August 30-September 9, 2025 with Megan Edwards Crewe & Willy Perez
September is a lovely time to visit southern France. From the Camargue, where golden fields of ripening rice stretch to the horizons and watery salt pans edge the sea, to the Crau, where lichen-spattered rock piles dot the sere grassland, to the Pyrenees, where rumpled mountains scrape craggy fingers against the sky and conifer forests mass darkly against the rock, the landscape provides a beautiful backdrop against which to look for the region's special birds. And there were certainly plenty to search out! Add in some of that justly famous French food, plenty of decent French wine, some glorious weather (with our only significant rain coming on travel days) and a fine group of traveling companions, and it made for thoroughly enjoyable trip.
Our adventures started with a bang as soon as we left the airport, when a flock of nearly three dozen Little Bustards flew over the vans, dropping down out of view behind buildings to our south. Unfortunately, being stuck in a van makes seeing birds flying overhead pretty much impossible! After trailing around the fields and industrial estates near the airport for half an hour trying to figure out where they'd landed, we finally gave up and headed to some neighboring lagoons for a look at our first coastal specialties: clouds of dusty-pink Greater Flamingoes and the motherlode of frosty-winged Mediterranean Gulls. We also visited the ancient defensive tower of Carbonniere, once an entry point to the medieval city of Aigues-Mortes. These days, the tower overlooks a sweeping expanse of marsh and ponds, giving us our first views of a number of wetland species. Little Egrets and Gray Herons patrolled the lagoons, Western Swamphens scurried between reed beds, Eurasian Moorhens and Eurasian Coots paddled across the water and a couple of Common Kingfishers made brief appearances on distant posts. And just as we were about to depart, we were treated to a fine two-fer of pointblank male Sardinian Warbler and a very showy Cetti's Warbler -- and not many people get to say that about Cetti's Warblers!
We awoke the next morning to steady rain, which thwarted our planned pre-breakfast walk. Fortunately, things had cleared a bit by the time we ate and we managed to avoid the worst of the weather for most of the rest of the day. We worked our way south along the west bank of the Rhone, stopping for a host of Corn Buntings sitting along roadside wires like beads on a string, with a couple of Gull-billed Terns conveniently hunting over a field nearby. Another stop yielded a cadre of White Storks huddled along the edge of a plowed field while some four dozen Eurasian Jackdaws probed its furrows for prey items. But our main birding spot for the day was the network of salt pans, wetlands and lagoons south of Salin de Giraud. While the number of shorebirds this year was surprisingly low -- the result, perhaps, of the hot summer causing early nest failures or of the recent rains having greatly raised water levels in the pans -- there were still plenty of things to look at. Pied Avocets swept the water surfaces with their distinctly upturned beaks while Black-winged Stilts strode around on long, pink legs. A mix of Common Ringed, Little Ringed and Kentish plovers pattered across the mudflats, allowing good comparisons of their key ID features. A scattering of Little Stints and a few Curlew Sandpipers mingled with the more common Dunlin, some of which still sported the black bellies of their breeding plumage. Common Redshanks flashed the distinctive white wedges on the trailing edge of their wings as they chased each other around over the ponds. A Slender-billed Gull, looking particularly "nose-y" ambled along mud strip before flying over our heads to take a splashing bath in a nearby lagoon. A Purple Heron dropped into the edge of a reed bed, showing nicely its stripey neck and dagger-like yellow beak as it posed along the shore. Western Yellow Wagtails and Spotted Sandpipers teetered along pond edges while families of strikingly white Common Shelducks floated on several ponds and Western Marsh-Harriers quartered low over the marshes. And, of course, there were thousands of Greater Flamingoes bathing and snoozing and stomping the mud in every direction.
We breakfasted before dawn the following morning in order to reach the Crau steppe in time for our 7:30 meetup with Delphine, one of the reserve's rangers. For the next 6.5 hours, she shepherded us along the many rough dirt tracks that crisscross that extraordinary habitat, as we searched for the often-secretive birds that live or stopover there. And what a treasure trove we found! Eurasian and Lesser kestrels perched on a myriad rock piles or hovered overhead. While we never got close enough to admire the latter's pale toenails, we did get some nice views of the males' all-blue heads -- and even spotted the blue panel on the upperwing of one bird as it swooped down after a grasshopper. A big flock of Eurasian Thick-knees paced through the dead grasses in one spot, with a trio of skulking Pin-tailed Sandgrouse proving far more elusive. Fortunately, a flock of more than two dozen sandgrouse wheeled over the steppe a bit further on and we were able to watch them for some minutes before they finally dropped down out of view. Eurasian Hoopoes poked and prodded along the track edges or flapped away in a flurry of black and white wings. Immature Montagu's Harriers hunted low over the ground, showing nicely their rusty underparts. A dazzling gang of European Bee-eaters (proof that not all European birds are little brown things) festooned some scraggly trees along the reserve's edge. Greater Short-toed Larks scurried through the dried vegetation and Northern Wheatears flashed their distinctive white rumps. A couple of Iberian Gray Shrikes and a rather late young Woodchat Shrike (generally long since departed to their wintering grounds by the time of our tour) hunted from bush tops. A handful of Crested Larks eluded most of us after one of their number was snatched by a Eurasian Sparrowhawk that suddenly shot out of a bush; the rest fled in panic. But the top prize of the day had to go the confiding group of mostly juvenile Eurasian Dotterel resting among the waving thistle stems -- some of them mere yards from photographers sprawled on the track ahead of us. Wow! We finished the day (after an afternoon break and an early dinner) with a visit to the low limestone hills of Les Alpilles. There, as the setting sun colored the stony cliffs in tawny gold, we searched for the 'Grand Duc', as the French call the Eurasian Eagle-Owl. Back and forth we shuffled, raising the heady scent of crushed herbs from the ground underfoot as we tried to track down the source of the low hoots we could all hear. And finally we spotted it, looking for all the world like a giant cat as it called from its perch atop the ridge. We celebrated with a glass or two of regional wine -- red, white or rose -- topped off by a calling European Nightjar flying in circles over our heads.
After our outing to the very dry Crau steppe, we returned to the watery expanse of the Camargue the following day. Our first stop took us to the western edge of the Etang de Vaccares, where our prime target was the Spectacled Warbler, and it didn't take us long to find a few bouncing through the Salicornia scrub in the company of a pair of Sardinian Warblers. Flocks of Western Yellow Wagtails dropped into a few conveniently leafless trees nearby, and several Zitting Cisticolas perched up on scrub and reed heads -- far more satisfying than the bounding dots we had seen earlier in the trip! A marshy area north of the etang held a bevy of wading birds, including some five dozen Little Egrets, a busy gang of Glossy Ibis (formerly quite rare in the Camargue), a Squacco Heron hunkered at the edge of a pond and a single Eurasian Spoonbill sieving the mud with its distinctive beak. A trio of Whiskered Terns, all in their drab non-breeding plumage, hunted over open water while a half dozen Great Crested Grebes floated below them and a Northern Lapwing snoozed along the shoreline. A bit further along, we caught tantalizing glimpses of several jewel-bright Common Kingfishers. But the big surprise here was a loose flock of Collared Pratincoles which winged right over our heads and then hunted insects high over some neighboring fields. Next, we headed west to the Etang de Scamandre for a picnic lunch and a walk at the reserve there. As we made our way out to the observation blind, a busy family group of Long-tailed Tits swirled around us in the tamarisk trees along the trail. Some 40 Little Ringed Plovers pattered around on the mud flats in front of the blind, close enough we could clearly see their distinctive yellow eye rings. More than a dozen Common Snipe prowled the pond edges, Green and Wood sandpipers probed the shallows, two dozen Ruff patrolled the back edge of a nearby pond and seven Temminck's Stints -- uncommon migrants through France on their way to their wintering grounds south of the Sahara -- shuffled along a muddy strip on crouched legs.
Our last morning in the lowlands saw us on the back road near our hotel again -- and we were nicely rewarded for our efforts. A small group of Eurasian Turtle-Doves fluttered around some farm buildings just down the track, a covey of Red-legged Partridges high-stepped through a stubble field, a Little Owl sat for a bit on the end of a barn roof, and a Common Quail called from somewhere just out of view. Then we were off towards the mountains, stopping en route back where we'd started the tour: at the Montpellier airport. This time, we were rewarded with a group of eight Little Bustards creeping through the grasses near the runway; they showed nicely until a passing jet scared them all into deeper cover and we never saw them again. While we waited a bit for them to reappear, we enjoyed a big gang of Eurasian Jackdaws just on the other side of the airport's perimeter fence with a few Rooks sprinkled among them. Our next break was a picnic lunch at a rest area overlooking the handsome medieval city of Carcassonne, with our first Firecrests and a busy handful of migrant European Pied Flycatchers to entertain us after we'd eaten. At another rest area, we found our first Eurasian Nuthatch, while two Red Kites glided back and forth overhead, a European Robin chortled from a nearby bush, and a couple of White Wagtails waggled their way around the parking lot. One last stop at the base of the Pic du Pibeste yielded scope views of our first Eurasian Griffons perched atop cliff walls, looking vaguely like Gary Larson's cartoon vultures. Then we climbed up and up and up into the High Pyrenees, finally reaching the quaint mountain village of Gedre, our home for the next four nights.
We awoke to a perfect morning and set out for our hike to the spectacular Cirque de Gavarnie under clear skies. The track undulated gently upwards, with a few short, steep bits interspersed with longer, flatter sections. Until the last kilometer, that is; that stretch definitely had us sea-level folks gasping for air! Fortunately, there were pockets of birds that gave us the excuse to stop and pant. A trickle of raptors took advantage of the calm morning air: our first circling Bearded Vulture; a pulse of Eurasian Griffons gliding along the ridgeline; a Short-toed Snake-Eagle flapping towards Spain; a trio of Common Buzzards soaring over the treetops; and a couple of European Honey-Buzzards drifting over as they headed south. European Robins (including a speckly youngster) rummaged in the undergrowth. A trio of Crested Tits flicked through the beech mast in a nearby treetop. A young Great Spotted Woodpecker hammered on a tree trunk. Common Chiffchaffs worked in streamside birches, regularly dipping their tails. A half dozen Coal Tits and several tiny Goldcrests shouted challenges from trackside pines. A Eurasian Treecreeper crept up a trunk, showing nicely its snowy-white underparts. A distinctively plain Garden Warbler and a decidedly scruffy Melodious Warbler shared a tangle of avalanche-felled trees. Eventually, we reached the entrance to the cirque itself, and the magnificent vista with its view of the Cascade de Gavarnie (France's tallest waterfall) opened before us. It was the perfect place to settle down for our picnic lunch. Once we'd finished eating, we ventured up into the bowl of the cirque itself -- scrambling across a little rushing stream and scaling the sheep tracks up the hillside -- in search of Citril Finch. And after wandering across a chunk of the hill, we located a solitary finch, which flew (calling) past us and landed atop a boulder. Further along, a few Common Chaffinches flitted among the fruiting shrubs and Black Redstarts shivered their tails as they hunted from stony perches. Then it was back to the cirque's cafe for a restorative ice cream before our long walk back down the hill. We finished the day just down the street from our hotel. There, we watched a jaunty White-throated Dipper fling itself repeatedly into the river, surfacing occasionally to bounce for a minute or two on a rock while a Gray Wagtail wandered along the bank beyond it.
The next day dawned equally beautifully and we set off to the Port de Boucharo with high hopes -- and we weren't the only ones. Despite our early start, we found hordes of people already parked in the site's too-small lot, which meant Willy and I had to park about a kilometer back down the hill! Once we'd rejoined the group (which was waiting for us at the trailhead), we all ambled down the rough track to the Spanish border, enjoying the antics of Red-billed and Yellow-billed choughs as we went. Eurasian Griffons glided along the ridgeline while migrant parties of Barn Swallows and Western Yellow Wagtails headed towards the pass. Common Ravens croaked as they cartwheeled overhead and Eurasian Linnets flitted among the dried thistle spears, checking for seeds. An unexpected group of Gray Partridges crept through the grasses near one party of choughs and another covey foraged high on the hillside above us -- as far as I can remember, the first ever seen on this tour! But the key target on this hike was the Alpine Accentor and, after considerable searching, we finally spotted a youngster foraging among the shards of shale only a few yards off the path. Its colors were remarkably similar to those of the surrounding rocks! After a snack and some photos in Spain, we returned to the vans and headed down to the Vallee d'Ossoue for a picnic lunch at the base of some impressively tiger-striped cliffs. And along those cliffs, we spotted another key target: a young Lammergeier (aka Bearded Vulture), which made multiple flapless passes back and forth along the sheer walls before returning to drop several bones onto the rocks below. Further along the scenic valley, we found a trio of Eurasian Stonechats and a couple of Whinchats hunting from low juniper bushes, while a pair of Golden Eagles and a constantly shifting stream of Eurasian Griffons coursed back and forth along the ridges. Fat Alpine Marmots waddled along the roadside or sprawled on stony ledges. At a tumbled rockfall near the valley's head, a small stand of berrying bushes attracted a cohort of Black Redstarts and -- eventually -- a couple of furtive Rufous-tailed Rock-Thrushes, in their more-camouflaged winter plumage, while a single Yellowhammer wandered through the thick grasses near the base of a nearby scree slope.
We wound our way up the sinuous mountain road to the Barrage des Gloriettes the next morning under dramatically cloudy skies, which made for some great moody photographs once we'd reached the dam itself. First, we wandered along the edges of the site's parking lot, finding a half dozen Eurasian Blackcaps attacking berries in some nearby Rowan trees with a few Common Chaffinches, some busy European Pied Flycatchers, a handful of Common Chiffchaffs and a mixed group of tits for company. A Eurasian Wren sang from a dense juniper bush, his tiny tail cocked right up over his head. Wonderfully confiding Dunnocks bounced around under the cars, looking for tasty morsels. We scoured the dam's massive concrete wall for Wallcreeper -- sadly without success -- then searched the far hillside for migrants. While things were relatively quiet, we did find a little group of European Stonechats and a couple of young Yellowhammers among the scrubby trees and watched a couple of Bearded Vultures, a smattering of Eurasian Griffons and a tornado of Yellow-billed Choughs along the ridges. After another picnic lunch, we ventured to Le Lienz to check out its forested slopes. Spotty Mistle Thrushes sat atop distant pines while a mix of Long-tailed, Coal and Eurasian Blue tits, Firecrests, and a single Goldcrest flitted through closer branches. A male Eurasian Bullfinch nibbled fruits from a roadside Rowan tree. But our key sighting was probably two Black Woodpeckers that shouted challenges at each other, leading us on a merry chase up and down a hillside track as they periodically flew from one place to another.
Leaden skies greeted us on our final morning, with the bottom of the clouds hovering only a few hundred yards up the mountain from our hotel and hundreds of Eurasian Crag-martins spiraling under that layer. We ventured slightly higher after breakfast, working the edge of the dense fog bank in the hopes of finding some grounded migrants. Though we failed to 'hit pay dirt', we did find a flock of some four dozen streaky European Serins gobbling birch seeds from treetop catkins and a subtly handsome Tree Pipit sitting quietly among the leaves (as opposed to bounding past, like most of its fellows had). Then we started our journey back to Toulouse with a few birding stops along the way. A return visit to Le Lienz yielded nothing but fog and the same thick blanket all but obliterated the view from the top of the Col du Tourmalet, though the famous statue of the gasping cyclist was still visible -- just. Then it was down, down, down to the foothills around Campan, where we ate our picnic lunch in the rain (mostly huddled in the vans). In the drier forest around Mauvezin castle, we finally tracked down a pair of calling Marsh Tits. A final serendipitous stop at a nicely forested rest area along the highway gave us a super grand finale, with a little party of Short-toed Treecreepers (at eye-level no less!), a Eurasian Nuthatch investigating a concrete curb and nearly side-by-side Lesser and Middle Spotted woodpeckers. Yowza!
Thanks so much for joining Willy and me for some adventures in southern France. We greatly enjoyed sharing the food and wine and wildlife and scenery of the Camargue and Pyrenees with all of you -- and we hope to see you again on another tour somewhere, sometime soon!
Other critters of interest:
Mammals:
EUROPEAN RABBIT (Oryctolagus cuniculus): A couple bounced along the edges of the road as we drove towards the Crau steppe for our morning visit there.
ALPINE MARMOT (Marmota marmota): Abundant in the Pyrenees, with dozens seen sprawled on rocks or waddling along the roadsides. According to some research I've done since the tour, this species was re-introduced to the Pyrenees in the 1940s; it was once native there, but went extinct in the last ice age.
EUROPEAN RED SQUIRREL (Sciurus vulgaris): A few people saw one scurry off the track as we descended from the foggy forest of Le Lienz on our second visit.
COYPU (Myocastor coypus): Quite common in the Camargue, where these South American introductions are a major problem.
SOUTHERN CHAMOIS (Rupicapra pyrenaica): A little group grazed on a grassy slope high above the bowl of the Cirque de Gavarnie.
Herps:
MARSH FROG (Pelophylax ridibundus): Particularly nice looks at two basking in the sunshine next to the little pond at our Arles hotel.
COMMON WALL LIZARD (Podarcis muralis): Several of these small lizards scuttled along the boardwalk trail at Scamandre -- and one followed the green dot nearly to our boot tips!
PYRENEAN ROCK LIZARD (Iberolacerta bonnali): Small numbers crept among the rocks along the track in the Port de Boucharo, and another at the Barrage des Gloriettes proved to be as interested in the green dot as the previous species was.
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/408060
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/fra25TRIPLIST.pdf
-- Megan