Let's start from an assumption: hunting is all beautiful. That said, everyone has their own inclinations, passions and experiences. My very limited experience of hunting thrushes has always been that of a temporary stalking, where satisfaction is mainly based on the study of flight paths, the areas of pasture and where the shots, often of jabs, are particularly difficult. As part of the thrush hunting a modality that has always fascinated me is that of the fixed posting with live calls. This form of hunting is practiced mostly in northern Italy, but has a long and precious tradition in some areas of Tuscany and Umbria. I had the opportunity to attend a morning of hunting from a fixed position in the company of friends Giuliano and Mirco in the splendid territory of Montalcino.
"The care of the posting requires work that lasts practically all year round: the surroundings of the shed must be pruned, arranged, equipped with particular shrubs that must be treated constantly ... in short, it must become as natural as possible"Giuliano explains to me, as we reach the shed in the dark. "This type of hunting is more of an art form: it is necessary to know very well the habits of the wild, their food preferences, the influence of the weather on their behavior ... and in addition you must have some knowledge of botany, to select the plant species to be planted, to prune them according to a scheme that is not artificial but at the same time allows the positioning of the calls and the easy recovery of the felled heads. In short: this hunt here is not for everyone, it takes a dose of patience and perseverance that only a few crazy people have!". "It is true! - Mirco echoes - not to mention the calls! Selecting an effective booster battery is not easy at all! It is necessary to raise and feed them all year round, to act on the photoperiod, that is, to modify their biorhythm by altering the light-dark cycle so that their song is balanced on spring in the month of October. "Where do your thrushes come from?" I ask Mirco, fascinated by the large amount of cages crammed into the off-road vehicle. "I tried to raise a few thrushes, but it is an effort that does not reward: when they are small they need to be fed for twenty days, it is like having a newborn to look after ... mostly mine are presicci that have been selected by me and my father on the basis of to the quality of their singing. There are some who feel like prima donnas, others who need the support of colleagues. Little by little you get to know them all, and you find the winning arrangement to make the whole drums work, just like a symphony orchestra! "
Once at the shed, we enter a well-kept structure perfectly camouflaged in the environment. On three sides there are slits at least one and a half meters high. In front of the shed, arranged in a semicircle, a row of very tall and strangely bare trees. "What you see here in front of the shed are the so-called throw trees. We often come to prune them. On the top you see bound of bare branches: those are the buckets, together with the horizontal poles that go from one tree to another serve as perches. They are very popular especially with blackbirds and bottacci”Giuliano explains to me with professionalism. Between the trees and the shed there is a grass floor, dotted with shrubs. I accompany Mirco who shuttles between the jeep and the bushes holding the cages "These shrubs are juniper and laurel"He explains to me,"they are very welcome to our turdids! In the middle we created the supports for the decoy cages… where is Denis?”- Mirco asks Giuliano, interrupting his explanation. "Here it is, my tenor!”The young hunter knows all his calls one by one. He would be able to recognize the tone, the behavior of each one. Each of them has a name, and a predefined place. "I put Gino here because he never sings if he has Veronica next to him”, He explains quietly, as he arranges the choir's voices on stage. "You know, there is a phenomenon called jealousy: sometimes a singer who sings very well at home risks not making a bercio if he has a colleague beside him who sings earlier and better than him!".
We move to re-enter the shed. "You will hear the music when the day begins!”Exclaims Mirco.
At the first glare of dawn a melodious buzz rises to the sky, from where the winged audience rushes to perch on the branches. The four calibers available to hunters alternate according to the shooting distance. The morning is not particularly lavish with encounters, but whenever a thrush lands near the square, attracted by the song of its calls, Mirco's face lights up with undisguised satisfaction: at that point, shooting becomes an option for him. For a few seconds the concert is interrupted as if someone had pressed the "mute button”: The shadow of a hawk's outstretched wings clarifies the cause of the prudent silence. Having escaped the danger, the singing resumes.
A few bottacci, a few blackbirds and a single "alpine" (sassello, ed) are the prize not only for today, but for a whole year of work. In this hunt a lot is sown and, in proportion, very little is harvested: months and months of preparation, and a little more than a month of pace which, between hunting silence and autumnal disturbances, translates into a few days of hunting. It will not be the effort of climbing in the mountains behind chamois, but in this hunting activity the effort is not lacking. And so, as hunting is all beautiful, I come to say that, well done, all forms of hunting require sacrifice, amply repaid by an authentic passion.