Birding in the Camargue and the Crau | What to expect? | Summer 2020

Hello everyone and welcome to a new video about burning on this channel. In this video I will cover one of the best burning grounds in Europe, the Camargue and the Crao. Found in south France, this wetlands offers a wide variety of classic mediterranean birds like greater flamingo, gullwilton, blackwing stilt and european bee eaters. It's also home to some Camargue only specialties like slenderbill gull and collared present gull. The Crao is something totally different. This steppe like desert is found to the right of Camargue, 15 minutes driving coming from Arles. This place also holds some amazing birds like short-toed lark, lesser kestrel and little bustard. Being a heavily visited place, the Camargue offers a lot of camping sites and hotels. Most hotels are found in the big cities like Aigues-Morts, Arles and Saint-Marie-de-la-Mer. The camping sites are scattered around the place and are easy to find. Of course burning is best in spring, the breeding season and it also counts for the Camargue. A lot of the songbirds you will not hear in summer and thus are almost undetectable. For example, when I visited the Camargue in summer I did not hear or see any sardinian wobblers, the most common wobbler on half of the Camargue. But that doesn't mean you cannot bird at all in summer in the Camargue. One of the best camping sites, due to its location and overall quality, is yellow village La Petite Camargue in Aigues-Morts. But watch out, there are two camping sites from yellow village called La Petite Camargue. The one in La Grauderois is more of a touristy camping site compared to the one in Aigues-Morts. The camping site La Petite Camargue is based on the right of the D62 coming from Aigues-Morts, but is not clearly marked in road signs. Driving into the camping site you have to check in and settle down with your tent, caravan or one of the hireable caravans there. When walking to the most northeast side of the camping you'll find an easily accessible nature reserve owned by the camping that can deliver some lovely Camargue species like European bee eater, Eurasian hoopoe, black kite, crested lark, talny pipit and of course greater flamingos. To see the flamingos follow the dirt road through a field. On this field you will find crested larks, talny pipits and cattle eaters to name a few. At the end of the road you'll find a ditch coming from a big lake. In this lake you'll find flamingos but are also sometimes seen in the ditch. After a nice midday stroll through this reserve don't be disappointed because the Camargue is something to offer at night as well. In the evening you'll find amazing kinds of moths and bats and one particular bird that I've only heard on the camping site. You'll recognize it by this sound. It's a scops owl. It will mostly start singing around 10 when there's just enough light to make a photograph. But there are enough other places in the Camargue to bird beside your camping. When driving north you'll find the old city Egmert. This city has a city wall that dates back to 1272. To enter the old city you have to enter the walls first. The best entrance is the most southern one with free parking. When walking to the most closest gate of the wall you will walk through a field covered with zithering cysticolas and barn swallows. The occasional cattle regret can't be forgotten too. Driving south you will find yourself in Saint-Marie-de-la-Mer, a harbour city that's a very touristy beach but this beach is something to offer for birders as well. People that love gulls, this is the Mediterranean dream. Yellow-legged gulls are everywhere. An occasional Mediterranean gull will come fly over and that's not even a real treat because one of the specialties of the Camargue is found here too. The slender-billed gull. This gull is hard to identify because it has the same wing pattern as the black-headed gull. It's as big as one and behaves as one. The only difference is the long narrow red bill and the white heads. Just north of Saint-Marie-de-la-Mer you will find Parc Ornithologique Pont-du-Gaulle. This birders wall hala is a pretty touristy place but not for no reason. The six kilometers long trail will guide you through the heart of the Camargue, a small version of the Camargue so to speak. You can only enter this zoo-like park when paying a small amount of money, 12 euros for adults and 6 for kids. But do not get me wrong when I'm saying it's zoo-like. All the birds, except for the caged ones, are wild. The zoo-like appearance will also help getting your family to join since it can be hard to let non-birders join you on a trip. The whole park is professionally managed. You can even rent binoculars at the cash desk, kids and adults sized. In terms of birds, the park is loaded with birds. When entering the park you will find yourself at a picnic place. Walking past it you will enter the real park. To your left you will find a big heron colony with little egrets, cattle egrets, squackle herons, black-throated night herons and blue herons. Walking further you will find what this park is so famous for, the greater flamingos. This park gives you the chance to get really close to the animals, thus being able to make amazing pictures. You will also find black-winged stilts foraging for small crustaceans, glossy arbuses breeding between the loads of flamingos, gold-billed terns hunting for fish, short-toed snake eagles soaring through the sky and way more when continuing your trail. This is what you can expect from the Camargue on a small. Another of the specialties is the collared prattling call. This bird is found next to the south of Arles, Chemin du Palais Longue and on the roads east of Etang de Vaquere. Note that I have not seen this bird myself so I'm not entirely sure these birds are still there. I've gotten this information from experts and people with experience in the Camargue. When driving on the road you will want to check the electricity lines constantly and have a camera with you by all times. Of course when you're driving yourself this will be hard. Why I'm saying that you would want to check the electricity lines is because of two species, European BeeEaters and European Rollers. Although they're the most colourful and interesting species they're not the only ones that sit on lines. I've made a scheme of how birds look when sitting on the lines. Notice that the European BeeEater is slender and upright whilst the European Roller is hefty and upright. The neck is also unclear whilst the neck of the very similar looking Starling is clearly visible. The Eurasian Collared Dove is one of the only birds that sits more horizontally on the lines compared to the other birds. But the Camargue is not the only species where you will have to tackle these problems. The Krau is home to all of the four last named species and more. This desert-like reserve offers a lot more. The most interesting part of the Krau is Réserve Naturelle de Podemont. You will need a permit to enter but it will be worth it. You can buy the permit which will cost you three dollars per person for two days at La Maison de la Krau, a museum about the Krau. After buying the permit, in which a map is also found, you will be free to enter Podemont. But I've got one tip. Visit Podemont early in the morning by which I mean from as early as you want to twelve. The birds will be way less active later in the day. At the parking lot you will have two options. Go straight through the Krau or the other way which is to your right. It is better to go to the right because you have more chance on stone curlews and calandra logs. The trail will guide you to a farm. To the right of the farm there is a nesting wall, specially made for the lesser kestrel. But they won't always be home. I sadly didn't have the luck of seeing them but a lot of people did. So don't lose your hope when you don't see it the first time. At the farm you will also find Tawny Pippets, Eurasian Hoopoes and Short-toed Larks. Following the trail to watch over the stony desert and look for short-toed eagles and black kites soaring in the sky. By returning to your car you would want to drive to the south of Karmark. It is not as or not accessible as Podemont. So you will have to do some car bird watching. In the south you are able to see the little bustet and red partridge. I hope you enjoyed this video by birding in the Karmark and the Krau. Press the subscribe button if you want to see more content and give this video a like if it helped you and you think I deserved it. See y'all later, bye!