Ornithological research on the small islands of Northern Europe has its roots in a now remote past, when data on the migration of birds on numerous islands in Scotland, England, Sweden, Norway, France and Germany were already collected since the mid-19th century. It was precisely in Germany, on the island of Heligoland, that one of the first ornithological research stations (or Bird Observatory as they are called today) in the world was founded in 1891. The eminent ornithologist Heinrich Gätke had already moved to this island in 1841, starting to make an ornithological collection of the birds he “collected” on the island (at the time, ornithology, and all the zoology, was primarily based on the scientific collections of specimens): including, in fact, numerous “first” records of species never previously reported in the Western Palearctic or in Europe. In those years or shortly after, ornithological studies and permanent bird observatories took place on various European islands such as Ouessant (France), Scilly (England), Shetland (Scotland), Gotland and Ottenby on the island of Öland (Sweden) and so on.
In Italy, there were no permanent ornithological research stations on the small islands, but scientific “expeditions” for the collection of specimens before, and for observation and study after (e.g. ringing) have already taken place since the mid-19th century, although occasionally and not systematic. We have some information about the fauna of the Pelagie Islands and Pantelleria, from Pietro Calcara, which in one of his publication reported also zoological observations (Calcara 1846). However, the author published very few and vague data on birds (Calcara 1851). Later, Pietro Doderlein in his “Avifauna del Modenese e della Sicilia” (Palermo, 1869-1874), reports several records about the bird species observed in April and May 1874 on the island of Pantelleria. Some further information were then reported by Giglioli in his “Avifauna Italica. List of species of birds stationary or passing through Italy” (1886) and in the “Second Report” (1907), where specific observations are found for example for August 1882 and 1890 (see page 286) again for the island of Pantelleria. In the following years, up until the first half of the 20th century, visits to the small Italian islands were very occasional and brief, especially by foreign ornithologists (for example Germans shortly before, during and after the Second World War). It is Edgardo Moltoni, who finally, starting from 1954, understood the absolute ornithological relevance of the small circum-Italian islands and islets, starting to regularly visit these and publishing the results of his observations from Pantelleria, Zannone, Aeolian Archipelago, Pelagie Islands etc. In Moltoni (1954, 1973) there are countless new reports for the island of Pantelleria, including true rarities at a national level. The same can be said of the work of Moltoni (1970) carried out for the Pelagie islands (Lampedusa, Linosa and Lampione), where the ornithologist reports the capture or the observation of numerous species never previously reported in Sicily or Italy, or in any case very rare at a national level.
This is in fact one of the first works that shows how the regular visit paid to small Mediterranean islands can lead to the collection of such a large amount of new data as to not only expand the national faunal list, but also change the phenology and status of an important number of species. Shortly before 1970, however, Ferrante Foschi had already traveled to the island of Pantelleria in 1966, publishing an excellent work (Foschi 1968), and reporting numerous very rare species, as a Red Phalarope. His description of the boat crossing from Trapani to Pantelleria is memorable and exciting, during which a storm with force seven seas hit them, risking shipwreck: “We set off with a calm sea but, after a few miles, suddenly, a very violent north wind rises, and the waves, in a short moment, accumulate, overlap, whiten, hit the sides, invade the deck… waves of five , seven, eight metres. The Captain gives sharp orders, uses the whistle, and the men on board, on that walnut shell at the mercy of a terrible Sicilian channel, climb onto the shrouds, hoist the sails and gather them: and the magnificent three-masted ship, forced to receiving the furious waves on board, it dances irregularly, sinks, rears up, but proceeds: the Captain at the helm held out for a good six hours…then, as nature would have it, we came in sight of Pantelleria.” As regards the historical research of ornithology, and above all of other branches of zoology (primarily entomology) on the Aeolian Islands, refer to the reading of Pietro Lo Cascio’s beautiful book from 2014 (see bibliography reference at the end).
In the 90s of the 20th century and at the beginning of the 2000s, there was a succession of short and occasional visits to the small Italian islands, mainly to the circum-Sicilian ones. Exceptions are the regular studies since the 1970s/80s on the Scopoli’s Shearwater colony of Linosa Island and the European Stormpetrel in Marettimo Island. But it is above all the “PROGETTO PICCOLE ISOLE” of the INFS (National Institute for Wildlife) first, then ISPRA (Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research) that plays a fundamental role in this context. The PROGETTO PICCOLE ISOLE” (PPI) is a ringing project on migration across the Mediterranean, conceived and coordinated, since 1988, by the National Center for Italian Ringing of ISPRA. Launched as an Italian initiative, the PPI soon involved several islands and coastal sites scattered throughout the central-western area of the Mediterranean Sea allowing previously unknown migration routes to be delineated and better known. In 35 years of activity, the PPI has provided data that have made possible to identify sites and habitats of primary importance for the conservation of Euro-African migratory birds, revealed and explained the incredible ability of birds weighing just a few grams to fly over, without making any stops, hundreds of kilometers of open sea, offered original indications on how migratory birds are effective indicators of the environmental consequences of global warming. Thanks to these studies, in 2006, the first permanent Ornithological Station was finally settled on a small Italian island, in Ventotene (Is. Ponziane, Lazio).
And here we take a short break. In fact, all the above has not led to a change in the seasonal tourist flow on these small islands, nor, in most cases, in their vocation. Many of these islands and islets, for hundreds of years, have been the domain of poaching, with the systematic killing of hundreds of protected species. While on the one hand ornithological research plays a role of great importance from a scientific the point of view, on the other handm as there are few professional scholars who dedicate themselves to it in our country, it would not change the touristic flow, and, hence, the attention devoted to the islands and their protection. Instead, it is birdwatching, a hobby and deep passion, that is constantly increasing, throughout Europe for over 50 years, in Italy in the last twenty years, for example thanks to the EBN Italia association. It is precisely because of this recreational passion and growth value that birdwatching can move a multitude of people, traveling to an ever-increasing number of destinations and with a constantly growing number of enthusiasts.
And so it is that in 2006, from the union of a group of avid birders, the birding team MISC was born. Already since the early 1990s, the author of this note occasionally frequented the Aeolian Islands, the Pelagian Islands and the Egadi Islands. But before 2006, no Italian birdwatcher had thought of frequenting one of the various small Italian islands assiduously, regularly and for several consecutive weeks. The MISC, on the other hand, born from the first observations on the island of Linosa by Hans Larsson and Andrea Corso, thanks to the union with Ottavio Janni, Michele Viganò, Lucio Maniscalco, Igor Maiorano and last but not least Raimondo ” the uncle” Finati, started monitoring LINOSA for a month in spring and a month in autumn, doing intensive birding on this island. Here the observations begin to pour in, always documented by photos or sound recordings, of species never previously reported in Italy, even true rarities for the entire Western Palearctic such as the Pallas’s Reed Bunting or the American pipit. The status and phenology of numerous species once thought to be rare, irregular or even accidental were being overturned, and species that escaped or were rarely ringed during the PPI are now regularly observed. The news continuously shared among the community of Italian birdwatchers, but also at an international level, grows year after year. This is how all birdwatchers understand the importance of assiduously frequenting the small Italian islands during the migratory season (pre-breeding in spring, post-breeding /post-juvenile in autumn). Dozens of people therefore now visit between March and May and in October-November the islands of Ventotene, the Tremiti Islands, Elba and Capraia, the Aeolian Islands, the Egadi Islands but above all Lampedusa and Linosa.
From a few dozen, in recent years there have become hundreds of birdwatchers who visit these islands in periods during which very few tourists frequent them.
The poachers, once undisturbed, understand now that they can no longer act freely. And if in Lampedusa, Ponza, Ischia, Capri and other islands poaching is still a real and very serious problem for protected birds, and the road ahead towards a complete or more extensive protection of endangered species is still uphill, in Linosa the hunters, who have drastically decreased in number, now hunt only a few species (all of them are in the regional hunting calendar), such as Song Thrush, Skylark and Woodcock; after almost 20 years of exhausting discussions, photographic exhibitions, environmental education days in schools (LEICA for young Birders) and so on, today the few remaining hunters have understood that no protected species should be killed. Emblematic is the presence every autumn of booted and short-toed eagles, black storks and saker falcons that stop for days or weeks undisturbed on the island, often flying over the hunters without any problem.
In September 2023, a juvenile Egyptian Vulture, monitored by satellite radio, stopped on the island of Linosa, protected and undisturbed, indeed fed by some islanders who brought meat to Monte Vulcano where it has stopped for days. In October 2024, a group of 10 golden plovers and 4 dotterels stayed for 15 days in the garden of one of the island’s hunters, without ever being shot, even while he was hunting song thrushes. A compromise yes, but a great satisfaction compared to the fire-barrage that once welcomed all migrant birds, killing them all from the short-eared owl to herons, from birds of prey to passerines, in Linosa as on all the Italian islands.
Every spring and autumn, Linosa and Lampedusa, but also Tremiti and Ventotene, see the rooms for rent and the few B&Bs filled with birdwatchers, for days or weeks. And the flow looks set to grow! Hoping for a future with an ever-decreasing hunting impact and greater environmental tourism, while always respecting the islanders and the islands’ environment.
Suggested reading
BOANO G. & CURLETTI G., 1975. Aggiunte all’avifauna della Sila e dell’isola di Lampedusa. Riv. ital. Orn., 45: 381-383
CALCARA P., 1846. Rapporto del viaggio scientifico eseguito nelle Isole di Lampedusa, Linosa e Pantelleria e di altri punti della Sicilia. Stamp. Pagano, Palermo.
Calcara P., 1851. Elenco di alcuni Uccelli in: Descrizione dell’Isola di Linosa. Tip. R.A. Pagano, Palermo.
CORSO A. & MISC, 2013. Lampedusa e Linosa, autunno 2012. Quad. Birdwatching, 15 (11): 74-79.
GIGLIOLI E.H., 1881b. Elenco delle specie di uccelli che trovansi in Italia stazionarie o di passaggio, colle indicazioni delle epoche della nidificazione e della migrazione. Ann. Agric., 36: 1-133.
LAMANTIA T., LO VALVO F. & MASSA B., 2002. XIII. Gli Uccelli. Pp. 89-105 in: Corti C., Lo Cascio
P., Masseti M. & Pasta S. (a cura di), Storia Naturale delle Isole Pelagie.
L’Epos, Palermo.
LO CASCIO P., 2014. Cose diverse dalle vulcaniche. Le Eolie dell’Ottocento esplorate da Mandralisca e altri naturalisti. Pungitopo, Gioiosa Marea.
LO CASCIO P. & NAVARRA E., 2003. Guida naturalistica alle Isole Eolie. La vita in un arcipelago vulcanico.
L’Epos, Palermo
LO VALVO F., 2001. Aggiornamento delle conoscenze ornitologiche dell’isola di Lampedusa. Naturalista sicil., 25 (suppl.): 121-130.
LO VERDE G., 1987. Osservazione di Codirosso algerino Phoenicurus moussieri nell’isola di Lampedusa (Pelagie, Agrigento). Riv. ital. Orn., 57: 260.
MOLTONI E., 1954. Gli uccelli rinvenuti durante una escursione ornitologica all’Isola di Pantelleria, Prov. di Trapani, nel giugno-luglio 1954 (29 giugno – 21 luglio) con notizie su quelli noti per l’Isola. Riv. ital. Orn., 27: 1-41
MOLTONI E., 1970. Gli uccelli ad oggi riscontrati nelle Isole Linosa, Lampedusa e Lampione (Isole Pelagie, Canale di Sicilia, Mediterraneo). Riv. ital. Orn., 40: 77-283.
MOLTONI E., 1971. La Cinciarella algerina, Parus caeruleus ultramarinus, Bonaparte, è uccello sedentario nell’isola di Pantelleria (Trapani). Riv. ital. Orn., 41: 25-27.
MOLTONI E., 1973. Gli uccelli fino ad oggi rinvenuti o notati all’isola di Pantelleria (Provincia di Trapani, Sicilia). Riv. ital. Orn ., 43: 173 – 437.
MOLTONI E., 1973. Elenco di parecchie centinaia di uccelli inanellati all’estero e ripresi in Italia ed in Libia. Riv. ital. Orn ., 43 (suppl.): 1-182.
MOLTONI E., 1976. Uccelli inanellati presi alle Isole Pelagie, Pantelleria, Egadi ed in Libia. Ric.Biol. Selvaggina, 7 (suppl.): 491-511.
MOLTONI E. & FRUGIS S., 1967. Gli Uccelli delle Isole Eolie (Messina, Sicilia). Riv. ital. Orn ., 37: 93-234.
VIGANÒ M., CORSO A. & JANNI O. & MAIORANO I., 2014. Linosa, l’isola delle meraviglie. Quaderni di Birdwatching, 16 (14): 56-63.