About 60 flamingos landed at Lake Peretola, just a couple hundred meters from the Florence airport on Friday. The site, previously covered by a construction project, now provides shelter and a feeding location for the flamingos as well as herons, ducks and other water birds. Environmentalists and the Sesto Fiorentino Legambiente Club are striving to keep the lake a protected area for the birds. The flying fowl apparently feel comfortable residing near other “large birds” constantly taking off and landing nearby.
To see a photo gallery, visit Florence’s La Repubblica news site.
Police also found two dogs wandering along the Fi-Pi-Li highway on Christmas Eve. They spotted the pair along the guardrail near the Pisa exit and slowed down traffic to entice them, a white Maremma shepherd dog (Maremmano) and an elderly brown mutt, into the patrol car. While the Maremmano bounded into the car, the cops has to chase the mutt across the fields before capturing him. Saved from certain death on the busy highway, the dogs were taken to the local animal shelter. (rita kungel)
To see a photo and read more in Italian, visit Florence’s La Repubblica news site.
In case you missed it, late last month wild deer were also spotted crossing the A11 highway between Pistoia and Montecatini, which had to be closed for a number of hours so the animals could be captured and freed in the wild.
The mission was successful and miraculously not a single deer was injured near the A11.
See story here.