When my company organized a work meeting in Cannes a couple months ago, I knew I would take advantage and schedule some extra time there. I wish I had scheduled more to be honest. Cannes is on the Cote d'Azur also known as the French Riviera. Most people know it from the famous Cannes Film Festival. I had been to Nice before which is just east of Cannes and actually is where the airport is. Actually I have an aunt, uncle, cousin and niece (pardon the pun) that lives in Nice and Cannes so I was really looking forward to reconnecting with family as well as some birding.
However, when I did some research on the birding hotspots around Cannes, I was seeing that it would be hard to rack up the lifers. Most of the common birds there are pretty similar to my existing Europe list. In looking at an eBird Hotspot map, it was clear that some better options were about 2 hours west of Cannes in the Camargue. The Camargue is a huge river delta west of Marseilles that is where the Rhone spills out into the Mediterranean Sea.
Nice is the only place on the far right of this map with one orange pin indicating a bigger species list. Cannes is just a little west with only blue and green pins. The Camargue is the area on the left side of the map with all the yellow, orange and even red pins indicating 400-500 species! In doing some research I found that the Camargue is probably one of the best birding areas in all of France especially during peak migration. However, there were some problems with this. I only had a day on either side of my work commitments and I had to fit in some family time too. In addition, Melissa would come and join me on the second half of the trip. The other issue was the weather forecast which was looking like rain for much of the time there. Renting a car could have been an option, but I also knew the train system was good in France. So what I tentatively planned was to take the train one day from Cannes to Arles and then hire a guide for a half day of birding in the Camargue. The guide would pick me up at the train station in Arles. There was only one day at the front end of the trip where this would work, and luckily the weather ended up being fine. I ended up being happy with my decision to take the train because I had basically not slept for 48 hours prior to arriving in France and then only had about 7 hours sleep before my tour was scheduled. I think driving myself in unfamiliar places with so little sleep would have been reckless.
My guide Christophe from the Bureau des Guides Naturalistes picked me up at about 9:15am in Arles which is the city just next to the Camargue. Here is the website if anyone is interested. https://www.guide-nature.fr/livre-d-or/
I quickly saw that Christophe was a real guide and knew his stuff. He spoke English very well and I speak passable French so we got on just fine. It only took about 15 minutes to get to the first spot of the morning.
White Storks were all over the place!
Common Cranes too!
Large flocks of Corn Buntings fed in the fallow fields.
A House Sparrow and a Common Chaffinch shared a tree.
Western Marsh Harrier!
It was kind of surprising to see that a Carrion Crow was almost as big as the harrier.
Common Buzzards were .... common.
This is where Christophe's knowledge of the area really helped. This pond had a bunch of Temminck's Stints in it and I would never have noticed. These are stints with yellow legs.
Not the best photos but they were kind of far off in private property and Christophe says they are easily flushed.
Pied Avocet!
We had several Crested Larks doing their "sky dance".
I had seen Sardinian Warblers before in Portugal but this one was confiding.
Somehow European Stonechats had eluded me until now. This was a female, but I did get a male shortly afterwards.
Greater Flamingo! Again another species I had seen in Portugal but this was much closer and in a more fitting environment. The ones in Portugal were basically seen from the city center in Lisbon.
I spent entirely too much time trying to get a photo of a Cetti's Warbler. They are tricky little skulkers.
I got to spend some time studying Little Egrets so I will feel more confident in trying to find them in the US.
Reed Bunting female.
Reed Bunting male.
European Stonechat male.
We saw several Red Kites but they stayed in the distance and I had to make do with heavily cropped pics.
Same with this Green Sandpiper which was way on the other side of a pond.
Flocks of Northern Lapwings flew overhead.
Glossy Ibis too.
More Flamingos.
Black Stork! Such a cool looking bird. Looks like a giant Oystercatcher with a sharpened bill.
Common Buzzards are like the Roadside Hawks of France. They are perched everywhere and always throw you off when you see them because they can have variable plumages.
Eurasian Hoopoe!
Unfortunately my time was up and Christophe drove me to the train station to catch the last express train of the day at 2pm.
This Black Redstart posed for me at the train station.
I will cover the rest of my France trip in one more post. The Camargue was definitely the highlight from a birding perspective and I definitely recommend a trip there. I hope to go back sometime soon.
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