Filomena Petruzzi

(Apulia, Italy)

After the Degree in Natural Science at the Perugia University, with a final work in botanic, she devoted herself in landscape restoring, following a training experience. She contribute with architects and engineers in different project of landscape restoring.

She started to interest herself to birdwatching in 1999, working at the  Foggia Natural History Museum managed by LIPU (Italian League for Protection of Birds) and attending guided tours in the areas around Foggia. Since 2002 she is an official guide of the Gargano National park. She keep volunteering with local Foggia LIPU organising guided walks for members or public and events for fund raising and to spread interest to birdwatching; she is also involved in monitoring birds and plants in the nature areas of the province of Foggia. She was involved also in volunteering in RSPB in UK with duties in the reserves of Radipole Lake, West Sedgemoor and to the Chough project in Cornwall.

In the Foggia province there are many birds of interest: huge flocks of ducks and cormorants are to be found particularly in winter in the coastal marshes. In the Margherita di Savoia salinas (Ramsar site), different species of waders, Flamingos, Mediterranean and Slender-billed Gulls are very common. Not far from there, in the Manfredonia reedbeds there are Little Egrets, Grey Herons, Purple Herons, Great Egrets, Spoonbills, Glossy Ibises, Bearded Tits and many warblers, such as Cetti’s, Reed and Great Reed Warblers. There, a restocking project for White-headed Duck is carrying out and White Storks are nesting after many years od absence. Red and Black Kite are to be found in the near mountain and hill areas. The Gargano promontory National Park is another area rich in biodiversity where Honey Buzzard, Marsh and Montagu’s Harrier and other birds of prey are present during migration. Stone Curlew, Black-headed Bunting, Lanner, Raven, Calandra and other larks, and flocks  of Lesser Kestrel are present in the area during the warmest seasons.

She is presently working in the tourist office of the Foggia province on promotion and tourism website management. A high level of knowledge of the territory allows her to organize tours that may combine birdwatching and local culture.