Bassin d'Arcachon
Within the forest there are several large lakes lying parallel with the coast, but cut off from the sea by huge sand dunes. The northernmost body of water, the Bassin d'Arcachon is, however, still connected to the sea via a quite narrow opening. Several reserves, totalling some 10,000 ha, have been created here, with a consequent increase in the numbers of wintering waders and wildfowl, including up to 220,000 dunlin, and some 2,500 brent geeser.
It rains on and off for most of the day and birding is limited to a short session by the Parc Ornithologique on the southern shore of the Bassin. The park is open daily from 1 March to 31 October, and weekends the rest of the year. Today it is inhabited by a coachload of noisy school-children.
Near the park entrance is the Observatoire du Delta de l'Eyre. This consists of what looked like some kind of spoil heap with a track going up to a platform at the top. It overlooks a large area of scrub and farmland in this corner of the Bassin, but is too far from the open water part for identifying the birds there.
Virtually the first bird we see in flight is a crane, not just any crane, but a crowned crane displaying his crown; presumably he originates from the parc ornithologique. Then there are three garganey, but as they float all the time as a tight group not moving a muscle between them, we conclude they are decoys for the nearby shooting bunker. There are also marsh harriers, herons, little egrets, mute swans and a variety of scrub birds.
We find another place to overlook some of the open water area, the tide is well up and among the more interesting birds are a sandwich tern ‑ we are now in their wintering range ‑ and a black‑headed gull sporting an out‑of‑season black head.
No comments:
Post a Comment