Birding the South of France
May 15-22 2019
Our guide, Tristan Guillosson, picked our group of three up in Avignon at 3pm May 15.
He dropped us off at the Toulouse airport at 11 am May 22. Here's our itinerary.
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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:
A sampling of avian species not showcased above that I photographed in France on this trip, in roughly taxonomic order:
Non-avian flora and fauna (I don't attempt to identify most of these):
People:
- 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.
Miscellaneous:
- 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.
All the photos on this page were taken by Eva Casey. Any errors in identification are her errors.
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.
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Last revised: August 27, 2019 pm