Y icirc, Rouzic, boobies come to spoil your little

From Clarisse LUCAS | AFP -

On the horizon, the island seems Rouzic, white blanket of snow. But when the boat comes to a close, in fact, many "snow" of birds, gannets, every year away in the UK north of the site back to the nest.

In Rouzic remote archipelago of seven islands, Perros-Guirec, on the island in the summer, "all boobies nest in France," says Sylvie Guillaume, head of the League for the Protection of Birds Animation (LPO), the Association of Director of National Nature Reserve.

Glider exceptionally, it is said, inspired by the lines of the Concorde, the elegant crazy Bassan, white body, yellow head and limbs, black wings, wingspan of 1.80 meters, the largest seabird in Europe. However, "for the mating season, had the land and maritime component left in the ground," Mrs. William recalls. "After six months at sea, and only six months out of the colonies."

This small island is closed to the people ", 19,443 pairs of" count this year. Everywhere, just yell, gliding flights and spectacular dives.

- "Everyone has their own nest at home," -

Despite appearances, the "colony" is actually a very disciplined. Although invaluable distances traveled for six months, including the sea, gannets, who lives in a fifteen-year-old to win the place of one-on-one and the same. Each year, we have found that none of the birds with the same partner and a great place to walk with the neighbors ", notes that it appears on the island for a few tens of meters in height: 60 cm between each nest !

"Everyone has their own nest at home," says Sylvie Guillaume, the decoded trade within the colony "Parade", in which the bird says. "Here are my top does not fit" "Understanding" the Union speech before mating; "From the parade, beak pointing towards the mountains", the neighbors of their intentions ...

Only one girl for couples "in the first three months of this year, it is ultra-pampered a." But three months later, the good life goodbye! A little boy out of the nest. Bought the size of their parents, but it is very hard and can not fly. "He has to learn everything just fly fishing ... in the first year of life is terrible. One of them did not survive"

Learning is done, the young leaves of the Mauritanian coast and further south. While Europe and the colonies where land shortly before maturity, then build her nest, despite the fact that your life partner for about five or six years.

Archipelago - 40 acres in the flood, but at low tide 280 Spring Tide - live cormorants, oyster catchers, fulmars, herring gull, sea, or brown, terns and shearwaters. It turns on the forty gray seals, here the whole year, and let you be yourself.

- Puffin- Safaris victims -

But a monk Puffin, it is a strange black bird with a white belly and red nose, planted by the size of a pigeon, Sept-Iles, to protect them. "In the late nineteenth century, there were 15,000 pairs., But in 1912 left more than 400 monks were among hunters hunting puffins popular deflected in the capital," explains Sylvie Guillaume, who are skeptical.

Before slaughter, was founded in 1912, LPO, the first victory for the whaling ban. In 1976, Sept-Iles, a national nature reserve. This season, 212 pairs of puffins monks are listed. This is the end of the colony of France.