Wildlife to see in Italy in September
6 spectacles at their peak in Italy in September, and 9 more still going on. Wild animals only: no zoos, no wildlife parks, no hunting. Open Italy in September in the interactive calendar for listening times on the day you pick.
At their peak in September
Red deer rut ('bramito')Roaring stags echoing across beech-forest valleys, often dozens at once, with wolves occasionally howling in reply.
Sardinian red deer rutRoars across Mediterranean maquis (the scrub has a drier, shorter acoustic than forest), with scops owls and nightjars.
Wolf howlingChorus howls from family packs, including pups' high wavering howls, answering from across a valley.
Lowland deer ruts: Mesola red deer & fallow at San RossoreStags roaring in a flat coastal holm-oak forest — a different acoustic from the mountains — and fallow bucks groaning in the pinewoods of San Rossore.
Eleonora's falcon coloniesHarsh 'kya-kya' calls from dozens of falcons over sea cliffs, chicks begging, the surf below; a visual spectacle with a lean soundtrack.
Raptor migration: Strait of MessinaMostly visual — kettles of raptors — but also bee-eater flocks overhead, and swifts and hirundines passing.
Also going on in September
Cicada summer chorusWall-of-sound cicada chorus in pinewoods and olive groves, with pulsing, overlapping rhythms of different species.
Scopoli's & Yelkouan shearwater coloniesScopoli's 'crying baby' wails from thousands of birds arriving over cliffs — one of the Mediterranean's strangest sounds.
Autumn migration over Alpine passesStreams of flight calls funnelling through mountain passes at first light; thrush 'tseeps' in the dark.
Flamingo colonies & courtshipGoose-like gabbling of big flocks, and the synchronised 'marching' displays with a constant honking.
Golden jackal choruses on the KarstRising yelping group howls — faster and higher than wolves — answered by neighbouring families across the limestone plateau; the densest population in Italy.
Swift screaming parties over old townsScreaming packs racing between palazzi, the deeper trilling of alpine swifts from cliff-like towers, bells and evening passeggiata below.
Alpine summer: marmots & ibexPiercing marmot alarm whistles echoing across cirques, cowbells far below, alpine choughs, streams.
Fin whales & sperm whales, Pelagos SanctuaryWith a hydrophone: sperm whale clicks and codas, dolphin whistles. Fin whale calls are infrasonic (about 20 Hz) and need a suitable hydrophone.
Griffon vultures of the Bosa coast, SardiniaMostly visual: Italy's largest griffon colony riding the updraughts of volcanic sea cliffs. Sound is the Mediterranean swell under the cliffs, the wing-rush of birds passing close, hissing at the ledges, blue rock thrush and, in summer, Eleonora's falcons chattering along the coast.