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CAMARGUE

The Camargue is a wetland primarily made up by the meeting of the Rhone and of the Mediterranean (delta of the Rhone) and is located at boundary of the Languedoc-Roussillon areas and Provence-Cote d'Azur region. From a geological point of view, soil of the Camargue is of sedimentary nature, worked by the alluvia coming from the Rhone. The Camargue is of a great natural wealth and agricultural and this reserve is of undoubtedly exceptional interest for the naturalists and hikers; one can generalize this remark with all the area which extends since the pond from Thau to the delta from the Rhone via the reserve from Scamandre.

The principal center of interest of the reserve of the Camargue is around the pond of Vaccares and other wetlands which are attached there (Arles-StesMaries de la mer-Salins de Giraud), the western part (Arles-StesMaries line) being most touristic; an observation and reception centre is available near StesMarie de la Mer, presenting an outline of the ornithological fauna of the zone, with teaching observatories and pedagogic infrastructures.

The zone which forks from Arles towards the Mas of Sainte-Cecile and Agon is more wild and makes it possible to observe quantity of water birds, including nine species of herons present in France, the roller and the bee-eater, the red partridge, the little owl and of many passerines; it is also possible with chance to meet there more unusual species or rarer like the stone-curlew, the collared pratincole, sandgrouses, etc; while arriving at the end of the farmhouse of Agon one will take the secondary road 37 left then to turn on the right to the place named Villeneuve to take the road of Fielouse (D368) which skirts the pond of Vaccares by the bank is and which makes it possible to reach the spot named Salins de Badon where an ornithological center of observation was arranged there with several observatories; while continuing the road further towards the south, the visitor arrives on the saltworks and the road of the vat of Barcarin where the flamingos are plentifull.

The Camargue is a place interesting all the year but to note that during a good part of the autumn and the winter, the visitor is obliged to take into account the hunters.

And in the neighbouroods: Scamandre

Scamandre is a reserve located around the pond of the same name; to go there by car, from Arles take direction St-Gilles/Montpellier and just before St-Gilles turn left to Aigues-Mortes; entry of the reserve is located at fork road to Vauvert. You can make the complete turn round of the pond but there is very few observatories.

This reserve owns a large number of water birds, especially herons and grebes (crested and little).

The totality of the species of herons present in France can be easily observed around the reserve except the eurasian bittern, present but very discrete as usually.

The little bustard in the fields of the Gard

In France, the little bustard still subsists in several very restricted zones of the department of Deux-Sevres and the department of Gard (between Nimes and Avignon); after having to walk on in the car during nearly one hour, I arrived finally, in the end of the day, at the end of a road isolated in a zone from left meadows where I was initially able to admire the arrival in flight of a group of six bustards; the birds were posed by dispersing in the fields of the neighbourhoods, hiding in tall grasses; I could intend them to launch their appeals and to answer itself but I did not see them; by chance, one of the birds had been posed on pre or the grass had being mown, which enabled me to take some phot-shots; the small bustard is less wary than her large cousin but without possibility of effective camouflage, I was to satisfy me by doing distant shots.