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Most of the delegates attending the Seventh Meeting of ACAP's Advisory Committee in La Rochelle, France this week took a day off for field outings on the Thursday.

Boarding a bus we travelled west to Île de Ré where we visited the Lilleau des Niges Nature Reserve to view resident and migratory birds, which included gulls, terns, ducks and stilts, among others.  The Lilleau des Niges Nature Reserve was created in 1980 on what were once salt plans, and comprises salt marshes, lagoons and mudflats.

AC7 Delegates Jorge Azocar, Martine Bigane and Thiago Medeiros da Cunha Cavalcan observe birds at the Lilleau des Niges Nature Reserve

A separate excursion took more conference delegates to Saint-Martin-de-Ré, a commune in the Charente-Maritime Departement within Île de Ré, where Louis XIV’s great engineer, Vauban built in 1681 a vast urban surrounding wall of huge dimensions and semicircle shape having a radius of 1.5 km and capable of protecting all of the population in the event of an attack. The fortifications of Saint-Martin-de-Ré have been included on the World Heritage List since 2008.

The fortifications of Saint-Martin-de-Ré

No ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels were seen on the outings but delegates returned, hopefully refreshed, for the final day of the committee meeting and the adoption of its report.

With thanks to the meeting's French hosts for arranging two enjoyable outings and the Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux (LPO).

Juan Pablo Seco Pon, ACAP South American News Correspondent, 11 May 2013