October 15, 2024
In Saintes-Maries: the Ornithological Park
We’ve got two layover days here. Today’s conditions anre excellent but everything looks due to change this evening sometime when we expect to see the start of unbroken 25+ winds due to last for the following two days straight. It’s obvious that we should devote today to our top priority: a visit to the Ornithological Park at Pont du Gau, just over three miles north of town.
We visited the park seven years ago as a stopoff on a day ride to Saintes-Maries from Aigues-Mortes, almost as an afterthought late in the day on the way back to our hotel. It was an incredible experience seeing so many flamingos and so close up, but we didn’t allow nearly enough time; and as it was it was starting to get dangerously dark when we biked along the canal back to our room. Today we’re doing it right, treating it as the main event of the day.
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It’s three and a half miles to the park by the direct route, on the main road back north to Arles. Close enough to walk, but if I did that I wouldn’t have enough walking capacity left to make the most of the park which is quite large with something like five miles of trails if you complete the full circuit. So I take the bike, lock it up inside the park, and spend the next four hours walking pretty much ever inch of trail there is.
Rachael’s walking though of course, so I put together a more roundabout route for her that keeps her off the shoulder of the highway as much as possible. It proves to be as successful as most of my efforts for her have been lately - fine in spots but frustrating in others when she’s blocked by private property barriers. It’s frustrating for me too, because I’ve routed her on what RideWithGPS labels as a walking route.
She does make it to the park eventually, but it takes some detours that add up. Fortunately she’s a strong walker and has plenty of leg left to enjoy the park once she finally arrives, though she limits herself to the southern loop - the one that draws nearly all of the visitors because that’s where the flamingos are. So many flamingos.
She and I never meet at the park. By the time she makes it out I’ve already completed the southern loop and am off on the northern one - a longer one that sees fewer visitors but is quite different in character. There are numerous bird blinds here where you can peek through slits and watch waders feeding in the shallows, a terrific spot if you’re into birds at all. We do talk on the phone though - she phones me when she starts back to the room after seeing my bike, and on my recommendation she just walks the direct way back along the highway so she won’t just backtrack and limp in after a sixteen mile hike. Still, 12.5 miles is a respectable showing.
It is a great day for both of us, and one we feel really grateful for. It was so lucky to have had such fine weather for it. If we’d arrived a day later we might not have made it out to the park at all because of the winds.
So we’ll get to the flamingos later. First let’s look at what else is around. For one thing, in spite of its name it’s not all about the birds.
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2 months ago
2 months ago
It’s a very well maintained park, with easily walkable gravel paths and a clear navigation system to help you find your way.
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It’s not all about the flamingos either. There is a great diversity of birds here, with eBird listing over 250 species that have been seen over the years. There is of course a lot of luck in what you’ll see here, and it helps to have the right spotting equipment and to be here at the right time. I’ve just got my pocket zoom and we’re a couple of weeks late for the peak of the fall migration, but I see plenty enough to feel I’ve gotten my money’s worth.
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2 months ago
I'm starting to hear Donald Pleasance from The Great Escape reading the captions to these photos.
2 months ago
2 months ago
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OK, enough of that. Let’s do the flamingos. If you’re here at the right time of year the numbers seem huge, with over a thousand of them concentrated in this small space. And they’re of course riveting, pairing their wonderful coloration with their graceful and mesmerizing shoe and behavior.
I took many flamingo photos of course, and decided to organize them in the obvious way - by the numbers, beginning with the largest FPF (flamingos per frame) count first.
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2 months ago
We celebrated our fine day with a fine meal at a small family restaurant. We were charmed by the server, a man who obviously loves his job. He brought the menu of the day around to each table, describing every item on it, top to bottom. He expressed disappointment though when we both selected the aubergine millefuille instead of what he thought was the best item on the menu, or
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Oh, one last thing. I’m sorry I didn’t think to take a video of that apparent mating ritual, but at least I caught this one. It took me awhile to think of it though, and only came to it after taking about a dozen shots of this bird waving one wing after another without being able to get a focused or well timed shot. Video worked much better.
Today's ride: 7 miles (11 km)
Total: 4,245 miles (6,832 km)
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2 months ago
Around Gruissan though it sounds like maybe they’re resident and you can see them year-round, but not in anything like the huge numbers they see in the Camargue.
2 months ago
1 month ago