La Crau steppe: little bustard, sandgrouse & stone-curlew
Little bustard (Tetrax tetrax), pin-tailed sandgrouse (Pterocles alchata), stone-curlew, calandra lark, lesser kestrel. Plaine de la Crau, Bouches-du-Rhône, France.
Best time: 20 Apr – 31 May (April to May). Where: Sentier de Peau de Meau (Réserve des Coussouls de Crau), Écomusée de la Crau, Saint-Martin-de-Crau (France). Time of day: Little bustard displays and lark song from first light to about 2 h after sunrise (before Istres flying starts).
- Partly on your own
- Low cost
- Telescope recommended
- Sound 4/5
Open it in the interactive calendarSunrise and sunset listening times for the day you pick, and the map.
When is the best time?
Peak: 20 Apr – 31 May. Late April to May (little bustard display)
Active from 1 Apr to 30 Jun (April to June) in a typical year.
Time of day
Little bustard displays and lark song from first light to about 2 h after sunrise (before Istres flying starts); sandgrouse fly to drink mid morning; stone-curlews and a second bustard bout in the hour before sunset. Trail access is daytime, by permit.
- Dawn display: 30 min before sunrise → 2 h after sunrise
- Evening display: 1 h before sunset → sunset
What will you hear?
Little bustards' dry 'prrrt' with a foot-stamp and wing-whirr jump, sandgrouse 'catar-catar' flights to drinking pools, calandra larks in continuous song-flight, stone-curlews at dusk.
Binoculars?
Telescope recommended. Bustards and sandgrouse are 200–500 m out on the open coussoul; a scope from the sheepfold observatory, binoculars minimum.
Where to go
- Sentier de Peau de Meau (Réserve des Coussouls de Crau) — 4.7 km trail with an observatory in the old sheepfold; permit required from the Écomusée de la Crau in Saint-Martin-de-Crau. Map
- Écomusée de la Crau, Saint-Martin-de-Crau — Permit desk and information; reserve maps. Map
How to go on your own, and what it costs
The only public access to the reserve is the Sentier de Peau de Meau: buy the permit (valid two days) at the Écomusée de la Crau shop in Saint-Martin-de-Crau, then drive the D24/D5 to the trail car park and walk the 4.7 km loop to the sheepfold observatory in daylight, no dogs. Night access is not allowed.
Cost: Peau de Meau permit from the Écomusée: €3 adult, €1.50 child (2026); Écomusée itself €5 adult / €3.50 reduced.
Free or no-guide alternative: The public roads across the Crau are free at any hour: pull in on the D568 or D24 verges east of Saint-Martin-de-Crau at dawn for calandra larks, little bustards and, at dusk, stone-curlews — from the roadside only.
Field-recording notes
The steppe is fenced grazing land and a national nature reserve: the only public access is the Peau de Meau trail, by permit, daytime. The Istres military airbase and the Fos industrial zone put jets and low-frequency hum into the background — mornings before flying starts are best. France's only sandgrouse; keep to the trail and no playback.
Sources
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More: all spectacles in France · leks · France in April · France in May