Provence 2008: La Crau

The stony plains of La Crau, a scant half hour east of Arles, are on of France’s most unexpected landscapes, more like the flats of Spain or the steppes of eastern Europe than anything else.

The birdlife at the Peau de Meau preserve is also steppe-like, with regionally significant populations of birds that are rare or non-existent elsewhere in France. We missed the sandgrouse this time, and the only “good” falcon we encountered among the abundant Common Kestrels was a surprising male Merlin, its gray back good for a moment’s hope…. But we did have excellent looks at singing Greater Short-toed Larks, and Hoopoes and Turtle Doves lined our walk along the canal before we set off across the cobbles to the blind. A single male Little Bustard hopped up out of the grass at one point, but only his head and neck were visible by the time the others, having availed themselves of a rare shrub, caught up.

The blind itself is actually the room above the sheep pens in the barn, pleasantly warm if slightly aromatic; I was impressed to see the signs about closing doors and windows in Provençal. A Southern Gray Shrike perched on a post just out the window, giving us with the Woodchat Shrike we’d seen on the way in a two-laniid day, not a usual occurrence in western Europe! And a pair of Eurasian Thick-knees, or Stone-curlews as I learned to call them, alternated between shocking conspicuousness and absolute invisibility against the streaked and mottled background of the stones.

(They’re not actually in this photo, but they might as well be, beautifully camouflaged as they are!)

We returned to St-Martin for lunch, but stopped at the Ecomuseum first, where every birder new to France has to have his or her photo taken under the world’s largest hoopoe.