Redstart

This was taken somewhat on the fly, behind the Ecomusée in St. Martin de Crau. It's a Common Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus), usually simply called Redstart. Edit: It's more likely a Black Redstart (see gladders's comment below--and my ornithologist friend concurred by email).

Redstart means "red tail", as with the American Redstart as well.

This morning we drove for the first time this tripfrom our gite in St. Martin de Crau, into the Camargue--a huge marshy area south of Arles, most of which is a Regional Nature Park covering over 300 square miles. On the circuit that we usually took from the gite where we'd stayed previously, we found the environment dryer than ever and fewer birds than ever before. At a local nature refuge, they said they're into the second year of a drought, with zero rain since November. We had increasingly realized the seriousness of the situation, but that really drove it home. We'll press on for the rest of our stay, but it's a bit daunting.

My website has a page of images with captions from our Camargue stay in 2005, exactly seven years ago.