To find treasure, you have to look for it: if you want to see the Lake Preola and Gorghi Tondi Integral Nature Reserve, you have to get closer.

The hidden treasure…
When you least expect it, nestled in a valley that removes it from prying eyes, there it appears: a series of small lakes that altogether cover an area of 335 hectares that from Mazara del Vallo pushes toward Torretta Granitola remaining parallel to the coast for about a 1 km.

Coming from Mazara, you will see first Lake Murana, unfortunately dry for a long time, and only afterwards Lake Preola, the largest, and the three circular pools of water, the so-called Gorghi(Upper, Middle and Lower) surrounded by dense marsh vegetation typical of coastal Mediterranean ponds, weakly brackish, and overlooked on the southern slope by limestone ridges partly covered by Mediterranean scrub.
The area is in fact a karst depression where rainfall and time have eroded the chalky soil to form these natural ponds, now surrounded by dense marsh vegetation.

The trails – The reserve awaits you, with prior reservation, at any time of the year, but the best time is, without a doubt,spring. That’s when you’ll be able to see it flourish again after the winter break as the birds cleave the air.
The wwf, which manages it, has created a Visitor Center, with a multimedia education room, and two equipped trails with associated observatories on Lake Preola and Lower Gorgo.

The observatory on the Lower Gorgo can also be reached by people with disabilities after about 180 meters of a path surrounded by lush Mediterranean scrub.

The observatory on Lake Preola makes it easy to observe various species of aquatic avifauna, especially in the spring period when some of them have nested among the reeds surrounding the shallow waters of Preola.

The main trail begins at the point where the Gorghi Tondi provincial road, through an embankment, passes through the middle of the three small round lakes of karst origin (two, the upper and middle, on the left and one, the lower, on the right), and from which it takes its name.

How to get there

Take the SS 115 in the direction of Campobello di Mazara, turn onto Provincial Road No. 85 and follow the signs.

FLORA & FAUNA.

Flora
Mediterranean scrub climbs the calcarenitic ridges: you can thus see the Calliprin Oak, an endemic shrub species that is now rare; the Holm Oak, found mainly in the Catarrh forest; the Lentisk, an evergreen with flowers gathered in clusters; and the female Chamedium, with pale blue flowers.

When the same overhangs into the lakes, here appears, seamlessly, the typical marsh vegetation of Mediterranean areas: marsh reed, Scirpo and Tifa.

Springtime enhances the many colors of the meadow’s blooming: Wild Orchids, Anemones, Asphodels, Daisies, Dandelions, and the beautiful Scabiosa Atropurpurea with its vibrant colors.

Fauna
The reserve provides food and shelter for numerous bird species: the Black-winged St ilt, which flies by pushing back its long legs; the Little Bittern, a protected species with light hazel spotted wings; the Ferruginous Duck whose survival is increasingly at risk; and the Long-billed and curved Nightingale.

You have to look among the reeds if you want to spot the splendid and rare specimens of Great Egrets and the more common Grey Herons, while among the plants the Hoopoe with its curved beak and fan-shaped crest might hop about. Marsh Harrier, Buzzard, and Kestrel are the predators you might see most easily.

You will easily recognize gliding over the water the male Mallard, because of the distinctive metallic green color of its head, the Coot because of its black plumage and white beak, the Little Grebe, which owes its name to its habit of repeatedly diving into the water in search of food, the Turkish Steenbill, whose male specimen has its head covered in beautiful reddish-gold plumage, and the Great Crested Grebe with its double crest on its head.

The waters of the Preola comfort Spoonbills, Little Egrets and flocks of Cranes that, having left Africa, head to Europe for nesting. Also of note is the ‘sporadic sighting at Middle and Lower Gorges of the very rare Marbled Duck.

At the surface of the water, under the warm spring sun, it is possible to catch a glimpse of the Marsh Turtles, a community-protected species now associated with the few remaining intact freshwater environments in the Mediterranean regions. Just in the Preola Lake and Gorghi Tondi Reserve, a new species of Emys Orbicularis, the European bog turtle once widespread but now confined to those few wetlands that are necessary for its survival, has been identified.

Recently, near Lake Murana, reserve guards spotted a specimen of Chicken Sultan. Unmistakable for its distinctive blue and purplish plumage, it has not been seen in these places since the 1950s. The discovery is remarkable in that the Sultan Chicken has been the subject of a reintroduction project in some protected areas in eastern Sicily.

The Mazara del Vallo observation represents the report furthest from the reintroduction range and thus allows us to study, in an unexpected way, its behavior. In the thick Mediterranean scrubland also there is no shortage of Foxes, Rabbits and Porcupines.

Managing entity
WWF Italy
Via Maccagnone 2/b – Mazara del Vallo
Tel: 0923 934055