Eye candy: Over 50,000 pink flamingos mass in France
PARIS (AP) — Behold a treat for the eyes!
Tens of thousands of pink flamingos have amassed in the wetlands of southern France along with their offspring still lacking flamboyant plumage.
The long-legged birds resembling ballerinas in tutus have long drawn tourists to the marshes in the Camargue region that has served as France’s salt mine since Roman times, but the number of pink flamingos this year may be the highest since experts began keeping records 45 years ago, according to Thierry Marmol, the guardian of the vast ecosystem.
France’s two months of strict confinement to contain the coronavirus may well be the reason.
Experts relying on aerial photos estimated that 25,000 flamingo couples, or 50,000 adult birds, settled in the area this year. About 12,000 babies were counted.
“That’s historic,” Marmol said, stressing that little ones are hard to count.
“Maybe the confinement helped to make a good year,” he added. “It’s obvious that with confinement there were no disturbances. There were no airplanes, no noise at all.”
It’s still too soon to confirm that the anti-virus lockdown was a factor in what he said is “one of the best four years of all time” for pink flamingos in the Salins.
Marmol has watched over 8,000 hectares around the commune of Aigues-Mortes for the past 35 years, living on the land “like a trapper in America.”
He is a keen observer of the birds, fauna and flora that draw ornithologists and other experts for field work. This year’s bumper crop of pink flamingos is a treat even for him.