Birds

In mid-June, G, his parents and I went to the Parc Ornithologique de Pont du Gau - a large wildlife preserve in the Camargue delta, where hundreds on hundreds of water birds spend time.  We got lucky - a few minutes after we arrived, a walking tour started, allowing us to learn far more about the various species we were seeing than we would otherwise be able to.  The Parc does avian rehabilitation, has several birds on display (mostly raptors, most of which I presume are injured and cannot be released).  I also got to use G's father's nice camera to play with.  Which I think is about all the introduction to this than you need. (sorry, this post is a little picture-heavy) :)

 Grey heron.

 Cattle egret moments after eating something.  Hadn't quite figured out how to work the camera yet, so I missed the actual eating-something shot.   However, one of the best things about this camera was the ability to manual focus when I wanted to... I didn't have to fight a camera that was trying to focus on the leaves or the tree in the foreground :D  Also, way better zoom.

Little egret, I think.

To one side of the tourist-frequented area, you can see two of the many habitats of the Camargue delta.  Here, we see some Camargue horses grazing.

And here, some marshes.

A coypu or nutria.

See the heron in the center?

The tree in the center (in the background) with all the birds in it is where I got the photo of the cattle egret earlier.

Lots of flamingos

And some ducks

Black-headed gull

Mediterranean gull on the left (with the black head and red beak).  Black-headed gull on the right (with the brown head).  Also some gulls nesting in the grasses.

Do not ask me why they're named this way.  In French, the Mediterranean gulls were "melanocephalique" (black-headed) and the black-headed were "rieuse" (laughing).

Note the grey first-year in the background, and the pale pink young adult (2-3 years old) in the foreground.  Flamingos acquire the brighter pink as they age.

Apparently, these open stretches of water with flat, bare islets remind these birds of where they were hatched and raised.  The youngsters often spend quite a bit of time in places like this.

Preening party!

See the stilt in the front-right of the photo?  Apparently there are usually several pairs nesting in this area, but this year's odd weather (mostly too much rain and too cold on an unpredictable basis) led most of them to leave.  Also in this photo are some terns of some description (can't remember exact species).

These youngsters were picking at momma's feathers...

This white stork nest was on top of the cage for the captive white storks.  This is my second visit to the Parc - several years ago, there was a stork nest in a similar location then too.

Caught this little guy just before he hopped up to feed his family.

Unfortunately, one of my favorite photos is a bit blurry.

Sacred ibis.  These are an Egyptian bird that has been introduced to the area.

Showing off some bright yellow feet on the landing!

I just really liked the way the duck on the piece of wood looked.  I took a whole bunch of pictures.

Four of the heron/egret species that inhabit the park.  A couple little egrets, black-crowned night heron (it certainly looks a lot like the one we've got in California - he's half-hidden behind the little egret on the left), a cattle egret, and a grey heron.

Short-toed eagle.

Black stork.  These birds are much more reclusive in their nesting habits than the white storks are.

You can see the wild storks' nest on top of the cage of the captive storks.

Egyptian vulture.

Eurasian eagle-owl.  There were several in this cage (one of the largest at the park), and several youngsters are visible.  I wonder if they're intended to be raised and released?

Black kite.

We will be returning to the park periodically - it's fairly close to G's parents' home.  Our next planned trip will be in October when there aren't too many tourists, and/or in December when the flamingo colors are apparently much more dramatic.