Grey Heron Rousing!

This grey heron (Ardea cinerea--Héron cendré in French) is extending and shuffling all its feathers, which is an action called a rouse. The mallard pair at its feet (view it large) seems unimpressed.

An interesting email comment from my ornithologist friend: "I don't know this species first-hand, but for herons generally there is an intensification of the color of the bare skin of the lores (the area between the eye and the bill) as a heron enters breeding season, and this bird seems to show that intense color of the lores."

We drove west from our gite across the Petit-Rhone (the little Rhone river, a branch of the Rhone which marks the western side of the Rhone delta (which contains the Camargue). This took us to the department of the Gard, and to the nature reserve of the Scamandre. A road nearby yielded this distant shot, from the car--under dark clouds.

After yesterday's lament about the drought, the heavens opened for a good hour during our outing (fortunately as we ate lunch at the reserve). But we returned to our gite and found the towel that we'd hung out absolutely dry.