Parc des Oiseaux

On Monday we were up and moving early. It was our day to visit the Park of Birds.

We expected about a two hour drive...BB prefers a moderate pace...and taking pictures also slows any trip. I ended up in someone's driveway in order to get a picture of this roundabout with its wine glasses.

Thank goodness for zoom lenses. I was a city block away from this fella when I finally found space to pull over. Because the frog is decorating a roundabout, the signs hide the rest of his body.

I love roundabouts! They have saved me many times. If nothing else, they reassure...letting one know it's still the right road. We followed the "green signs" and avoided getting on "blue" roads because those are the toll highways.

I don't remember the town, but I liked the shapes done in stone and the mass of lavender.

Eventually we made it to the park. They had an inexpensive cafeteria where we could eat while watching the flamingos across the way...

 Look carefully and you'll notice a duck, I think it's a mallard, hanging out with the flamingos.

After lunch we began our trek around the small lake. There's a bridge across the middle of the lake which we opted to use so we saved a number of exhibits for another visit.

These guys, like many of the birds we saw, were free to roam throughout the park.

I didn't see anyone trying to touch or scare the birds and they were obviously used to having people near them.

There is at least one baby in this nest.

There were a half dozen stork nests on platforms held high by poles.

In the nursery building kids could watch ducklings peck their way out of their shells. (There was no sign prohibiting adults from watching as well.)

These little tykes weren't in the nursery, but out in the big world near a bridge.


In the parrot aviary visitors could buy a cup of juice and feed the birds. There was a sign warning that the parrots might bite or pinch. This parrot decided to groom the youngster's hair when she ran out of food.

There was a flock of pure white parrots in the aviary as well as a variety of blue, yellow, red and green birds.

Other varieties of parrots were housed in other aviaries, but this was the only place where people could feed them.

I walked into another aviary and just stood looking around. I was surprised to suddenly be noticing birds who were just hanging out in the different trees. I actually thought one bird was dead, until it blinked.

The show, or spectacle, was worth the price of admission. The birds made up for the fact that we didn't understand the French language.

This is where I'm adding a lot more pictures than writing...

These birds flew to the handler. Of course they knew they'd get fed, but they were still free to leave if they didn't like their treatment.

A flock of pelicans flew in from across the lake to the tune of Jurassic Park

 I feel lucky to have caught a few on camera. We didn't know that a flock would suddenly appear, and watching them fly in was so amazing it took me some time before I even thought to raise the camera.

Because they were rather prehistoric looking, the music from Jurassic Park fit their entrance.

 Dark and ominous music played when the vultures came swooping in.

There was a handler on the upper level on each side of the bleachers. They could send the birds back and forth over the audience.

There were two different birds who came onto the stage area and headed for a specific spot at the edge where they grabbed a snake and snapped it in the air over and over until the fake snake was "dead" and a piece of food fell off or out of it.

They were dealing with a fake snake, but their ability to kill a real one was obvious.

          Then these guys appeared from behind the bleachers. We had  
          no idea of what would appear next or from where, but each   
          spectacle of birds was stunning. When they flew above us, they
          really were just barely over our heads.

There were others before a blizzard of parrots descended upon us.


The handlers were really busy during this segment, handing out treats and sending the birds off again. Margery and I later confirmed that we both felt that if we had sat up straight a parrot would have flown into us.

For many years I taught the short story of "The Scarlet Ibis," yet I had never seen one. It was simply a bird of my imagination.

We saw some babies in the nursery. That was interesting, but they were too young to have red feathers.

And we hadn't seen any on our walk around the lake.

Then came the bird show finale...