Birds
Birds in the Drome Valley and Vercors Plateau
Our rarest bird is the Lammergeier. There are scarcely a 1000 of them left in Europe and their fate is probably closely linked to that of our rarest mammals in the region – the linx and the wolf. A number of larger mammals such as the moufflon, chamois and bouquetin have been successfully re-introduced into the wilder parts of the Plateau over the past 20 years and this has attracted linx and wolves, probably from the Italian Alps. The remains of their kill is food for ravens and vultures. There is a small colony of Griffon Vultures below the Col de Rousset and a much larger colony at Remuzat that has attracted both Black Vultures and Egyptian Vultures over the past 10 years.
Three young Lammergeiers from various European zoos were released near Benevise in 2010, with the hope that they would make it their home territory. As of now (February 2011), one stays happily at Benevise, one has joined the Griffons at Remuzat and the third one, after investigating the 3000 metre mountains to the east for a while, went off to the Mercantour on the Italian frontier.
The Vercors is a heavily glaciated limestone plateau surrounded by sheer cliffs and deep valleys on all sides.
The western side is partly agricultural, partly forest, whilst the eastern side rises above the tree line, providing ideal territory for Golden Eagles and the grouse, partridges and pheasants that they hunt.
Some 1500 metres below, the Drome is a wild mountain river when the snow melts in the Spring and a warm dawdling current by mid-summer. It can change course dramatically after storms and the river bed is home to various herons and egrets, plovers, kingfishers, bee-eaters and dippers. Cormorants which appear to be of the lucidus, white-chested sub-species, fish the river every winter. There is a bird santuary just before the Drome River joins the Rhone at Livron and this is visited to many migrant waders and ducks, and the occasional visitor from the Camargue such as Squacco Herons and Flamingos. Indeed, our small lake near the farmhouse, which was excavated 11 years ago, has attracted such exotica as Little Egrets, a Squacco Heron, a Black-winged Stilt, and a Red-crested Pochard, which makes a change from the resident, nesting Moorhens and Little Grebes, and the daily visitors such as the Kingfishers, Grey Heron and Night Herons.
Between the river and the plateau there is farmland and forest. Many of the farms are organic and some of them deliberately create habitats to attract particular birds and animals.
The farmland attracts Hoopoes, almost every variety of Europan Finch, the Wagtails, Buntings and Larks. Black Kites, Honey Buzzards and Buzzards inspect the fields every day for voles in the summer and often follow our ancient combine harvester when we are bringing in the grains we grow. The Short-Toed Eagles (less than 10,000 left in Europe and Africa) prefer to investigate the railway line every day for snakes and lizards – and sometimes the chicken run for something bigger. The Peregrine Falcons and Buzzards occasionally get the same idea but they are not strong enough to lift off one of our chickens.
In the surrounding forest we have all the Euopean Woodpeckers except the Syrian, all the European Tits except the Bearded Reedling, at least nine species of Owl and an unknown number of Warblers. Around the farm buildings and gardens there are the usual Robins, Blackcaps, Blackbirds and such, and also Black Redstarts, Redstarts, Nightingales, Nuthatches and Tree-creepers.
The table on the link lists all the bird species you can expect to see on the Vercors Plateau or in the Drome Valley.
A star indicates that we have identified the species on the farm and an exclamation mark indicates that we are pretty sure that the species breeds chez nous. In many cases we have identified the nests, but we have also taken the liberty of assuming that the birds are breeding on the farm when we have seen pairs of adults collecting food in large quantities throughout the early summer. Alongside each species there is a calendar indicating the months when it is most likely to be around. This is not the result of a carefully conducted scientific survey but of a passion to identify the birds around us from their shape, size, colour, markings, flight, behaviour and song. If you want to investigate further, visit http.alpesoiseaux.free.fr ( in French only, though the list of birds to be seen is in French, English, German, Italian and Spanish).