This picture, which is an important crop, is rather here to show the typical habitat of the Eurasian Stone-curlew in the Basse vallée du Doubs rather than to show the bird itself. Here is a description of the place which, I hope, will help to understand why a few pairs are breeding over here every year. This is a gravel bed of about 400 meters long and 70 meters wide and forming an island in the middle of the mainstream of the river. Both river streams surrounding the island are rather wide and with fast running water making it very difficult to cross by any eventual terrestrial predator. About 50% of the surface is covered by low growing vegetation providing a good camouflage. The island is large enough to find food then there is no need to move outside the place. Other bird species like the Little Ringed Plover and the Common Tern are nesting on this gravel bed island too.

Sitting on the nest? It is easy to understand how fragile this habitat is and the very small populations could disappear if they were too much disturbed. So the access to the gravel beds, then to this island, is strictly forbidden from April to late July. I will not try to get closer in order to shoot a nice picture of the large yellow Eurasian Stone-curlew's eye and I recommend all of you to do the same. If one day you can see this beautiful eye on one of my pictures, this will mean that the Eurasian Stone-curlew has come to me and not the opposite (or maybe I have started digiscoping ...).

I went out that evening to record the songs and calls of the owls which live in the old farm of my childhood. I started with the Little Owl as the sun was not yet down then I continued with a beautiful concert of the Western Barn Owl in the dark night. I was on the doorstep to go to bed, a little after midnight, when the Eurasian Stone-curlew began its vocalizations. I know that it nests at less than 2 km from there, on the banks of the Doubs river, but I did not know that it ventured at night in the cultivated fields.