A Walk in the Pyrenees

 

A hike in the mountains to benefit from the beautiful weather at the end of October produced some jewels, including some ….. insect sex.

It was so warm that there were still some insects moving around in the grass and in the air, even at altitudes of well over 2000 metres. Looking at my feet I saw a very strange shape moving about amongst the brown grass, and finally when ‘it’ had crawled up high enough it turned out to be a mating pair of Pyrenean mountain grasshoppers (FR. Cophopodisma pyrenaea)

 

Needless to say the larger female was carrying the male on its back, and finally we had to put them in our hands in order to see what was actually going on. The male was clasped on tightly, and her abdomen was curled up to reach the male’s reproductive organ from which she receives a package of sperm. Slowly. This mating can take up to a day, which is just as well as the male will die immediately after, and even in some cases she will cut off his head and eat it, a protein rich supper. Perhaps he was taking his time because he didn’t want to lose his head just yet.

 

From time to time she would make a prodigious leap, well, as much as she could being so encumbered, whether to free herself of our unwanted attention, in a spasm of mating thrill or to rid herself (I doubt it) of the male. After a few minutes we left them in peace. When it is all over the female will force her ovipositor (a tube like organ) underground and lay the eggs, which will hatch after winter. Fascinating.

 Although birds in the high mountains are few and far between, we did see Golden eagles twice. I am sometimes asked how it is at considerable distance you can tell which large raptor it is that you are seeing. As colour can be misleading, especially if it a silhouette against near the sun on a clear day, there are four things to look for; the way of flying, the form, whether they are alone or in group of similar birds, and finally the colouration if the light is right.

 So to compare the flying patterns of two similar sized birds, Golden eagles (Aigle royale) and Griffon vultures (Vautour fauve).

A vulture will only flap its wings from necessity, most of the time it will be gliding using the uplift of winds passing up and over hills, sometimes circling to take advantage of a rising thermals coming off a warm cliff face; whilst an eagle is much more likely to using the power of its wings to pass from point to point.

 

Griffon vulture

 As to the forms. A vulture above has noticeably slimmer wings, a stubby tail, longer ‘fingers’, and in fact the neck is very long although it will tuck it in whilst flying, so not that easily seen, but does give a certain hunched look with the head carried low. 

Below is a distant shot of an eagle, which is how you often see them, note the relatively long tail, the slight inward curve of the wings into the body, the massively broad wings, and the small head. The white patches on the wings are a bonus, showing that we were looking at an immature bird, three to five years old; an adult will lose all the light patches. The overall impression is of power and purpose.

 

When the light is good enough the colours of the wing pattern can be useful, a griffon has the two-tone wings, a greyish head with a sort of collar at its base, this is brown in young birds and gets lighter with age.

Then there is  another clue. If several birds proceeding across the sky together it is most likely to be a vulture, whilst, in France at least, you will ‘never’ see more than two eagles together (or possibly three when their offspring is with them at the end of the breeding season).

If you are lucky, and spend time in suitable habitat in early springtime, you might just see a wonderful display that eagles (and some other raptors) can make. Called a festoon in French, the bird – often the male – will repeatedly dive down and swoop back up in a series of switch backs like the best roller coaster you have ever seen in a funfair. With a friend I once saw 15 of these swoops one after another. It is of course a territorial display, both to impress any possible rival – keep away - and also the female who was presumably watching. A sight to remember.

 If you are especially lucky, you might hear the call of a Golden eagle, but they are mainly silent, and I have never heard one in the wild. Recordings that I have heard portray a rather thin, fluty whistle; perhaps such a magnificent bird does not need to advertise itself with sound. I have been close enough to griffons to hear their hisses and grunts, mainly heard when they are gathered together to feed on a carcass.

Perhaps this is the place to draw a clear distinction of the behaviour of these two large birds. They are both raptors, but an eagle is a predator, whilst a vulture is scavenger. Eagles can and do take lambs, hares, foxes, small wild boars, and similar prey; they are equipped with powerful talons that are capable of grasping and killing, whilst a vulture will only eat an animal that is dead and cannot pierce with their talons which are much weaker. There is a small amount of doubt, perhaps in 3 % of cases, that just possibly the animal that they feed on was not completely dead, but this is very rare. I myself have watched a group of vultures perched near to a dying sheep without attacking it, and if the farmer does not go to fetch it, this can go on for several days. An eagle will only scavenge as a last resort when food is short, in winter perhaps, and would not feed its young with such food.

There were two other birds that we saw, and heard on the walk. These tested my power of observation of detail, and I had to resort to the sound app. that I carry on my phone to make sure I was getting it right.

These are the choughs, a corvid – crow family - and related to the ravens ( Grand Corbeau) that we also saw. Ravens are truly massive, as big as a buzzard, and their wedge shaped tail-tip is a giveaway, as are the multiple cronks and clanks sounds that they make, distinctly a bass sound. They are normally just a pair, although might have a youngster or two with them.

 The choughs, both Red-billed (Crave à bec rouge) and Alpine (Chocard à bec jaune) are much smaller, jackdaw sized birds. As the name implies the Alpine only breeds at high altitude (so not in the U.K.) whilst the Red-billed can be found at somewhat lower altitudes. It is in fact the heraldic bird of Cornwall, and spontaneously returned in 2001 after an absence of over 50 years.

There is one place on the borders of Aude/Ariège where both species breed close together, and  sometimes in winter they will flock.

 

Red-billed Chough; Adrian Henderson

Ah-ha you say this should be easy, there is a good clue in the colour of the beaks, the French name gives it away; true, but a juvenile red-billed can have a yellowy-orange beak in its first year, just to keep us on our toes.

 

Alpine Choughs; Michel Fernandez

 

Both choughs have typical calls; the easiest way to identify them is by listening to an app on phone such as the Collins Bird guide or Merlin. There is a little overlap in the sounds that the two species make, but not much, both have a metallic or electric edge to the sounds they make, very much a sound of the mountains. They are not particular shy birds, and if you ski you might well come across the Alpine near to the top of the ski stations.

We did see three Isard, a close relation of the Alpine Chamois, it is only recently that it has been decided that they are not identical species. One was alone and moving badly, probably injured, perhaps by a hunter or by a fall, they are hunted during a short season. Usually you see them in larger groups, feeding on steep hillsides, and often there is one that is perched high on a rock as a lookout for danger.

Isard des Pyrénées

Francine Terrier