Designated by Unesco a World Heritage Site for its “Cultural Landscape of Mediterranean Agropastoralism”. Limestone plateaux and gorges with warm Mediterranean summers and cold winters. Corn, Cirl and Ortolan Bunting, a range of warblers, shrikes and larks, all create a rich weft of birdsong to the soundscape.
Causse de Blandas late afternoon 5th June 1997.
I’ve visited and recorded in this landscape a number of times over the last 3 decades. Some of the characteristic and charismatic species have declined (Little Bustard probably extinct), while the vulture species that have been the object of conservation efforts are doing well and have grown in numbers.
In summer there’s a fascinating variety of bush-crickets to be heard for those with good high-frequency heaaring. Not noted particularly for amphibians, I first heard and recorded Midwife Toad here. It’s also a wonderful area for its diversity of flowers and insects, including many orchids, butterflies and day-flying hawkmoths.
