The Bird Thread

Great day out today. Am in Gruissan, south of France, famous for - amongst other things - it’s itinerant colonies of flamingos. Set out this morning, telling the kids we are going flamingo hunting, and that we may or may not see some flamingos. They are well excited, and I am worried they will be disappointed if / when we fail to see any.

Set destination for Bages, taking a circuitous route to take in a road known to local friends as “the bird watching road”. Driving through Gruissan itself we spot a lone, bulky fucker of a bird in the ètang, so screech to a halt in a car park, snap a few photos of the very distant, very solitary flamingo just in case we don’t see another one today, take the opportunity to head up Gruissan tower, sample some coffee and patisserie, and head on our way.

We needn’t have bothered with that lonely flamingo, as the bird watching road did not disappoint. Gruissan quickly gives way to vineyards, and the vineyards give way to: on one side of the road fully dried out salt flat; on the other ètang with a flock of some 150 flamingos, the closest of which is no more than 20 metres away. The kids - and the adults - go wild. We soak them in and then head off for a further drive, whereupon the eldest kid spots a huge flock of flamingos wheeling in the sky. Another screeching halt, we stop to enjoy the spectacle, watching these massive fucking birds wheel around gracefully on the thermals above us.

My eldest was absolutely captivated and was so proud to have been the one to have spotted the flock of birds on the wing. I hope this is one of those memories that sticks - she will turn 6 in a few weeks time. She was not disappointed when we got home and I had a chance to zoom in on the snaps of the airborne flamingos to discover that they were in fact a massive flock of storks.

We also saw about a million egrets, forty herons and a buzzard, but they all got forgotten in the flamingo hype.

Some rough flamingo content:

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