Bocca Caset

Even though Casèt is set apart from the territory of Tremalzo it is worthy of a mention, especially the pass. This is a strategic point for bird migration. In the past it was an ideal hunting post and today equally well-situated to study the birds' movements.

Bocca Casèt is a pass which, thanks to its funnel shape, is chosen by birds during their migrations from Northern Europe to Southern Europe.
The ridge, running in a NNE- SSW direction, marks the watershed between the water basins of the Ampola and Ledro Valleys.

The history of Bocca Casèt as an ideal point to capture a lot of birds began in 1849, under the Hapsburg Empire, when Claudio Ferrari bought the servitude of the territory. Ferrari put up some nets to trap the birds and built a small house from which observe them. The original house has been subsequently enlarged.
The next owner was Sir Agostino Zecchini, the "Boss of the Lake", a very rich and influential person. He and his family continued to hunt birds until it was definitively forbidden by the Empire in 1899.
In 1920, with the Kingdom of Italy, hunting birds with nets was made legal once more. The Zecchini Family still owned the servitude but a group of men worked at the pass.
In 1929 the nets captured something like 27,000 birds. This gives an idea of the ornithological importance and wealth of Casèt. The following year hunting with nets was forbidden again. In 1943 the Zecchini family sold the servitude to a group of men, who, despite the ban, hunted anyway. They continued until 1955, then this practice was no longer tolerated and the local authority obliged the men to change how they hunted.

Finally, in 1992, a group of bird enthusiasts, aware of the importance of Bocca Casèt for the migration of the birds, built some nets to trap and put a ring on them. In five days they ringed 467 birds of 18 different species.
This research continues and since 1996 the Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali has been running this project.
Early on the ringing lasted only few days while now about 45 days, from the end of August until October. In 174 days of ringing 22,685 birds of 83 different species have been ringed.
The work at Bocca Casèt is included in the Alps Project, a collaboration between the Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali and the Istituto Nazionale per la Fauna Selvatica (National Institute for Wild Fauna), which started in 1997. The project aims to describe and monitor the post-breeding migration of birds in the Italian Alps. This study has led to the acquisition of an enormous amount of data on the timing and modality of crossing of the Alpine chain by many migrants. 
This large scale monitoring of autumn migrations through the Italian side of the Alps happens thanks to the simultaneous activity of several ringers in the 30 or so stations. They check the birds, ring them and free them as quickly as possible. 
In the International Centre there will be a section dedicated to Bocca Casèt and bird migration.