Apologies (yet again) for the lack of posts, but the garden and kitchen have been very demanding. Now the weather is cooling down, I will have more time to try and go through the many photos that I have taken over the past couple of months. These photos (and many more), were taken on a recent trip to Arcachon which is below Bordeaux and about 3 1/2 hours from home
The Eurasian Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) is a large wading bird 80 to 90 cm in length, and an adult weight of 1.7 to 2 kg. It's characteristic long, black, spoon-shaped beak makes it easy to identify, differentiating it from all other large European wading birds.
Its plumage is completely white, with black legs. Juveniles, very similar in appearance to adults, can be distinguished by the black tips on their flight feathers.
Spoonbills are typically dependent on wetlands and preferentially use freshwater marshes or the lagoons and estuaries just behind the coastal strip.
Present in western Europe, where it nests from the spring onward in Spain, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium, it migrates in the autumn to overwinter mainly in the south of Spain, and in northern, eastern or western Africa.
Individuals ringed in the Camargue have already been spotted in South Sudan, testifying to spoonbills’ long-distance migration capacities
The species is considered as vulnerable in France, and classified as such (VU) in the IUCN Red List.
My thanks for the above information which is taken from
