Yesterday, =  our 12th wedding anniversary, Stefano and I got up at 5:40 AM (zzzzzz) in order to be at the WWF Oasis of Gabbianello, near Barberino di Mugello, by 7:30 (zzzzz). Actually, we are both early risers…but on the weekend we like to stay in bed a little longer than 5:40 AM (zzzzz)!

The Gabbianello oasis opens early for groups of at least five people every second Sunday of the month (it normally opens at 10 AM on Sat and Sun). Yesterday happened to be the second Sunday of the month, so we were able to join up with a group of five others…A few more people arrived later on, but there was never a crowd, which was nice.

The lake was full of birds, mostly common birds that we have seen over and over again (but then, the migratory birds have already…migrated, so that is not surprising)…I still love to watch and photograph even the common ones.

The best scene we saw yesterday morning was of a couple of great-crested grebes courting each other…Lots of head shaking and crest puffing and turning heads to the left, then to the right, in a ritualistic manner. Fun to watch, and so very elegant…

We saw our friend the purple heron again, but he (she?) stayed put on a small grassy island in the middle of the lake and didn’t come very close to us, as you can tell by the rather fuzzy photo. The wild swans are always fun to watch…And there were heaps of other birds—little grebes, overactive coots chasing each other with lots of splashing and shenanigans (hey, we also saw a couple of coot babies…fluffy little cuties!), ducks of all sorts (also with babies), egrets, grey and white herons, one squacco heron, one least bittern and one cattle egret…oh, and a small hawk, perhaps a falcon (we don’t do as well with our birds of prey, I admit!), hunting in a nearby field…

Stefano also got some great shots of an inquisitive, completely unruffled hare munching on a flower that looks as though it is going right up its nose…so CUTE. Stefano’s photos came out much better than mine, of course. But I want to post my own photos on the blog…so there! 🙂

We made a couple of friends at the oasis. One was a guy we’d seen there before. Like us, he is an amateur photographer (nice camera, though…So he and Stefano spent some time discussing this or that photographic technique, zzzboringzzz as far as I am concerned…), but he could identify more birds than we could, so that was helpful. He was the one who told us, when all we saw was a blur, “Hey, a thick-throated paparazzi just flew by!” 😉 Well, after all, he has been birdwatching for the past 20 years!

We also ran into a young couple who took a lot of photos but really complained (a lot…) about having gotten up early in the morning just to see some ducks, blablabla (“hey,” I wanted to say to them, “not true…what about the purple heron???”). They left early, disappointed. Silly things. What were they expecting to see? Puffins? Eagles? Penguins? A Himalayan quail? Humph!

There were also two other guys who just sat and sat and sat inside ONE hut (whereas we and the others walked around the lake, trying out other huts and viewpoints) and took photos of everything with their big cameras and big lenses. I say this with a bit of envy, since, as luck would have it, the squacco heron landed on a branch right in front of their hut, and they had plenty of time to take about 40 photos of it. And these were perfect photos, I have to say. When Stefano walked into the hut later that morning, they asked him if he could identify that bird. They didn’t even know what they’d photographed. We were both much amused, especially since the two of us still can’t distinguish a pigeon from a hawk (well, ok, slight exaggeration, there!), so we are happy to run into folks who are worse off than we are! 😉

As the morning hours passed, and it got hotter, the birds began being less active. Some disappeared…probably off to take well-deserved naps. We were the last humans to leave the oasis. As planned, we had lunch in the restaurant I’d found the day before…about a two-minute drive from the oasis. What a lovely place it turned out to be…

We had a fabbbbbbbulous meal. Everything was just purrrrrrfect, from start to finish. Stefano had crostini (a classic Tuscan chicken liver pâté spread on toasted Tuscan bread…Tuscan Tuscan Tuscan! 🙂 ), and we both shared some fried veggies, which we never have, but hey, this was our anniversary! Then we both had “tortelli mugellani,” which are mainly-potato-filled pasta with meat sauce. Yummy. I was stuffed by then, but Stefano had room for a “tagliata,” which is grilled, then sliced (need I say “Tuscan”? 🙂 ) Tuscan meat, served with beans, Tuscan style…

As we getting ready to leave, our waiter showed up at our table, holding a tray with two champagne flutes and a dish of yummy (Tuscan, what else? Hehe…) sweets. He handed us the flutes and said, solemnly: “You must make a toast on your anniversary! Auguriiiiii!” (Auguri is an expression of goodwill that means “best wishes.”)

So Stefano and I sat back down and made a toast to at least (AT LEAST!!!) another 12 happy years together… 😀

Those few sips of champagne put a lovely finishing touch on one of our best anniversaries ever…