{"id":6963,"date":"2019-06-28T09:32:23","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T09:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/?p=6963"},"modified":"2019-06-28T12:32:45","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T12:32:45","slug":"natural-history-in-the-heel-of-italy-2-towns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/2019\/06\/28\/natural-history-in-the-heel-of-italy-2-towns\/","title":{"rendered":"Natural History in the Heel of Italy: 2. Towns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Palm Tree Trunk: detail of cross-section. What’s missing? There are no annual growth rings! Palms do not have that kind of secondary thickening. Instead, they have masses of tough bundles of fibres (dark brown spots) scattered throughout the trunk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Same trunk, showing a wider view. Outside is on left. City park, Lecce<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Well this really is one of those images one captures once in a lifetime. Swift, at dusk, feeding its young, in a crack in the facade of the church of San Matteo, Lecce. The flash has revealed the eye of both the parent and the young bird. Swifts hardly ever land, even sleeping in the air, and they spend as little time as possible at the nest.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Screaming group of swifts over Matera in the evening. In the early morning, many hundreds of swifts are scattered high in the sky above the town.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lesser Kestrel, one of dozens in the sky over the 6000-year-old town of Matera. They live socially. The small thumb-winglets (in aeronautics they’d be called leading edge flaps, ornithologists call them alulae) are deployed to increase lift. They appear dark as they are in shadow. The belly is reddish, the wings pale and almost unmarked.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Social group of Lesser Kestrels in the air over Matera. (There are 16 birds in the image; you should be able to right-click and select something like ‘View image’ to see it enlarged)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lesser Kestrel on TV Aerial, Lecce. This species too spends all day in the air, so it was a treat to see one perched. They catch insects in the air or on the ground.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lesser Kestrel with insect prey in its claws<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Aestivating Snails, Matera<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Swallow atop farm cart inside cave-dwelling, Matera<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Swallow on nest with young<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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