After several years in decline, the number of swallows remains generally stable in the Drôme, according to the latest count made by the Drôme-Ardèche Bird Protection League. “In the Vercors, the number of nests is stable. In Die, it’s a good surprise because we have twice as many nests as last year. On the other hand, in the plain of Valence, it’s halved. This means that the number of swallows remains globally stable”explains Louis Granier, the president of the LPO Drôme Ardèche.
This observation is to be taken with hindsight because the people who counted in the Die sector were more numerous than usual. But these disparities are quite easy to explain according to Louis Granier: “This is explained in particular by intensive agriculture and the disappearance of flying insects. Swallows feed exclusively on flying insects”.
This exceptional summer was marked by heat waves which made the swifts suffer. “These birds make their nest under the roofs and with the strong heat, the young tried to leave their nest and we recovered a lot on the groundsays the president of the LPO Drôme Ardèche. It was around ten a day, it’s huge!”
The other notable fact is the precocity of the stork migration. “It’s not exceptional to see some from the end of July-beginning of August, explains Louis Granier. But there, it is the number of individuals that is very high. On July 22, 1,000 storks were counted in the Rhone Valley. And we are already at more than 4,000 individuals. They leave because they can’t find enough food.”