Vultures for lunch

We awoke yesterday to find the valley full of low clouds, covering even the lower peaks. We therefore decided to head north, out of the valley in order to visit Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges (about which more later), roughly 40km (25 miles) from the campsite.

Just across the border into France, we spotted a number of vultures wheeling on their broad wings just below the cloud level. We found somewhere to park beside the Garonne river in Saint Béat, a small village squeezed between cliffs on the opposing sides of the valley.

There were loads of Griffon vultures, a number of Red Kites and a large black crow which might been a Raven or (less excitingly) a Rook!

Some of the vultures came in to land at the top of one of the cliffs, where we also saw what appeared to be a big chick or near fledgling (and this is the right sort of time of the year for Griffon vultures to fledge).

We also saw another bird which my phone’s nature recognition ai thinks was an Osprey, but it definitely wasn’t a vulture.

After watching the vultures swirling around for quite a time, we decided to eat our lunch at a convenient picnic table beside the river, whilst keeping an eye on the vultures and other birds.

St Béat is known for several marble quarries in the nearby hills, first exploited by the Romans. They have an annual marble sculpture festival, with sculptures dotted around the village.Read more