No doubt about that sighting, Alan. It's always nice to get a photo.
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.
Pyrenees-Atlantiques
Saturday, January 7th, 2017
Saligue de Castétis (rive droite) / Castétis (64)
1 Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)
[Alain Naves]
Comment :en vol
Gironde Port du Rocher , same bird as yesterday
Sunday, January 8th, 2017
Port du Rocher / Teste-de-Buch (La) (33)
[Mathieu Taillade]
Comment :Le même
One in Charente maritime spotted on a post by Claude Champarnaud on the 10/01/2017 in the commune of "Le Gua" alongside the "Seudre river" photo here http://www.faune-charente-maritime.org/index.php?m_id=54&mid=35232 presumably a wintering bird.
Best wishes
Hazel in Southwest France
Many thanks Alan and Noisette. I know that Portugal and Spain (and possibly some areas in Morocco) are about to conduct their annual census on overwintering osprey. Does such a project occur in France?
Birdie's DU Summaries 2018 https://www.imagicat.com/
I haven't heard anything, but with most sightings of ospreys noted on the "faune" sites, the information would be fairly easily available. There was one that overwintered in the same area a few years ago, maybe even the same one, but a lot of these spots are quite remote & an osprey can stay unseen by birdwatchers for a long time.
Thanks Noisette. I think the difference is that folk are called up to spot and report over a particular weekend, and it becomes a concerted effort.
At the moment we have a count of all waders etc on the marshes & also all the Egrets, Herons & Cormorants in dortoirs are being counted. I'm out every late afternoon. There is also a survey of Black Storks overwintering & we happen to have one locally, but they are so rare that no-one would go out hunting for them as such, you just get very excited when you see one If there were any Ospreys seen they would be in that sort of catergory. It a bit like asking folk to do a count of Great Grey Shrikes in Britain. There are just odd one's here & there.
Well done for all your efforts Noisette. It sounds very hard work, requiring a lot of patience! Good luck with your project!
Gironde
Friday, January 13th, 2017
UG 16 Domaine de Certes - Cabanot / Audenge (33)
[Département de La Gironde Espaces Naturels own website]
Comment :En stationnaire, B.Normand et F.Hillion