings might be headed to a roost in the small park next to Largo Aretusa. This turned out to be a good guess. We headed down there for about 4pm and had a drink at one of the bars. When the bird numbers started to get quite large, we walked over to the viewpoint that is just above the park and watched the murmuration as thousands of Starlings came in to roost. Very impressive and noisy. Certainly there were hundreds, and possibly thousands. The locals were rather used to it, one clapping his hands loudly to cause them to react in a surprising way; they went completely silent for a few moments while they assessed any possible danger and, sensing, none they resumed their loud chattering. Thankfully it kept dry for us. We were going to return the following evening but the weather returned to its default – heavy rain. Of course the week before we were there and the week after the weather was completely dry and about 23 degrees!