Compte rendu ornithologique camarguais pour les années 1995-2000

The present ornithological report for the Camargue covers six years (1995-2000). This time-period was characterized by mild and wet winters (except the winter of 1999-2000 which was very dry but remained mild). The mean temperatures were all higher than those measured previously. Twenty-two new species have been recorded for the first time (their list is given in the introduction of this paper). The following rare species have been observed again : Bluewinged Teal (a ringed bird in Québec/Canada shows the wild origin of at least one of the three birds seen), Lesser Scaup, Ring-necked Duck, Eastern Imperial Eagle, Lanner Falcon, Saker Falcon, Purple Swamp-hen, Great Bustard, Black-winged Pratincole, Great Sand Plover, Sociable Lapwing, Purple Sandpiper, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Wilson’s Phalarope, Audouin’s Gull, Arctic Tern, Common Guillemot, Blue-cheeked Bea-eater, Horned Lark, Richard’s Pipit, Blyth’s Pipit, Isabelline Wheatear, Desert Wheatear, Paddyfield Warbler, Marsh Warbler, Barred Warbler, Yellow-browed Warbler, Red-breasted Flycatcher, European Nuthatch, Rosy Starling, Snowfinch, Trumpeter Finch and Lapland Longspur. Among the species or group of species which are regularly censused, two arboreal herons (Little Egret and Cattle Egret) have dramatically increased their numbers ; the 680 pairs of Night Heron and 266 pairs of Squacco Heron in 2000 must be outlined. The Grey Heron stopped its spectacular increase and the Purple Heron continued to fluctuate (1 370 nests in 1996 and 664 nests in 2000). The Greater Flamingo reached the very high figure of 22 200 pairs in 2000 (13 000 in 1996). The breeding gulls and terns in the salines showed some new trends : the Black-headed Gull dramatically decreased (but began to colonize freshwater breeding sites), the Mediterranean Gull reached the very high number of 1 877 pairs in 2000, the Slender-billed Gull maintained its high breeding number (850 pairs in 2000). The four tern species showed the usual fluctuations. The high number of breeding Yellow-legged Gull remained a concern. The salines at Salin-de-Giraud harboured most of the breeding population during this time-period whereas the salines at Aigues-Mortes lost most of their birds. The wintering ducks and coots continued their overall decrease considered as linked to excessive hunting pressure (mostly through disturbance effect of hunting on feeding grounds). The species that have been found breeding for the first time are the Great Cormorant (in 1998), the Great White Egret (first sucessful breeding in 1996), the Eurasian Spoonbill (in 1998), the Eagle Owl (in 2000) and the Pied Wagtail. Among the breeding species, the Collared Pratincole showed a good breeding success in 2000 (42 pairs and 45 fledglings) and several breeding records were found for the Great Spotted Cuckoo. Some species increasingly overwintered : Night Heron, Black Stork, White Stork, Black Kite, Osprey, Common Crane, Stone-curlew, Little Ringed Plover, Common Tern and Pine Bunting.

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