Golden eagle returns to Mount Martica

A golden eagle was photographed a few days ago as it preyed upon a baby wild boar, flying low over Mount Martica. It is assumed that the bird of prey sighted came from the Swiss side of Mount Lema, or from the Val Grande, where there are known to be some nesting sites.

The eagle does not live in Varese Province, and there is no memory of it being present in the area, except in the impassable Val Veddesca. Its natural habitat consists of wild, open spaces, where it can find prey to feed off. Naturalists in “Campo dei Fiori” regional park think that the eagle has moved away from the areas in which it lives, which are now covered in snow, in search of prey.

 

Birds, like other flora and fauna species in the “Campo dei Fiori” park, were covered by the study for the Management Plan for the five Sites of Community Importance (S.C.I.), that is, the areas in which the European Commission is implementing its biodiversity conservation strategy. The regulation document on the protection of the Lake Ganna site has already been implemented, and in June 2010, after the decision by the Lombardy Region, the plan for the other four S.C.I. (Monte Legnone and Chiusarella, the caves in Campo dei Fiori, the northern side of Campo dei Fiori, and Mount Martica) will be approved by the park’s management committee. The aim of the regulations is to safeguard a number of natural habitats that are protected because of their biodiversity, as well as the flora, invertebrates, mammals and birds whose survival is threatened by the disappearance or reduction of their environment.

 

In the area covered by “Campo dei Fiori” regional park, there are a number of environments whose characteristics are particularly interesting from a naturalistic point of view. The wetlands around Lake Ganna and Lake Brinzio contain a particular aquatic vegetation and black alder woods. The Karst formations of the caves, which are populated by bats, constitute one element the use of which must be regulated. The beech woods, which are typical of the areas that have limited exposure to the sun, are inhabited by the honey buzzard, and by the black woodpecker, which is currently growing in number. The porphyry is an identifying characteristic of Mount Martica, on whose red soil heather and beechwood bushes grow. The sides of Mount Legnone and Chiusarella that face south still have a number of patches of infertile grassland and calcareous cliffs, where the brown kite and peregrine falcon live.