I have already devoted a post (http://margaret.healthblogs.org/2009/05/09/oasi-stagni-di-focognano) to the WWF oasis known as the “Oasi di Focognano,” located in Campi Bisenzio, a small municipality just outside of Florence…

Well, today, a beautiful day in Florence, Stefano and I decided to spend a few hours there…

Ah, I should mention at this point that we are both enthusiastic birdwatchers…but most of the time we have absolutely no idea what we are looking at and taking photos of, unless of course the birds happen to be puffins. 😉

No matter, we enjoy walking around nature reserves, taking photos…blissfully ignorant…Besides, it’s fun to look up the birds in our bird book or on internet once we get home…

There are no puffins at Focognano, obviously, but, if you are lucky (!), you will come upon a bird known as “Cavaliere d’Italia” in Italian, and “black-winged stilt” in English. I prefer its Italian name, which means “Knight of Italy.” Yes…definitely a more appropriate name for this long-legged, elegant black and white bird…

We have been to Focognano several times in the past couple of years, but we have seen and photographed only ONE knight… 

This morning, though, as luck had it, we were able to admire not one, not two, but an entire FLOCK of black-winged stilts. They were very active, too (see photo no. 2).

There were other birds, too–coots, grey herons, mallards and whatnot–but I had eyes only for the knights. My ecstatic contemplation was disturbed only by the arrival of a group of very excited school-age children, who had obviously not been warned about keeping quiet…

Oh well.

We left…But by then, between the two of us, we had taken about 500 photos… 🙂

My only regret is that most of my photos turned out a bit fuzzy…mainly because the knights stubbornly stuck to the other part of the lake (as you can see in photo no. 3)…

Still…what an amazing experience…