Southeastern USA - April 2024 - Day 4 - Arkansas to Illinois via Missouri

At the end of day 4 we had reached the landmark 150 species, not bad going given the coast had actually not been as productive as it could have been. We were now far inland, in Arkansas northeast of Little Rock and west of Memphis. America is such a vast country that we were probably only a third of the way to the Great Lakes - it's a 15 hour non-stop drive from New Orleans to Chicago. 

Today we were starting at Bald Knob NWR, seemingly the pre-eminent birding spot in these parts. As we approached from the north along Coal Chute Road it began to live up to expectations, with Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and several Swamp Sparrows. Indigo Bunting, Blue Grosbeak and Common Yellowthroat were in the margins here, and we found Blue-winged Warbler and Barn Swallow close to the Admin compound. Gradually the landscape opened up and we left the woods behind to emerge into a huge patchwork of flooded fields. To our right one of the largest tractors I had ever seen was attempting to plough one of these, creating huge eddies and literally waves as it displaced the water. As it did so countless small Waders lifted up to resettle elsewhere, many of them Pectoral Sandpiper. This was going to be some morning.

Barn Swallow

We stayed here until exactly midday, slowly driving around the lanes and tracks, stopping wherever it seemed good, which was basically everywhere, but once again only really covered a relatively small part of the area. Some of the fields were wetter than others, and some were shallow lakes. One of these held good sized flocks of Green-winged Teal, and on another, amongst the Blue-winged Teal and Shoveler were a handful of Pintail, two Mallard and two Ruddy Duck. On yet another we counted over 100 American Coot. A few more waders made themselves known as we slowly worked our way past each pool or field - a dozen Black-necked Stilt, a single Spotted Sandpiper, four Greater Yellowlegs and and handful of Long-billed Dowitcher. Raptors were very much in evidence as they patrolled this rich habitat, with Bald Eagle and Northern Harrier, and also Red-shouldered Hawk. 

Bald Eagle

Lesser Yellowlegs

And this was just the open areas. Along the well vegetated ditches we found White-eyed, Warbling and Red-eyed Vireo, Baltimore Oriole, Eastern Meadowlark, White-throated Sparrow, more Swamp Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, and a Yellow-breasted Chat played very hard to get and I am not sure we ever laid eyes on it. On the Warbler front Northern Waterthrush with their sharp zik calls were quite numerous, as well as another Blue-winged Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Parula and Yellow-rumped Warbler. 

Blue Grosbeak

Right in the middle of the reserve is a farm with large grain silos, and we had seen that a flock of Yellow-headed Blackbird had been visiting the spilled grain - unusual for this area. A bit of a stakeout got us these as they came down to feed, along with Brown-headed Cowbird and White-crowned Sparrow. What I am trying to say is that Bald Knob NWR is fantastic, and our during our four hour visit we tallied 76 species, easily the largest list from any single site.

Yellow-headed Blackbird

White-crowned Sparrow

We spent the middle part of the day driving northeast, arriving at Otter Slough in Missouri at around 3pm. This was another spot identified via eBird as being promising. It's another big area with multiple places to go birding, and we tried a number of paths that led into the forest away from the main lake. There were what must be dodgy Snow Geese here, as well as Wood Duck and more Ruddy Duck, and some shallow reedy areas held a Stilt Sandpiper, both Yellowlegs, Dunlin, Pectoral Sandpiper, Wilson's Snipe and more Long-billed Dowitcher. There was a good selection of smaller birds here, including yet more Prothonotary Warblers which seemed to be pretty common in this part of the country, and our first Grey-cheeked Thrush. We spent nearly two hours here, finishing on 47 species. The end of the trip was on the horizon now and we were properly in the zone and trying to add as much as we could.

Grey-cheeked Thrush

Final stop of the day was a nice boardwalk at Mingo NWR a further thirty minutes or so north. We walked the loop which took us alongside the canal where we finally got views of Yellow-breasted Chat, and Great Crested Flycatcher flicked through along with two each of Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker and Hairy Woodpecker. Somewhere a Barred Owl called, and another Bald Eagle flew over. We then drove two hours east to the town of Metropolis which is just into Illinois over the Ohio River. We had managed to see 88 species in Arkansas and 61 in Missouri in just over a day.

Prothonotary Warbler

Southeastern USA - April 2024 - Day 3 - Mississippi to Arkansas

We started the day at 6.30am just north of Columbus, Mississippi, and boy what a good call that was! We had identified this spot only recently - Section Line Road - as a potential site for one of my most-wanted ABA ticks, Swainson's Warbler. It was one of the few places where this hard to see Warbler had been reported in more than single figures in recent days. Why not give it a go, especially as it was less than 15 minutes from our hotel in Columbus? 

What a great spot! We spent two hours working our way slowly down this perhaps two mile long gravel road, consuming Warblers at every point we stopped. We would walk a bit, then one of us would retrieve our crazy car and drive it past the other person and stop again, meeting in the middle. Rinse and repeat. Five Prothonotary Warbler, Kentucky Warbler, Hooded Warbler, American Redstart, four Northern Parula, Magnolia Warbler, three Pine Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, and finally at nearly the end of the road, a Swainson's Warbler in a dense tangle. I think Bradders also had a Chestnut-sided when I was fetching the car. The Swainson's was of course the most boring Warbler there by some distance, top prize probably went to the Magnolia which was a stunning male. There were also tons of Vireos - White-eyed, Yellow-throated, Blue-headed and Red-eyed. Incredible how one small patch of woodland could have such a density of migrants. At one point I imagined I heard a dog bark, but some sixth sense caused me to think of Barred Owl. I played it back just in case and the response was instant, an enormous Owl flew through the trees and on out of sight. It was perhaps the best birding session of the entire trip. 

Our main destination for the day was Noxubee NWR, about an hour away from Warblerville. We arrived just before 10 and started on the boardwalk at Bluff Lake. Of note here were large numbers of Egret on the far side, including an unexpected and out-of-range Tricoloured Heron. Acadian Flycatcher and Great Crested Flycatcher were in the trees above the path. Later on, on the Woodpecker Trail, we found White-breasted Nuthatch, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, Carolina Chickadee, Chipping Sparrow and our first Bald Eagle of the trip. At Morgan Hill four species of Swallow cruised over the lake with numerous Chimney Swift, and a flock of 50 White Ibis went over. 

We had to leave by mid-morning, our punishing schedule was taking no prisoners. Places to be, birds to see. We needed to get up to Memphis for mid-afternoon to get as much of a Tennessee list as we could before we crossed into Arkansas in the evening. The obvious spot was the Maxson Water Treatment Lagoons on the southwest side of Memphis. This then allowed a quick exit over the I55 crossing and into Arkansas.

The lagoons were Wader central and saw the list tick on nicely. Whilst we only found one  each of Wilson's Snipe, Wilson's Phalarope and Stilt Sandpiper there were hundreds of Lesser Yellowlegs and Long-billed Dowitcher, good numbers of Least, Solitary and Pectoral Sandpipers, and Black-necked Stilt. Also large numbers of Blue-winged Teal, a few Shoveler and Canada Geese, and three Sora. I am not sure of the access arrangements here, but it was a Sunday and the gates at front were open so we just drove in through a maintenance area and up onto the lagoons where we left the car on a large bund and proceeded on foot. As we left, there were a number of Wood Duck with young in the water alongside the road on the opposite side from the river, as well as Pied-billed Grebe and a Belted Kingfisher.

Lesser Yellowlegs

Red-winged Blackbird

Our last stop the day was in Arkansas, at Wapanocca NWR. This was gated but open, and it seemed we had until sunset so in we went. Doubtless we only scratched the surface as we drove along large ditches in a swampy woodland habitat, but what we saw we quite liked. Red-headed Woodpecker were everywhere, pairs chasing each other round, as well as Red-bellied Woodpecker and Downy Woodpecker. Wood Duck moved from one area to another, and there were Pied-billed Grebe too. We also saw more Yellow-rumped Warbler and Fish Crow than we had seen anywhere else, and a Swamp Sparrow was pinned down in a tangle near the water. All in all a really good site and one we would have like to have visited early morning. But that wasn't in our schedule and reluctantly we got on the road. I sometimes wonder about a birding trip that has no set agenda, no start and no finish, and where I could just bird wherever the trip took me and for as long as I wanted. How long would it take me to cross the United States I wonder? I might never arrive on the other side. Or if I had a year, a whole year, where would I go? And in what order? A straight line, a big loop, a zig-zag? It's a tempting thought for a future stage of my life. Although perhaps the US is best avoided until 2028 or so...

Southeastern USA - April 2024 - Day 2 - Dauphin Island AL into Mississippi

It was dawn at an unprepossessing motel south of Mobile Alamaba and an exciting day loomed. Another day on the coast, would we get more migrants than we had the previous day. And of course there was our Alabama list to think about, currently sitting on a nice round nought. It was impossible to this time ignore the car park, and before we set off south to Dauphin Island a quick search found a few birds, the best of which by far was a Loggerhead Shrike perched on a dustbin. Great birding.

With the list off to a great start we drove the half hour out and across the causeway. The whole of the coast is characterised by these types of barrier islands, from beyond the southern Texas border all the way around the Gulf to Tallahassee with only few major breaks. We started at the Pier, walking out through the vegetated dunes where we hoped to find Sedge Wren, inexplicably another ABA target. This was achieved reasonably quickly, certainly before our car could be ticketed, but it was a highly skulky bird that needed quite a lot of time to actually pin down and get confirmatory views of even though we could hear it constantly. Job done we carried on down to the beach and scoped up various waders - Grey Plover, Semipalmated Plover, Sanderling and Least Sandpiper.

Great Blue Heron

The main hotspot we concentrated on was Shell Mound Park just a short drive away. This is a fully fledged birding site, with drips, pools, benches and so forth, and lots of birders doing circuits of the small lot. This was an excellent site, far more birdy than either of the Grand Isle tracts, and we spent nearly two hours here. It is also with much joy that I can report that there were Warblers! The best of these were undoubtedly two Prothonotary Warblers and a Worm-eating Wabler, but also Black-and-White, Tennessee and Northern Parula. There was a lingering rarity in the form of a Bell's Vireo, as well a Great Crested Flycatcher, Brown Thrasher, Baltimore Oriole, Summer Tanager and two Scarlet Tanagers.

We took a break at around 10.30am and went off to the airport where something interesting  had been reported. We didn't see it, but we did find a Great Northern Diver offshore which felt a little odd, and then some more expected Black Skimmers. We also had more excellent views of a Clapper Rail here.

Clapper Rail

The Audubon Bird Sanctuary on Dauphin Island

There are loads of birding hotspots on Dauphin Island and we were running out of time. We charged around the Audubon Bird Sanctuary for about an hour, but this is a pretty large site and we must have missed a fair amount of it. At the pond we had Merlin, Eastern Kingbird, another Grey Kingbird and a Fish Crow, and then in the pines we found Brown-headed Nuthatch as well as an adult and juvenile Great Horned Owl. Shell Mound Park had been so good that we returned there early afternoon - we could afford about an hour before we had to get going - our final destination in Mississippi was over four hours drive away. I am glad we went, as shortly after arriveal a Swallow-tailed Kite sailed over, and we added Ruby-throated Hummingbird and Chimney Swift to the list as well. 

Great Horned Owl

Brown-headed Nutchatch

We had one final birding stop in Alabama, Splinter Hill Bog. This is a well documented site for the rare Bachman's Sparrow which requires a very particular habitat of pine woods with a low understory. I really liked this site, and only because we did eventually find the Sparrow.  In fact we found two, the song leading us to good views of one whereupon we realised we coul hear another bird responding. Also at this site were a vocal Eastern Towhee, I think our first Eastern Wood Pewee, and a Wild Turkey. The understory here contains thousands upon thousands of carniverous plants, and had we had more time and the heavens hadn't opened we might have spent a bit of time botanising. As it was we had to run for the car and just escaped being soaked to the skin by some monumental rain, the sort of rain that the windscreen-wipers just couldn't deal with. We waited for it to ease a little before continuing north and into Mississippi. At some point that evening a Pileated Woodpecker flew over the car. The trip was going pretty well at this point, in fact bang on versus the plan. We were now up to 114 species (Bradders was on more having had two days in Texas) and I'd had three new ABA ticks.

Bachman's Sparrow

Southeastern USA - April 2024 - Day 1 - Grand Isle and the Louisiana coast

I arrived on time in New Orleans having come through Dallas. I had no need to go via Dallas, but some reason it was marginally cheaper and as I am a bit of a flying geek I got a much nicer seat. I also managed to scrape together a small Texas eBird list as I changed aircraft, with Eastern Kingbird on the terminal roof the highlight. They all count. Bradders was at the domestic exit to meet me, having driven across from Texas that afternoon. He had handed his rental car in and we were to pick up mine. Whereas his had been entirely sensible, mine was anything but, a Dodge Challenger with a 5.7L engine that even to a car agnostic like me sounded really quite extraordinary. I hadn't intended to hire this, I thought I was getting a VW Passat, but I didn't say no......Had we been more than two people I guess it would have been a bit of a issue as I don't remember much of a back seat, and looking at how it sat on the road anything unpaved might have caused problems, but actually it was fine. Not exactly a birding vehicle but it made the trip rather more fun as we had something like 1400 miles to cover without detours. 

We stopped overnight in a crappy motel at Lakeland which is about an hour north of Grand Isle. We had not wanted to go the whole way at that time, plus with the Grand Isle birding festival happening accomodation on the island had been at a premium. We were up early the following morning, raring to go, and it was all we could do to not immediately start birding the motel car park and actually head south to proper birding habitat. The road, known as the Gateway to the Gulf Expressway, is quite something. It leaves the land at Leeville and becomes a raised causeway via large bridge, rejoining the barrier island at Fourchon. Ths whole area was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and again by Hurricane Ida in 2021. Nothing seemed especially permanent and many of the houses were built on stilts.

Our first stop was at Elmer's Island Marsh, a site we had identified as likely to have Nelson's Sparrow which I needed for my ABA list. Indeed it did, though seeing them was pretty hard and getting a photo even more so. We  eventually found three, along with Seaside Sparrow and Marsh Wren. A Clapper Rail ran around and we also had our first Terns - Gull-billed, Forster's and Royal, all before 8am. I love it when a plan comes together.

Seaside Sparrow

Nelson's Sparrow

Clapper Rail

Moving on to Grand Isle itself we birded the Grilletta Tract, part of the Lafitte Woods Preserve. There were plenty of birders here, but actually not very many birds. Having drooled over massive eBird lists we didn't even manage 20 in over an hour. Highlights here were Yellow- billed Cuckoo and the resident Purple Martins at the small car park. With migration not really happening that morning we moved on to Exxon Fields, the oil terminal at the eastern end of the island. This was far more productive from a listing perspective with lots of Waders and Egrets, and Bradders' first Mottled Ducks.

Purple Martin

Back in town at around midday we birded another one of the vacant lots - Landry-LeBlanc. This was better than our first attempt, with lots more passerine activity - three species of Vireo, Orchard Oriole, Summer Tanager and a dozen Scarlet Tanagers - clearly recent arrivals. Also present were good numbers of Rose-breasted Grosbeak and Blue Grosbeak, though Warblers were completely absent, we hadn't seen a single one all morning which was really bizarre. 

It was time to leave, we needed to get all the way across to Alabama by nightfall, a significant drive. Checking eBird before we left we discovered that a rare Grey Kingbird had been found  at Oak Ridge Community Park, about half way back to Raceland, so we stopped in there to see if we could find it. It took a little while, but we did find it along with both Eastern and Western Kingbird. 

Grey Kingbird

It wasn't until 4.30pm that we got through New Orleans,a nd we didn't help our cause by then stopping before we had even crossed Lake Pontchartrain, parking the car at Irish Bayou and walking down to the Bayou Sauvage levee. This was excellent birding, with the vast wetland yielding Black-bellied Whistling Duck, loads of Coot and Blue-winged Teal, Black-necked Stilt, and Anhingha, a White Ibis and seven other species of Egret, Eastern Meadowlark, Brown-headed Cowbird, and three species of Swallow. We spent about an hour here and now we really had to make some ground. I think Bradders drove whilst I birded out of the window, and we made a token stop at Henderson Point just after we crossed into Mississippi. This was another new State, and as we would be crossing into Alabama before the day was over we felt it was important to at least add something. Even though it was nearly dark we managed a few Gulls, lots of Nothern Mockingbirds, Carolina Wren and an Eastern Bluebird, before continuing east to Mobile. Our first day had been pretty monumental with 81 species, but still not a single Warbler. We very much hoped this would change!

Southeastern USA - April 2024 - Logistics and Itinerary

 

Logistics

• A five day trip with Bradders in the third week of April, leaving on Thursday afternoon, returning overnight on the following Tuesday evening. Straight back to work? You betcha. 
• Flights: British Airways from Heathrow to New Orleans via Dallas, booked with a car to turn it into a holiday and thus defer payment until a few weeks before departure, as well as scoop up extra points. The return was from Nashville via New York. Bradders travelled with me on the return, but added on a couple days in Texas before I arrived, driving across to Louisiana and meeting me off my flight.
• Car: We had a car wholly unsuited to birding but highly suited to America, a Dodge Challenger with a 5.7L engine. Embarrassing on one level, ridiculous on all levels, but great fun. I don't even like cars but oh the sound this thing made....
• Accomodation: As we were on rather a mission and had a long way to travel we booked all of our hotels in advance, the key criteria being that each was very close to the following morning's birding destination. It didn't really matter what time we got there, merely that we did and were ready for the next day. Budget motel chains all the way.
• My aims for the trip were threefold. 1) to visit seven States I'd never been to before, eBirding all the way, 2) to enjoy some spring songbird migration and hopefully coincide with a 'fall', 3) to add a handful of ABA ticks.
• Literature/Resources: We used eBird for up-front planning, identifying all of the best sites. We also used it a bit for on-the fly birding using the "explore" functionality in the App. For literature I used the Sibley East Coast field guide. I also used Merlin, perhaps too much towards the end when desperation set in. The Audubon App was used when I wasn't carrying my book, and was also useful for calls and songs.
• Food - well there is a lot of it in America, and we ate very well. Apart from lunches which were just garbage.

Itinerary

• Day 0 - Evening arrival into New Orleans, met Bradders at the airport and picked up our silly car. Drove about an hour south-west so as to be in position for Grand Isle the following morning.
• Day 1 - Birding Grand Isle until early afternoon, we coincided with their annual birding festival. Then back to New Orleans and across the State line into Mississippi, birding all the way as we built up that list. We arrived at our accomodation just south of Mobile AL by about 10pm.
• Day 2 - All morning at Dauphin Island, a migrant hotspot on the coast below Mobile, then up to Splinter Hill Bog for Bachmann's Sparrow mid-afternoon. Torrential rain cut our birding short here, and we drove through a front that seemed to cut the temperature in half. I wonder what this would have done on the coast? Overnight in Columbus MS.
• Day 3 - Birded a wonderful unpaved road for Warblers early morning, before spending up until midday at Noxubee. Mid afternoon at Ensley Bottoms just into Tenessee below Memphis, and a final stop at Wapanocca in Arkansas before a short drive south-west to Searcy.
• Day 4 - Early start at Bald Knob NWR, all morning spent here seeing tons of birds. Then a lengthy drive north-east across into Missouri to bird Otter Slough and finally Mingo Swamp. Overnight at Paducah, just over the border into Illinois.
• Day 5 - A day of many States, starting in Illinois to try and get a bit of a list there, before moving a short distance south over the Ohio River into Kentucky. By 9am we were back on the road, headed south-east towards Nashville where we birded a site on the Cumberland river before heading to the airport for our flight to New York. Then overnight to London.

Venice - April 2024

In April Mrs L and I went to Venice for a few days. I'd been before but this was her first visit,  somewhere she's wanted to go for a long time. I've taken kids before, and surprised my mother there once on her birthday, but somehow we had never been a deux. How exciting! We arrived quite late having taken a flight after work, and for the first time took a boat across the lagoon to the city rather than a coach. This was especially exciting as it meant that she would wake up and throw open the curtains to Venice. 

Ah, Venice. What a place. In the press a lot lately as the inhabitants of the city are fed up with tourists, fed up with people like me. But what can you do? The city authorities are introducing a tax but I don't see how that will change anything. It's a negligible amount, people will just pay it and the crowds will remain. And we found that the Venetians were perfectly happy to welcome us into their restaurants, bars and galleries, onto boats and so forth, and to accept our money. An intractable problem. Maybe think a bit harder about the huge cruise ships at the north end that dominate the skyline and dwarf the city, and that deposit two thousand people at a time.

The view from our hotel

Even in early April it felt busy in the central areas, but you didn't have to stray far in order to lose the vast majority of the visitors, and it many ways it is an ideal time to visit. The weather is nice but not hot enough to make the city unpleasant, the real crowds have yet to arrive even if St Marks might not feel like that, and it feels altogether more relaxed, as if the place has just woken up and is getting ready for the grand opening. A few streets back from the main thoroughfares quite a few cafés and restaurants had yet to open, and you could wander aimlessly through quiet streets and over small bridges and not see another person for several minutes. The layout of Venice is such that you cannot avoid crossing the main drags, but if you plan your day well it won't bother you other than for a few moments. Obviously if you want to see the Grand Canal, gaze out from the Rialto, visit Murano or the like then you will have a lot of company, but there are many many quieter bits

We were staying on the Grand Canal right next to a vaporetto station, so actually we didn't enter the city under cover of darkness as we had sailed right down it from the airport. I should have insisted Mrs L wear a blindfold. But there was still an element of surprise the following morning when we woke up and started exploring our surroundings. It was still, the city just waking up, no groups of tourists following a guide, no gondolas on the move, just a few utilitatarian boats making deliveries. All against this unique water-defined landscape that has no equivalent anywhere. If you have been to Venice you will know what I mean. If you have never been, well that singular experience awaits you still. I'll say it again, what a place. Everyone has seen it films, in paintings, it's an integral part of European culture, but until you are actually there... Never in your wildest imagination could you think that such a city would spring up, yet here it is. A good book on its history and people has been written by Jan Morris, titled simply "Venice", and is very digestible. I read it before and during our trip and it definitely enhanced how we looked at it as well as where we went and the detail we sought out.

Now I could at this point list out where we went, what we saw, what we ate etc, but that's far too much like hard work, especially all these months later. But even though this was my third or fourth visit it still felt new, and we went to parts I had never been to before. It was also an opportunity for lengthy lazy meals on shaded terraces, sunset cocktail bars, art galleries (the Guggenheim should be on any list), things that I would never have done by myself but are particularly well suited to couples. I particularly enjoyed walking east from St Marks to the public gardens and then to Sant'Elena before catching a boat all the way around the bottom tip, past the Arsenal to San Michele and then to Murano. Mainly as this provided almost my only opportunity for birding, and there are actually birds in Venice other than Yellow-legged Gulls and Pigeons if you have the patience to seek them out. This two or three hour period was responsible for 22 of the 33 species I ended up seeing during our three days. 

This lunch lasted at least 2.5 hours!

Nearly 30 years on I can still immediately recognise a Delaunay.

We had a lovely time, and Mrs L wants to go back. In fact when we were chatting about the freedoms of the upcoming post nest-flying environment the other day it came top of the list of places to revisit. High praise indeed. We just have to cross our fingers that we'll still be allowed to go. I reckon it'll be fine.

A weekend in Barbaresco

Barbaresco

As a lover of Pinot Noir it should come as no surprise that I am also partial to Nebbiolo. It is a much more powerful grape, very tannic in its youth, strident and long-lived.  In many ways you would think that this is the exact opposite of wispy old Pinot Noir, but it too creates very pale, translucent and ethereal wines that have that divine lightness of touch. The primary growing area within Italy for Nebbiolo is in the northwest, Piedmont. With this area Barolo and Barbaresco stand out, Gattinara barely gets a mention and I'm not sure Ghemme even makes it outside Italy. Certainly I'd never heard of it until a few years ago when I started making a bit of an effort with Italian wines.

Barolo and Barbaresco are almost next to each other, and the sensible place to start would be Turin. I started from Milan which in fact was the result of a complete cock up on my part. My plan had been to go and photograph Tuscan landscapes for the weekend, but I had a geographic abberation and booked the wrong airport. I did not realise this until much later when I started planning where I would stay and realised Milan was in fact hours away from where I wanted to be. Scratch that then, but what else could I do? Well, Piedmont isn't that far.....

I landed late on a Friday, another after work flight, and made it about half way before stopping in a cheap hotel for the night. A most bizarre place, and seemingly constructed expressely for illicit liasons. The rooms were all 'themed' and not in a good way, the only options on the TV were 18+, and you entered your room unseen from the rear where you parked your car, presumably so you could flee when your actual partner turned up. Luckily I was not staying long but I wondered later how I could have got this so wrong, Booking.com had given no clues. Presumably you needed to be 'in the know'. Anyway I survived it and early next morning went birding.

Yes it was a wine trip, but ultimately everywhere I go involves birds in some way, and seeing as my Italy list was pathetic (and still is) I thought I should at least attempt to improve it. Part of the draw of the dodgy hotel had been that it was close to a large lake that was one of the few eBird pins in the area, and although I slept in a bit as I hadn't gone to bed until 1am I was still there bright and early. The weather was a little grim but I toughed it out, walking the entire perimeter in about an hour and a half. The full list is here and contains absolutely nothing special whatsoever, however almost every single bird was new for Italy so clearly all very exciting nonetheless. Mid morning I hung up my bins and drove the further hour towards the town of Alba where I would be staying for the evening. As I approached the town I diverted off the autostrada and crossed the river. Before me lay Barbaresco.

Aldo Vacca, the man behind the success of the modern Produttori

I don't have a great deal of Italian wine, but most of what I do have squirreled away is from this region. There's a bit of Sangiovese from Tuscany, a bit of wine from Puglia and Sicily, but by far the majority is from Piedmont and most of it is Nebbiolo. From Barbaresco I have around seven cases, not a huge amount. Most of this is from the well-regarded local cooperative, the Produttori del Barbaresco, who work with numerous growers to produce regular Barbaresco as well as nine single vineyard wines - known in Italy as MGAs (Menzione Geografica Aggiuntiva). Barbaresco is both an appellation and a village (alongside Neive and Treiso) and it was here I went first. It must get very busy in the summer as there is a one-way system around the hilltop, but at this time of year it was completely dead and I could go wherever I wanted. The Produttori were open though, and so I wandered in for a small tasting and to learn a bit more about them. As it was low season only the front of house was open, no chance for a tour or a look behind the scenes, but it was great to be able to chat to the friendly employee about the wine, the vintages on the counter, the philosophy behind the wine, and the rules that the growers had to abide by. Fascinating stuff, but still behind the wheel at this point I couldn't really get into it!

Outside the village I popped my head in at Roagna and La Ca' Nova, the other producers I have a few bottles of, but they both seemed closed. Had I been in France I might have rung the doorbells, a conversation in French more likely to be well received on a Saturday than in English, but alas my Italian is non-existent and so I left them to their weekend and drove into Alba. Appropriately enough I was staying above a wine shop, and once I had dumped the car I went exploring on foot. Not too many of the producers have a presence in the town of Alba, and the obvious one that did, Pio Cesare, had closed about an hour before I got there. Such is life. I did the next most sensible thing and went and had a nice lunch with a glass or two of wine at the Osteria dell'Arco.

I spent the afternoon browsing wine shops and buying small amounts of goodies to take back home, including the local pasta, Tajarin, which I had enjoyed at lunch with ragu. For the wine this was window-shopping only for the time being, I wanted to try a few more producers before filling up precious luggage space. This was achieved by heading to a wine bar early evening and trying a few things by the glass. De Gustibus I think it was called, and it was here that I discovered a producer hitherto unknown to me called Sottimano. It was just their basic Langhe Nebbiolo, declassified Barbaresco, wine from perhaps younger vines and that is not required to be aged for as long before being bottled. In any wine area trying a producer's most basic bottling is always a good place to start, and it's as true in Piedmont as it is Burgundy. And this Sottimano 2021 Langhe was simply sensational, the best Langhe I'd ever had. This would be top of the list on tomorrow's wine-buying expedition. Alongside this I had an Oddero Langhe from the same year, which whilst also top notch wasn't in the same league.

In need of more sustenance I popped into the Prosciutteria Albese for a snack and another glass of wine, this time a local Barbera. In contrast to the pair of Langhe this was inpenetrable, really heavy going and not a good proposition at this time. Best stick with Nebbiolo is my advice. The small plate of ham I had was fantastic though - if I lived in Italy I would be even fatter than I am already.

I had another wander around town to get some air and think about where I might find an evening meal. The place I had my eye on was rammed, with families coming in all the time, but the totally unstressed owner took pity on me and squeezed me in on one side of a table. Perfect. I've had this happen before in Lyon and other places, and provided both you and the other diners are chilled about it, the focus being the food rather than the comfort, then all will be fine. The atmosphere in the Osteria dei Sognatori was off the charts fantastic, organised chaos, raucous chatter, huge extended family groups, and it felt more like being at somebody's house than being at a restaurant and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants both good food and a fantastic experience in Alba. They don't even have menus, just a few bits of hand-written sheets of A4 that are passed around. I had a small portion of Tajarin and ragu just to check that it was as good as I expected it to be, which it was, and then something based on pork that was also fabulous but that I was unable to get through. To accompy this a half bottle of Rocche Costamagna Barolo from the Rocche dell'Annunziata MGA. Although it was the latest vintage but one it was fabulously approachable already. Yum! I fairly rolled back to my hotel.

Osteria dei Sognatori

Unsurprisingly I did not wake up especially early on Sunday. I went for an invigorating walk around Alba in the rain and finished up my shopping at some of the wine shops I had gazed at the previous day. The Enoteca Fracchia & Berchialla is particularly wonderful, an Aladdin's cave of riches, especially downstairs where there were endless bottles of Gaja and loads of magnums. Space was limited to whatever I could fit in hand-luggage, as at that time you could take liquids on board where airports had the new scanning technology in place, which Linate did (I had 100% checked this!). Note that as of June 2024 this has been rolled back across the whole of Europe and we are back to 100ml. But at the time it worked, and this meant that I managed to cram in a magnum of Sottimano Cottá, and then four regular bottles - from memory a couple of Langhe from Produttori and Massolino, another bottle of Sottimano, and a new vintage Pelaverga from Burlotto. My bag weighed a ton but I got it all through and security didn't bat an eyelid! 

After I had packed up and retrieved my car I had another wander around the various hillsides of Barbaresco, getting the lie of the land a bit, and then with time pressing on drove back to Milan very pleased with my weekend adventure. I managed to sneak in a final birding session south of the airport followed by a quick very late lunch at an Osteria on the outskirts of town before dropping the car off and going home with my haul.