Maggie: our hike along the Lez on 4 February

Here, in absolutely record time, are the photos I took on the walk along the Lez this morning.  The weather was just right, the colors were magnificent, the walk was, in my humble opinion, extremely pleasant.  Sorry there weren’t more people to enjoy it, but five is a lot better than just two.  I’m glad I took photos on the aller when the water was calm, because the breeze on the way back prevented the beautiful reflections.

I looked up the cormoran huppé (common shag, in English), and I still do not think that it is the bird we saw on the rock in the middle of the Lez.  Perhaps someone can identify it.

I also looked up the if tree, and in English it is a yew.

Rosie writes:  

The common cormorant or shag

Lays eggs inside a paper bag

The reason you will see no doubt

It is to keep the lightning out

But what these unobservant birds

Have failed to notice is that herds

Of wandering bears may come with buns

And steal the bags to hold the crumbs.

No, sadly, I didn't invent that nonsense rhyme! Christopher Isherwood did. 

However-  the picture of the Cormorant, or Common Cormorant, in my Thorburn's Birds, looks exactly like the one we saw on the rock, little crest, neck folded down, slight hunchback and all.

A shag has no white blazes.

One of the swans was using only one webbed foot to paddle, which gave it an unusual, jerky forward propulsion in the water.  In the photo, you can see its foot on its back.

Peggy pointed out the mark of the high water level, where the leaves and branches were left stranded in a tree on what is, at today’s extremely low water level, one of the banks of the Lez.

Thanks again, Mariannick, for a really lovely winter walk in the Languedoc.  And as Rosie says, it’s time to make more AWG greeting cards.