April 24, 2006
Birthday birding part 2: Camargue specialities
Blue skies? Warm temperatures? Marshes teeming with herons, stilts and other waterbirds? The Camargue in the springtime is certainly up there with the finest wetland birding experiences in California and Florida. Activity is all around; it's really hard to pick out highlights from the few hours I spent here on Sunday, but I'll try. The Mas d'Agon marshes are well-known for attracting quantity and quality. I had great views of Purple Herons (Héron pourpré)...
... and Squacco Herons (Crabier chevelu) - shame this grotty immature was the only one which stuck around for photos!
Black-winged Stilts (Echasse blanche), Fan-tailed (Cisticole des joncs) and Cetti's Warblers (Bouscarle de Cetti) were abundant and noisy. If you stare at this photo for long enough you should spot one of the many Wood Sandpipers (Chevalier sylvain) on passage through the region right now.
On the rare side, I saw one of the two Glossy Ibis (Ibis falcinelle) present here, and spotted a stonking adult White-winged Black Tern (Guifette leucoptère) amongst the many Whiskered Terns (Guifette moustac). Neither stuck around for photos...
Heading into the saltmarsh and coastal habitat around Saintes Maries de la Mer and Grau du Roi yielded masses of Greater Flamingos (Flamant rose), a couple of Gull-billed Terns (Sterne hansel), and a single bathing Little Tern (Sterne naine).
Shorebirds included many Oystercatchers (Huîtrier pie) and a few Kentish Plovers (Gravelot à collier interrompu).
I felt rather voyeuristic watching these Redshanks (Chevalier gambette) copulating through a gap in the reeds. A little dancing...
... here we go...
... almost there...
... and back to feeding as though nothing had happened!
The Petite Camargue on Saturday evening: I had my only White Stork (Cigogne blanche) and Great Reed Warbler (Rousserole turdoïde) of the trip here.
