Birding the South of France
May 15-22 2019

Bee-eater Hobby Lammergeier Honey Buzzard

Roller male Lesser Kestrel Griffon Vulture Greater Flamingo

Dipper Kestrel White Stork Little Egret

Grey Wagtail Cattle Egret & Camargue Horse Melodious Warbler

Sandwich Terns Squacco Heron Pied Avocet

Black-winged Stilt Hoopoe Great Reed Warbler Purple Gallinule Grey Plover

Great Crested Grebe Shelducks Short-toed Eagle Redshank

Other photos of the avian species showcased above, in the order of the photos above:

• Bee-eater on a hive; Bee-eaters not on a hive; We came across an apiary where we enjoyed watching a bunch of Bee Eaters.
• Honey Buzzard in flight; from the top.
• Lesser Kestrel female
• Griffon Vulture in flight.
• Flamingos; two Flamingos flying; more in flight; Flamingos have webbed feet; Flamingo trio
• Dipper
• Cattle Egret
• A Squacco Heron looks white in flight.
• Pied Avocet; another
• Black-winged Stilt male
• Great Reed Warbler singing
• Purple Gallinule Porphyrio porphyrio
• Shelducks swimming.
• Short-toed Eagle hovering. The talons don't look short...
• Redshank

• Juvenile Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo. In Massachusetts we call this species the Great Cormorant.
• Great White Egret Egretta alba
• Spoonbills Platalea leucorodia; two Spoonbills and a Little Egret
• Glossy Ibis
• Greylag Geese
• Red-crested Pochard
• Black Kite perched; Black Kite in flight; Nesting pair.
• Red-legged Partridge
• Moorhens Gallinula chloropus
• Coots in their habitat; Coot (Fulica atra) swimming, mouth open. These coots are similar to the coots (Fulica americana) we have in Massachusetts.
• Woodpigeon
• Collared Dove
• Ringed Plover, Charadrius hiaticula
• Kentish Plover
• Dunlin
• Lapwing
• Slender-billed Gulls
• Black-headed Gulls on a beach, some not in breeding plumage; Black-headed Gulls swimming
• Yellow-legged Gull Larus michahellis
• Gull-billed Terns
• Crested Lark
• House Martin Delichon urbicum; Here are some in flight
• Blue-headed Wagtail
• Woodchat Shrike; circularly cropped Woodchat Shrike; profile of a Woodchat Shrike; rear view of a Woodchat Shrike
• Black-eared Wheatear
• Song Thrush
• Corn Bunting
• Yellowhammer
• Chaffinch
• European Goldfinch
• Starling, a native species in Europe

• Butterflies: Black and white; mostly white; red and black; bluish purple
• Red and black beetle
• Invasive rodent: Coypu aka Nutria
• snail
• Poppies and wildflowers
• Orchids (I did not catch their names so I made up my own): Magenta; camoflage; thick dark with purple bib; a tiny one; shades of purple.

• The cast of characters: Eva, Jenny, and Stauffer in Avignon before our guide, Tristan, picked us up in his Jeep.
• Here we all are birding the Crau, a fossilized estuary.
• Jenny, Stauffer, and Tristan looking for Pratincoles.
• We encounter another birding and orchid tour group.
• Our group, including Tristan's wife, Laurence, took an after-dinner stroll in Narbonne in the Cathedral area.
• We birded vineyards.
• Eva, Jenny, and Tristan enjoying fresh shellfish by "the Med," as Tristan calls the Mediterranean.
• Eva at Carcassonne.
• Plateau de Lapalme where we flushed a quail. One of Triustan's gigs is consulting on the placement of these windmills, which are on an avian migration corridor.

• We encountered aome students on the famous bridge dancing in a ring singing the "Sur le Pont d'Avignon" song
• Meyreuis where we stopped for hot chocolate, and got a Dipper in the rushing stream.
• View through the car window.
• You know it's a small town when you see a dog asleep in the street. The last time I encountered such a quiet town was in Ireland.
• Medieval Mirepoix was well worth a stop. Stained glass windows in Mirepoix.
• We stopped at a farmstand to supplement our picnic lunch of bread and cheese and pate which we ate in settings where we could watch birds, such as this site where we watched perched and soaring raptors.
• Roman ruins excavation site within a stone's throw of "the Med."
• The countryside near Belpech in Languedoc.
• 4 rue du Tourrou, Belpech, the Guillossons' home.
• The garden wall at Tristan's house in Belpech; The dining room, detail
• The one-room grocery shop in Belpech was well stocked with local wines and cheeses.
• Tristan took the_back_way_into_Belpech with the food he'd just bought for our dinner.
• Tristan's_business_card. He is an expert in orchids as well as birds. We learned much about life in France too, as Tristan is a conversationalist. We stopped by his old high school.
• Map of our route, with overnight stops, marked in red, at Salin de Giraude (2 nights in the Camargue), L'Esperou (It was cold in the Cevennes), Narbonne (2 nights) and Belpech.
• Here's a list of our birding sites.

Camargue_and_Languedoc_May_2019.pdf is Tristan Guillosson's professional trip report, which names, including scientific names, all of the birds, butterflies and orchids "gotten" by at least one member of our foursome.

Massachusetts 2018
Massachusetts 2015-2017
Massachusetts 2014
Massachusetts 2013
Massachusetts 2012
Massachusetts 2011
Massachusetts 2010
Birding Nantucket for awhile there,annually at New Year's

Birding Phoenix 2018
Birding San Diego, Tecate MX, and the Salton Sea 2017
Birding Ireland 2016
Birding Montana, Wyoming and northern Utah 2015
Birding Hawaii 2012
Birding Arizona 2010
Birding Utah 2009
Birding Guatemala 2008
Birding Kansas 2008
Birding Mexico 2007
Birding Florida 2006
Birding Texas 2005
Birding Panama 2005
Birding Belize 2002
Birding Colorado 2001
Birding Ecuador 1999
Birding Trinidad 1998
Birding Peru June 1995

2014 Christmas Card featuring the red-headed woodpecker and snowy owl

Sketches of birds and other animals made at the Harvard Museum of Natural History from stuffed models.

Herman's Birding Page

Herman's Home Page
Eva's Home Page

Last revised: August 27, 2019 pm