“If you see a very, very pink one, he’s a grandpa,” explained my guide. I was in Italy’s Po Delta, one of Europe’s most important wetlands and a haven for thousands of greater flamingos. With their flamboyant plumage, which gets progressively pinker over a lifetime of shellfish suppers, they’re easy to spot against the soft blues and greens of the delta.
Everyone loves a forest; in comparison, wetlands seem a hard sell to anyone who’s not a hardened birder. These marginal spaces – not quite land, not quite sea – are often overlooked, or drained to create ‘productive’ land.
