It was Rain in Somme

Yes, there is a pun in the title and it's deliberate.

This the first of my French Blogs.

My visit to the Parc du Marquenterre on the Bay of Somme was a rather wet one.  The rain was heavy and the wind was strong and driving across the massive reserve.  It's a very impressive reserve and I hope to revisit in better weather.  The trails are well-constructed and have good surfaces.  There are some excellent hides at strategic points, but they are unglazed.  On the day of my visit, that meant that using the viewing ports on the weather side was rather like taking a power-shower.  The ones on the lee side afforded the few chances for photography.  I managed but a few pictures.

Three members of staff were circulating around the hides where they set up shop with scopes and a mass of back-up materials in several languages to help any visitors needing assistance.

I'd never been to this reserve before and one of my targets was the breeding colony of European Spoonbill.  I managed one distant shot and you can see the weather for yourself.

I came across this pair of Whooper Swan nesting half-on half-off the trail.  They were quite unconcerned as I walked past about 2 metres away.  (I took the photograph from the shelter of a convenient hide a few metres further along the path.)

Whether these birds had been raised on the reserve or whether they had been pinioned I never resolved.  At this time of the year, in the wild, one would expect to find them in Iceland.  One of the guides on site didn't have too much time for discussion on this.  Whilst in the UK we might sometimes use the term captive rather liberally for such restrained, otherwise wild animals, the French more-or-less equivalent word, captif, has seemingly a much tighter connotation and would not strictly apply.  These birds were described as domestiqué.  Interesting.

This Pochard seemed to have the right idea.

Too wet for ducks

The best angle I could get on one of the local White Stork was this:

This was taken from a huge covered stand overlooking an arena where birds feed.

Even though I hadn't lingered too much for photography, it had been a long way round the reserve.  (There are horse-drawn cart tours round the perimeter.)  My legs were tired and I was hungry.  The reserve boasts an excellent café and I had some lunch.

When I was eventually leaving the rain stopped, but I didn't have the energy to go round again!  Another time ...