'Le printemps est de retour, le percnoptere aussi'

---

When we found out that percnoptere means vulture, a morning near Tarascon being introduced to them by a local vulture-watcher seemed too exciting to resist. Luckily, he was a young professional who works for Nature Midi-Pyrenees, and in no way related to Bill Oddie.

As ever, wonderful scenery, lush and green at this stage in the spring: though we saw the vultures wheeling and circling some 2000 metres above us rather than close at hand, we had powerful binoculars to help. There were other treats - a red-backed shrike sitting quietly for as long as we wanted to enjoy watching him high in a tree; several lizards, one of them large and bright turquoisy green.

At the end, we had to have lunch in the car park. As ever, French style, someone had bought wine to share, someone else produced a home-made cake, and coffee and tisanes. We're prepared too now, and had sweetmeats to offer. Not a bad life.......

By the way, the bird photos are not mine.

---

Photos

The car park where we had lunch.
Not so bad after all, is it?

We finished the day with a walk and a coffee in Tarascon
This is the view over the river Ariege from the bridge in the town centre