Jonathan Kemp; A naturalist in the south of France

    Two years ago the Aude vulture team was given permission to capture and equip ten adult Griffon vultures with geolocation transmitters ( balise ), the idea being to give information as to how far they were coming from nesting or roosting sites in order to take advantage of our feeding stations. Most large birds are equipped with these sort of devices when chicks ( poussin ) in the nest ( site de nidification ), when they can be handled more easily, but this particular study was aimed at adult birds, bringing new challenges.Even though not very aggressive, they are big wild birds and do not like to handled. The beak can inflict a nasty bite. A suitable cage was constructed, which could be rapidly shut when sufficient numbers of birds were inside. Only one person was in the near vicinity for fear of alerting the vultures and ravens that something was planned, and he/she crouched in a hide ( affut ) ready to release the net that would fall to trap the birds. Every week t...

We have been lucky to have a locally rare falcon roosting in trees for the last few days very close to the mill. It is an Eleonora’s Falcon (Fr. Faucon Eléonore), named after Eleanor of Arborea, a famous queen or lady judge in 14 th century Sardinia, the first ruler in history to grant protection to hawk and falcon nests.  Falcons are by nature elegant birds, generally slimmer than hawks, built for pursuit speed. However, even two falcons have differing body shapes, adapted to the way that they capture their prey.  Eleonoras are noticeably less bulky than peregrines (Fr. Faucon pélerin).  They need the acrobatic speed for chasing prey whilst heavier peregrines often power down from above at tremendous diving speed, and are the fastest animal on the planet.  Eleonoras delay the reproduction period to late summer, nesting in colonies on the cliffs of the Mediterranean coastal  islands, and use their aerobatic skills to capture tired birds that have been fl...

One result of the shortage of rain this summer has been the reduction in flow of the tributaries of the main rivers, in our case the Aude. We live in a water mill perched above the Brezilhou stream, and not for the first time see why the original mill, dating from about nine hundred years ago, was built here. Upstream all the flow has gone underground, but whilst the waterfall that feeds the mill pond has slowed, it would have still supplied enough to keep the ponderous wheels turning.  Kingfisher dive   Somewhere upstream a pair of Kingfishers nest every year. I have not found this year's nest, the older ones of previous years have been washed away in the floods that will eventually come. This year we see a kingfisher nearly every day, there is often a spark of electric blue and the piercing cry as these brightest of birds make the kilometre journey down to the main river to hunt for their meals – and sometimes they stop at the millpond and try their luck here.    S...