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The purpose of this article is, on the one hand, to investigate how the vegetal imaginary is used, by the scribes, to define the "other", in order to bring its inner meaning back to understandable forms. On the other hand, this work proposes an interpretation of the religious context which uses elements of flora, and human products derived from it, in the context of the cult practice connected to the couple, known from the Sumerian tradition, formed by the goddess Inanna and her husband Dumuzi.

During the Spring of 2011, we studied the bird community in an area of Val Borbera, in the province of Alessandria (NW Italy). In the study area, situated at an altitude between 655 and 1700 m a.s.l., we conducted 110 points count ten minutes each in four microhabitats (agricultural areas, shrubs, forests, and prairies). In total, we surveyed 72 species, of which 51 were passerine and 21 non passerine. The most abundant species were Sylvia atricapilla, Phylloscopus collybita, Apus apus, and Turdus merula. In the agricultural areas, we detected a total of 50 species (Sylvia atricapilla, Parus major, Turdus merula were the most abundant). In the shrubs, we detected 30 species (Sylvia atricapilla, Parus major, Fringilla coelebs, Phylloscopus collybita, Turdus merula, Erithacus rubecula were the most abundant). In the forest areas, we found 45 species (Sylvia atricapilla, Parus major, Fringilla coelebs, Phylloscopus collybita, Turdus merula, Erithacus rubecula were the most abundant), and in the prairies, we detected 48 species (Alauda arvensis, Anthus campestris, Sylvia atricapilla, Turdus merula, Anthus trivialis, Sylvia communis were the most abundant). Compared to the other macro habitats, the agricultural areas have a significantly high abundance and richness in species, which highlights the importance of the agricultural mosaics in the Piedmont and mountain areas. The data which has been collected so far confirms the important role of this area, given the presence of some species which are rare at a regional scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In Italy, the launch of the online portal www.ornitho.it in 2009 has played a key role in advancing our knowledge about the abundance, geographical distribution and phenology of birds, and has greatly improved everyday ornithological issues. Indeed, the extensive participation by many observers has provided an opportunity to obtain new insight into the phenology of many species of migratory birds, such as Tringa sp. In this paper, I have analysed the data gathered between 2010 and 2014 on the genus Tringa in Lombardy, amounting to a total of 5,590 validated records for spring and autumn migrations. The analysis revealed that the rice-farming area of S-W Lombardy - which covers more than 90,000 hectares located mainly in the province of Pavia - represents an invaluable habitat during the spring migration by supporting the bulk of migrating waders. Other man-made habitats, such as restored sand and gravel pits and water-collection tanks, are of similar importance for the diversity of the wader community, but, together with the few natural wetlands, support much lower numbers of individuals. The wood sandpiper is the most abundant species, with groups reaching 600 individuals, followed by the spotted redshank and the greenshank. The green sandpiper is the most common and widespread species, with a low number of individuals reaching the highest altitudes (above 2,600 m a.s.l. in the province of Sondrio) during the autumn migration. The common redshank is relatively rare, generally distributed around 200 m a.s.l. in the provinces of Pavia and Milan, while the marsh sandpiper is definitely rare, with only 68 records in the five-year period analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Around a yearly cycle (August 2011 - July 2012), we studied the assemblages of waders (Aves Charadriiformes) occurring in a Mediterranean remnant wetland, obtaining a set of diversity metrics. Mean total abundance shows a complementary pattern when compared to species richness and diversity: the highest values of mean total abundance were observed in December-January, due to high dominance of only one very abundant and gregarious species (the lapwing Vanellus vanellus). On the contrary, in this period, species richness and diversity showed the lowest values. These last metrics were highest in values during the April-September period when a large number of species of conservation concern utilize muddy areas as trophic and stop-over sites, due to the seasonal water stress. The highest values in species turnover index were observed between December-January and February-March when passage migrants (high richness, low abundance) substitute the wintering species (low richness, high abundance). Our data highlight that, in Mediterranean remnant wetlands, strategies should be addressed to increase the muddy suitable areas in the April-September period in order to maximize species richness and diversity. In fact, in these months these habitats host pre- and post-breeding migrant waders of conservation concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Around the 2007 yearly cycle, we carried out a transect in a Mediterranean sandy beach (central Italy), a structurally oversimplified ecosystem, elaborating the data in six bimonthly periods and in three longitudinal habitat types. We observed 25 bird species. Assemblages appear heterogeneous at taxonomic-, phenological- and ecological- level. Also normalizing (Margalef index), in winter the beach hosted the richest assemblage, in summer-autumn the lowest. The inner dunal area appears the richest habitat type. Here, the presence of vegetation presumably permits the occurrence of a large availability of different trophic resources for different species. Beaches represent patchy ecosystems with a different availability of resources in space and time that host heterogeneous bird assemblages, different in their ecology and phenology around a yearly cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]