22.1 Lake Annecy is an attractive environment for birds, providing protection, food, a place in and around the Roselier reed beds to nest and lay eggs, and in particular a refuge over the winter months for birds migrating from colder northern climes.

22.2 There is a French website with a treasure trove of information on all birds of the lake (indeed all birds of Haute Savoie), including an annual census of birds by species and a large catalogue of photographs taken by local photographers.

http://haute-savoie.lpo.fr/

(click on “Consulter les observations” and then click on “les galleries” at the bottom of the list.) All the pictures of birds on this site are taken with gratitude from the work of one particular photographer Georges Roca Filella.

22.3 According to the census mentioned above, there are eight birds wintering at the lake with average numbers in excess of a hundred, which in descending order of frequency are Coot, Grebe, Gull, Mallard, Tufted duck, Pochard, and Cormoran. There are a further five with far less numbers but at least in double figures; Merganser, Swan, Yellow legged gull, Heron, Wagtail.

22.4 For precision each bird mentioned below is given three names, English, French and then the binomial name after Carl Linnaeus. So just for the common birds of lake Annecy you have thirty-nine names to play with. Just this small example gives an insight into the profound brilliance of Linnaeus’s idea to give all living things just one universally accepted name – at last enabling people of all nations to communicate precisely about what they were discovering and investigating.

22.5 Such has been the explosion of discovery of variety in the natural world since Linnaeus’s time that higher orders of classification have been heaped upon Linnaeus’ original two-name description. All birds for instance are now classified into a number of Orders, within which they are grouped in families at various levels and all this in different ways according to different specialists and recent discoveries, and only then do you get at the end of the line to Linnaeus’s binominal name the first of when decribes the genus and the second, finally, the species. So for instance, the mallard is located within the super order Neognathae, sub order Galloanserae, sub sub order Odontoanserae, sub sub sub order Anseriformes, (along with geese and swans) Family Anatidae, Genus Anas Species Platyrhnchos – as the results from genome sequencing come in these classification are being fine tuned ever more accurately. The mallard for instance was sequenced in 2013.

22.6 The thirteen birds mentioned above fall into three groups according to their dining habits: fish-eating divers, shallow water herbivores, and opportunistic omnivores.

22.7 The three diving birds are particularly spectacular in view of their elegant design and olympic swimming abilities; the Great Crested Grebe (Grèbe huppé, podiceps cristatus), the Great Coromorant, (Grand Cormoran, Phalacrocorax carbo) and the common merganser (harles bièvre, mergus merganser). Grebes in particular dive through the water almost as swiftly as they fly through the air, often staying under in excess of a minute, and are expert in catching little fish, with which they proudly return to the surface and their offspring. [insert video]

22.8 Then there are four herbivores who find their food by dabbling in shallow waters for plants and molluscs; the mute swan (Cynge tubercule, Cygnus olor), the common pochard (fuligule milouin Aythya ferina), the tufted duck (fuligule morillon, Aythya fuligula) and the red crested pochard (nette rousses Netta rufina).

22.9 The remaining six birds are opportunistic omnivores; the mallard (canard colvert, Anas platyrhynchos), black headed gull (mouette rieuse, Chroicocephalus ridibundus), eurasian coot (foulque macroule, Fulica atra), grey heron (héron cendré, Ardea cinerea)  white wagtail (bergeronnette grise, Motacilla alba) and yellow legged gull (goéland leucophée, Larus michahellis).

22.10 This group generally feed opportunistically on gastropods, crustacean, invertebrates, beetles, dragonflies, worms, seeds, root, tubers and, according to their size, anything they can lay their beaks on. What they should not feed on is bread and similar products such as crackers, chips, crisps, doughnuts, cereal and popcorn. These are great sources of carbohydrates but offer little nutritional value for ducks, geese, swans and other birds. Bread is junk food for birds. Just as humans suffer from a diet of nothing but candy, too much bread can lead ducks to excessive weight and malnutrition and many other health problems. Many birders were first introduced to the joys of wildlife by feeding ducks bread at a local park or pond, and may have grown up thinking this was an environmentally responsible and humane way to dispose of old or stale bread, but feeding this way is actually unhealthy and potentially dangerous for the birds.

22.11 The Eurasian coot is the most populous bird in the lake, at an annual average of more than 500 birds it is more than twice the number of the next bird the Grebe and four times more than any other. It is largely black except for the white frontal shield (which gave rise to the phrase "as bald as a coot", in use as early as 1430). As a swimming species, the coot has partial webbing on its great big feet and in the water it may upend in the fashion of a mallard or dive in search of food. It is a noisy bird with a wide repertoire of crackling, explosive, or trumpeting calls, often given at night and is easily the most bad tempered bird on the lake often attempting to bite the tail of the nearest bird in the vicinity. For all its noise and aggression it is reluctant to fly and when taking off runs across the water surface with much splashing, most often travelling a short distance at speed in territorial disputes.

22.12 Aggression and bad temper seems built into the entire life cycle of this species from birth. Coots lay up to 10 eggs, sometimes 2 or 3 times per season. But usually only a few young survive. They are frequent prey for birds such as herons and gulls. But most chicks die due to starvation within 10 days of hatching when they are most dependent on adults for food. Coots can be very brutal to their own young under pressure from lack of food. They will bite young that are begging for food and repeatedly do this until it stops begging and starves to death. If the begging continues, they may bite so hard that the chick is killed.

22.13 The next most populous bird in this group is the Mallard, one of many bird species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in Systema Natura and still bearing his original name binomial name. The English name ‘mallard’ is derived from Old French word for a wild drake ‘Mallart’, while the French word ‘canard’ is derived from an ancient verb ‘caqueter’ meaning to quack like a bird (according to Alain Rey Dictionnaire Historique de la langue française) and seems to have been used just as often as a pejorative description for excessively talkative people as for the bird itself.

22.14 The mallards breeding cycle is a delight to behold for local residents. These ducks are monogamous for the breeding season which begins in October and it is a common site in spring to see a duck escorted attentively at a distance by her drake, who keeps a watchful eye out while the hen forages almost permanently. The laying period is very stressful for the hen. She needs lots of rest and depends heavily on her mate to protect her and their feeding and nesting areas. She will produce about half her full bodyweight in a dozen eggs laid in a clutch at one to two day intervals anytime between mid-March and end July. The female builds a nest from leaves and grasses and lines it with down plucked from her own breast, and she always makes the choice for the breeding area because she is homing to the site of her birth or a site where she successfully hatched a nest.

22.15 There are two types of gull who are often seeing congregating in evening roosts around the lake side – “black headed” and “, and “yellow legged”. It breeds in colonies in large reed beds or marshes, nesting on the ground. The black-headed gull is a noisy species, especially in colonies, with a familiar "kree-ar" call. Its scientific name means laughing gull. This species takes two years to reach maturity and like most gulls, black-headed gulls are long-lived birds, with a maximum age of at least 32.9 years recorded in the wild.

22.16 As noted above, the grey heron has been observed catching and killing juvenile birds such as ducklings, and occasionally takes birds up to the size of a water rail. It may stand motionless in the shallows, or on a rock or sandbank beside the water, waiting for prey to come within striking distance. Alternatively, it moves slowly and stealthily through the water with its body less upright than when at rest and its neck curved in an "S". It is able to straighten its neck and strike with its bill very fast. Small fish are swallowed head first, and larger prey and eels are carried to the shore where they are subdued by being beaten on the ground or stabbed by the bill. They are then swallowed, or have hunks of flesh torn off. For avian prey such as small birds and ducklings, the prey is held by the neck and either suffocated or killed by having its neck snapped with the heron's beak, before being swallowed whole. The main periods of hunting are around dawn and dusk, but it is also active at other times of day.

22.17 The most conspicuous habit of the white wagtail is a near-constant tail wagging, a trait that has given the species, and indeed the genus, its common name. In spite of the ubiquity of this behaviour, the reasons for it are poorly understood. It has been suggested that it may flush prey, or signal submissiveness to other wagtails. A recent study has suggested instead that it is a signal of vigilance to potential predators. Wagtails mainly feed on terrestrial and aquatic insects and other small invertebrates – and are often seen in the evening making fly catching sorties from boats moored by the lake side.

Continue Reading   Chapter Twenty-Three