Читать книгу Trekking in the Apennines. The Grande Escursione Appenninica онлайн

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Darting lizards such as the eye-catching bright-green variety scuttle through dry leaves, warned off by passing walkers. At the opposite end of the speed scale is the ambling but unbelievably dramatic fire salamander, prehistoric in appearance and splashed yellow and black. Long believed capable of passing unharmed through fire, it inhabits beech woods and damp habitats, the females laying their eggs in streams. A rare relative is the so-called ‘spectacled’ salamander, endemic to the Apennines, and recognisable by yellow-orange patches on its head.

Tiny Lago Martini is passed on the way to Passo del Giovarello (Stage 21)

Birds include the omnipresent cuckoo, a constant companion, as well as squawking European jays flying between the treetops, bright blue metallic plumage glinting, sounding the general alarm for other creatures of the woodland. The elusive woodpecker can be heard rat-tat-tatting rather than be seen. Huge grey-black hooded crows are common in fields, as are colourful pheasants which give themselves away with a guttural coughing croak. Nervous ground-nesting partridges take flight from open bracken terrain with an outraged loud, clucking cry.