Hunting: “Migratoria” project, students from the Tuscan Ornithological Center and hunters participated in the monitoring of migratory birds.
The "Migratory" Project was held in the autumn months in the mountains above Pistoia, organized for the second year by the Province in collaboration with the Tuscan Ornithological Center and the hunters of the ANUU Migratory Hunting Associations, Arci Caccia and Libera Caccia, with the aim of carrying out a accurate monitoring of migratory birds to better study their behavior and migratory routes. The initiative is inspired by other similar developments in the provinces of Pisa, Grosseto and Florence. The study focused on the study of Larks, Starlings and Turdids such as the Blackbird, the Bottaccio Thrush, the Sassello Thrush and the Cesena present in the area affected by the project, therefore, after an initial phase of study, the to the ringing activity during which some specimens of the volatile species object of the study were captured and a plate was applied to a leg bearing a unique code worldwide through which, with any subsequent sightings, it will be possible to reconstruct the movements migratory of the specimen.
One of the two capture and ringing stations was the one in the Dynamo di Limestre oasis in San Marcello Pistoiese where ornithologists and students have captured specimens of twenty-one different species; the other station was in Val di Luce, in the Abetone area, where hunters from the hunting associations took part in the ringing operations and eight species were captured and ringed.
Hunters, scholars and environmentalists have worked side by side for a greater knowledge of migratory avifauna aimed at better protection and conservation of the species that would not be affected by sustainable hunting, carried out in compliance with rules and limits. The collaboration between environmental protection bodies and hunters in the initiatives for the study and protection of the territory has already been part of the Tuscan environmental policy for some years, as has the co-management of protected areas of which the one implemented for the 'Oasi Querciola, the Lake of the Captain and the Lake of the Airport in the Florentine plain or that carried out in the Sienese area near the Lake of Montepulciano.
These are initiatives aimed at mixing opposing ideologies while at the same time diluting mutual relationships by making people work side by side who despite a different vision of the relationship with Nature remain united by a great love and a deep knowledge of the territory but above all by the firm will. to protect it and preserve its ecosystem.
18 January 2014