There is a splendid walk to the West of Camaret along the cliff top crags of Pte. du Toulinguet where the Southern end of the Chanal du Four is seen some seven miles away. Here sheltered from the prevailing winds, asphodels are flourishing and presumably relaxing having dropped out of the human food chain. The root was at one time eaten as a food but, since it contains the alkaloid as
On the North West corner of Belle Ille, the precipitous slot of Ster Ven provides a nail biting anchorage with essential stern shore lines and all the fun of the fair as the French fleet play
phodeline, this was really very inadvisable, however, if in desperate straits it is possible to ferment the roots to make alcohol or as a last resort use as a skin conditioner for lightening freckles – or leave the plant to the insects. The best time to see these plants is during May when they first start flowering.
Asphodeles above Camaretu
pThe acrobatic red billed chough
Avocets and young close up u
Much farther South from Belle Ille, it is worth visiting Ile de Nourmoutier which was a vital producer of salt until the creation of canals and railways in the 19th C which made the transportation of mined salt economically viable. The salt beds which now lay dormant are now a haven for wading birds like black wing stilts and Avocets. For those who are members of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds ( RSPB ) there can be few birds as evocative as the Avocet. The bird chosen as its emblem and one which is usually only seen, if at all, at some great distance wading on shallow estuaries. A graceful creature with the most distinctive black elipse marked upon its white body and a long upwardly curved bill. Here up close is a mother Avocet with its young apparently having already learnt that there is an endless supply of food along the water line. £
“Swooping low over the cliffs”
dodgems with each other on busy days. Swooping low over the cliffs, usually in pairs Choughs make a truly impressive sight with extremely acrobatic and tumbling flight like the F16
fighters playing at war games over Ludgershall USAF base. The chough is a member of the crow family with a bright red beak and legs and an excitable, high-pitched 'chi-ow' call which usually first attract attention, it is from this that it gets its name. A magnificent bird with squared off wing tips each perfectly finished with five elegant outspread black fingers. The chough was once widespread around the coasts of Britain but has declined since the early nineteenth century, with only about 300 pairs left A decline in suitable feeding habitat is thought to be the main reason for the loss of the chough from England, with many of the well-grazed pastures that were once common along the coast ploughed up for arable crops.
