Porto Ercole, eastern basin of the Orbetello Lagoon, migration destination for various species of birds traveling between Europe and Africa. In the image (sarangib/Pixabay), three specimens of the aquatic ‘Himantopus himantopus’, commonly, ‘Cavaliere d’Italia’.
Every year, in spring, in a phenomenon that should always be observed with amazement, when the first warm Sun prevails over the last resistances of winter, nature awakens, showing itself in its richness and variety.
Everything that has been a static picture for months regains a rhythm and living organisms return to their best form. Where did they hide in the winter, to suddenly reappear like this?
In addition to those that have not yet been born, waiting for environmental conditions suitable for the first stages of life, some other animals have lived in hibernation, while the plants have lost their leaves which would not have withstood the rigors of winter.
Finally, where climatic differences are accentuated, with very hot summers and very cold winters, those capable of covering long journeys in a short time, such as migratory birds, have moved, for example, to the wintering lagoon.
By making journeys that are so long and so precise in the destination that they can only be explained with that ability to adapt aimed at acquiring, as tools for defense against the environment, the most suitable characteristics to survive.
By evolving, migratory birds, for example, have learned to direct their journey towards the same country as the previous year, where sometimes the female returns to brood in the same nest.
From Porto Ercole, on the eastern basin of the estuary, in an hour’s fitwalking you reach and cross the Diga Leopoldina, which separates the waters of the lagoon in two and on which lies the spectacular Provincial Road 161 that leads to Orbetello.