Cranes, cranes and red kites in France, photos

Friday 1 March 2013.

After the early morning, still near Lac du Der, France.

We departed from Giffaumont-Champaubert village.

A red kite flying.

At the Chantecoq hide, again three cranes. Probably the same family of yesterday.

A female goosander swims.

On a rose-bush, a larva of a gall wasp (Diplolepis rosae).

We walk to a smaller lake, the Etang des Landres.

Still partly frozen.

A young mute swan.

Coots. Tufted ducks. A great egret. A grey heron. Common pochards. A male smew swimming.

Back to the big lake. A white-tailed eagle on a tree. Pintail ducks swimming.

In the fields, many small groups of cranes.

The loess soil often sticking to their legs.

Then, the Cornée du Der oak forests.

A short-toed treecreeper. A juvenile sea eagle flying overhead.

Long-tailed tit. Marsh tit.

We hear a black woodpecker call.

On the lake bank, traces of wild boar moving the soil around. A great egret flies past.

Then, a glimpse of a rare bird: a middle spotted woodpecker.

In a field near trees, hundreds of cranes. Some of the birds doing mating dances.

A score of red kites, on spring migration together, land in trees next to a hundred rooks.

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