Wildlife to see in France in July
9 spectacles at their peak in France in July, and 8 more still going on. Wild animals only: no zoos, no wildlife parks, no hunting. Open France in July in the interactive calendar for listening times on the day you pick.
At their peak in July
Cicadas of ProvenceThe Provence cliché done properly: Lyristes' continuous saw at 100+ dB from the pines, Cicada orni's pulsing ticks from the oaks, and a shift of species with the hour and the tree.
Nightjars and woodlarks of the Landes pine forestChurring nightjars from every clear-fell in Europe's largest planted forest, woodlarks still singing at dusk, and the surf from the Atlantic dunes if you are near the coast.
Sept-Îles: gannets on Rouzic, puffins and auksFrance's only gannet colony (about 14,000 pairs on Rouzic) as a wall of grating calls from the boat, puffins and kittiwakes on the sea, and the Atlantic swell against the granite.
Banc d'Arguin terns & Arcachon brent geeseA grating Sandwich tern colony of thousands of pairs on a sandbank in the Atlantic swell; in winter, the rolling 'rronk' of brent flocks on the eelgrass beds.
Shearwater colonies: Îles d'Hyères and LavezziWailing and cackling shearwaters arriving over the cliffs at night to their burrows — Port-Cros holds about 90% of France's Yelkouan population — with the Mediterranean swell below.
Baie de Somme: harbour seals & wader roostsSeal pups bawling and adults grunting from the sandbanks at 300 m, oystercatcher and curlew roosts, and spoonbills clattering in the Marquenterre heronry.
Fin whales & sperm whales off the Côte d'AzurWith a hydrophone: sperm whale clicks and codas, striped dolphin whistles and the shipping lane behind. Fin whale 20 Hz pulses need a hydrophone with real LF extension.
Mercantour summer: marmots, ibex and wolf countryMarmot alarm whistles across high cirques, ibex hooves on rock, alpine choughs and lammergeier wingbeats; wolf howls are possible but rare and never guaranteed.
Vulture cliffs of the Jonte, Verdon and OssauWing-rush of griffons passing a few metres over the rim, hissing and grunting from the colony ledges, chough flocks and the river below; more a sight than a sound.
Also going on in July
Brenne, land of a thousand pondsWhiskered tern colonies chattering over the water-lily beds, purple herons, little bittern barks, black-necked grebe trills, and at night a tree frog chorus from every pond.
Marsh frog & tree frog chorusesWall-to-wall marsh frog laughter from the Camargue ditches, ratcheting tree frogs from Brenne ponds, and natterjacks rolling across the Landes dune slacks.
Provençal nights: nightingale, scops owl & stone-curlewNightingales in every tamarisk, scops owls' 'tiu' on a 2–3 s metronome, stone-curlew wails from the Crau, nightjars churring on the garrigue, tree frogs from the marsh.
Flamingo colonies of the CamargueGoose-like honking from thousands of birds, the massed 'marching' displays, and flights of hundreds passing low over the étangs at dusk.
Midwife toad piping in the villagesPure, bell-like single notes at about 1.2 kHz from dozens of males in dry-stone walls and rubble, like an out-of-tune carillon across a whole valley.
Iroise: grey seals of Molène and Sein dolphinsSeal moans and pup calls from the reef islets, a resident bottlenose pod around Sein and Molène, and the Iroise swell — France's most oceanic soundscape.
Lac de Grand-Lieu: the great heronry and the spoonbill colonyHeron and egret traffic croaking and barking overhead at dawn and dusk, black terns and whiskered terns squabbling over the water lilies, Savi's warbler reeling and a booming bittern from the reedbeds at Pierre-Aiguë, cuckoos and water rails — the colony itself is heard only as a distant, constant squabble across the water.
Pyrenean passes: raptor, stork, pigeon & crane migrationMostly visual, but woodpigeon flocks pass with a rush of wings, cranes bugle over the pass, and pre-dawn passerine flight calls stream through — with gunfire from the neighbouring hunting passes.