Camargue at Christmas

At Christmas we make an annual pilgrimage to the Camargue.  When the countryside is at its bleakest and we are stuffed full of the excesses of Christmas eating, we take a day to walk in this strange and invigorating landscape.  Last Christmas it was raining so hard we could barely open the door of the car and in fact only managed to stagger along the beach, fearing for our lives as the rough sea battered the sand.  This year, the weather was cold but dry and we were able to drive out along the dikes to a very remote beach to catch the sunset. The inland lagoons were frozen but not solid and the water was moving under the ice, making strange thick waves.

I have never seen so many birds close up, a huge number overwinter here, including sandpipers and plovers and fresh water waders such as marsh terns and herons.  We came across ditches broiling with herons and cormorants as they fished in the muddy waters for eels.

Of course the Camargue is famous for its flamingos and we were able to glimpse this group fighting amongst themselves.  Although the lagoons look like a natural environment, they have been controlled with a system of dikes and breakwaters since the Middle Ages. The natural sediment-fed islets in the lagoons are disappearing under the water.  These islets were where the flamingo population nested.  Apparently, the WWF has begun a very successful programme of artificial islet construction they even provide ready-made man-made nests, which look like mud donuts!