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The lake is blue. The wind makes it curl up and even make small white sheep appear. The lake is pink from the sunset, the lake is grey from the storm that surrounds it. The lake is gone. The lake is now a large mudflat, which suddenly disappears behind the flight of thousands of birds. A vast rumor rises from it, noises of the wings of ducks, screams of cranes and croak of geese.
So many things to grasp for a cartoonist, or to contemplate... To share again, in this second book.
Like cranes, they have large legs, a big neck, a long beak. They are grey, white, black, purple, ochre... Herons, egrets, butors, storks are the other large waders that coexist with cranes, or cross them between two seasons.
Like cranes, let themselves be carried by an ascending wind, and look at the lake of Der from above, until you see the lake of Orient and leave for Spain.
Like cranes, screaming and dancing at the dawn of spring.
Like a crane or an egret, plump up and double in volume! Stand to impress, the red on the forehead to make beautiful.
Paint the beautiful or at least try to make it, on white sheets.
Here they are.


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After the fall emptying, the water rises quickly. In February, the water already touches the dikes and gives the lake its summer look. The cranes are tracing in the sky ( top left!), they go up towards the north, a little earlier each year. Their well-formed V-shaped flight is the sign that they will not even stop at the lake.

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The weather is mild and humid. The southwest wind carries the flights of cranes that simply let themselves push in spinning, to gain a little height without fatigue. Their flight is quite slow but added to the wind speed, they can travel at more than 90 km/h. And as the crow flies, distances are much shorter than for us!

 

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The rains overflowed the Voire. The large flood meadows then play their role as a buffer and limit the flow downstream. Cranes stop there willingly, even far from the lake.

 

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Cranes like wet grasslands. No doubt earthworms are more accessible there. They bathe and sometimes even sleep there.

 

 

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Grey on grey. Cranes /Grues on grey. As soon as they can, the cranes spin. Their beautiful 2-metre wingspan carries them. The group turns in a block unlike the storks, which also spin, but in disorder.

 

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An evening light on one of the last flights of the year above the church of Champaubert. This is the only remnant of the village of Champaubert, drowned in 1974 during the water supply.

The image is fleeting and the time to build the drawing, the light has completely changed...the reflections too ... When putting in watercolor, you must then choose from what we saw, and adapt the colors without following what we have before our eyes.

 

 

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Evening reflections from the "road on the dike". Water still gaining ground. March is a season that can be rather empty on the lake. Many wintering birds have left, and the migrants have not arrived yet.

A brocard swims across a handle. Had he become accustomed to crossing at "low tide," or is he exploring a new area? Deer are known to swim over great distances and thus colonize islands.

 

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The swans, in pairs, are already defending their territory while the reed beds are not yet completely flooded and that the laying will not take place before two months.

Grey herons are among the first birds to nest, as early as late winter. In a reed bed like here at the pond of La Horre, in a willow or high perched in a tree, they build large nests often grouped in colony. Each reed offered by the male is greeted with a gentle growl.



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April. A first purple heron is camped in its nest, in its mosaic of colours. It patiently holds its place and waits for a female. The reunion is sealed with reed offerings, which the male goes to fetch and the female makes available for the nest. This is the classic interpretation because both male and female have the same plumage...
After a pencil sketch with the scope from the dike, white pencil to reserve the fine feathers of the back before the color. Subtle colors, where I discover that the red on the back of the neck is not the same as the front, where you have to understand which part of the bird is grey or purple to interpret correctly the attitude, changing, of course.



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Night heron. The night heron is endearing. Hunchback, thick neck, hidden in the foliage, he waits for the evening to go fishing, frogs especially. His big eye betrays his nocturnal habits and puts a touch of red color to his grey and black suit, subtly decorated with 2 or 3 white aigrettes.

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Every spring, a couple of swans build their nest for the "road on the dike" and each year, the riding wels catfish eats at least half of its young. In sketch, the male gives a strong beak knock to the approaching wels catfish.

 

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These noises that come out of the willows surprise the walker on the dike. They are the garzettes- little egret, snowy in their bridal robe. The males try to attract a female and inflate the neck to launch this strange croaking, as emitted in the water. Their feet usually yellow, are pink by excitement.

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This strange beak gives its name to the spoonbill. By cutting off water laterally, it filters out the micro-crustaceans and small prey it feeds on. It likes the shallow waters, rare in spring at the lake, but seems to want to nest.

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Much more efficient than the spoonbill in its adaptation, the cattle egret now accompanies every herd of cows. It continues its colonization of France and nests by the dozens on the lake.
Cohabitation: A little egret too close to a purple heron nest is chased under the eye of a night heron and an angry cattle egret.

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White willows and common willows colonize the reed bed and the banks. Their green-to-grey hue is a challenge for the painter. You can darken its green by an opposite color, red or pink .
The view above is painted from the "road on north dike", where graze horses Konik Polski for maintenance of the environment. In May, the water irises make a yellow fleeting carpet.

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It is the most discreet of the herons nesting on the lake. The little bittern, about the size of a pigeon, loves reeds and flies little. And it takes a careful ear to detect his song: a muffled bark repeated every 3-4 seconds.
The reeds of the lake that grow at the same time as the water rises, measure more than 4 meters, half of which is under water. Densely crowded, they provide shelter to all the exceptional fauna, fish, insects, birds and many others.

 

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Great Egrets nest. Although it is very common in winter and present well in summer, the Great Egret does not nest, or practically not. Does it need special ecological conditions that it doesn’t find here?

This year 2020, a couple has settled in the Carpière and is raising two young, giving observers the opportunity to admire the huge breeding feathers and the blue-green (teal) hue of the lorum (area between the beak and eye).

 

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The young purple heron is not as colourful as its parents but its red feathers become beautiful when it grows up. Younger, like all herons, it shows its reptilian origins and looks like a young pterodactyl.

Feeding in heron's family is quite violent, especially with teenagers! The adult returns from fishing the full jabot. He stands upright and dominates the young. As soon as he lowers his beak, the fastest young man grabs him and pulls him down. The contents of the throat then pass into that of the young.

 

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Coming from the south, the Squacco Heron is still rare on the lake, but it has nested a few times and could become more common. Small and beige, its beak takes remarkable hues in bridal garb. The abundant feathers of its neck give it its name of hairy heron in french.

 

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Calm of a summer evening from the dike.

 

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The nest of great egret grows. It is the first one I observe, the species reproducing traditionally only in Eastern Europe, and extending its distribution towards the west.

Once the young ones have flown away, it is still possible to spot the family for a while because they are still fed by the parents.

 

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In front of the game enclosure (empty for a long time) the view leads to the Mare. And just to its right, the Carpière. Places familiar to people who walk on the dike but whose name is less. For naturalists, these names are useful to situate an observation.

 

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The small white heron that now accompanies the herds is the cattle egret. It feeds on insects disturbed by the foot of cattle, or flies always present.

 

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In the shade of willows, young night herons with gnomes heads are waiting for the return of their parents. They are already flying and their huge fingers help them to climb through the foliage. Their speckled plumage will still betray their youth when they return the following spring to the colony.

 

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The flying Squacco Heron, with its white wings, looks like a cattle egret.

At the end of July or beginning of August, the lake has descended one metre, and the algae that cling to the hairy willows give a jungle feel to the willow trees.

 

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Red or yellow dragonflies, the sympetrum, emerge in the middle of summer, often in abundance. They make a little cloud when the young purple heron disturbs them.

Left: sketch of young purple herons just before the departure of the colony. There is only to put the color: to your brushes!

 

 

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In the cove of Sainte Livière, small fishes trapped by the falling water attract black storks. Only one, a young with a brown beak, passed this morning, but 4 glossy ibis are present ! The species is still very rare in Champagne but its Mediterranean numbers are increasing strongly. It may nest on the lake in the years to come. They are accompanied by snipes and lapwings.

 

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Between 10 and 30 black storks frequent the lake from August to October, in the inlets of the east and north, not accessible to the public. The lakes Amance and Orient, more wooded or quieter, attract double.

Sometimes, as this afternoon of September, a small band fishes in sight the gateway of the southern basin.

View of the road on dike.

 

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The white stork has long been nesting in Éclaron to the northeast of the lake but still very little elsewhere, and it is rarely seen on the lake. Here, between great egrets and gulls, she explores the puddles created by the autumn emptying.

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The lapwings, the coots, the ducks and the swans make different and moving layers of colours, barely visible in the landscape, yet very animated when one points the telescope.
Below, the cove west of Noncérupt. Here is a line of swans from the "road on the dike".

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In the pockets of water where the fish are concentrated, great egrets flow. A small group of spoonbills joined them.
In watercolor, we use no white, or very little... and for a gray background a bit uniform, you must pass a single juice. So here, I put liquid masking gum on the necks and heads, but I brushed around the bodies. Some spots due to the imperfect application of the gum were removed with computer.

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It’s no autumn without at least a new painting of egret! The white bird marries with all backgrounds, its curves and silhouette make it a prime subject that I still do not get tired of.

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In September, the mudflats are invaded by hundreds of ducks and waders mixed with seagulls, terns or herons. Here a curlew and cattle egrets among the teals.
The grey heron which usually dominates its neighbors is not very big next to the swan.
Great egret in evening light, yellow and blue.

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Since Chantecoq, in September. Between 50 and 100 cranes have taken up residence on the lake; it will be necessary to wait until the end of the month to reach the thousand, and mid-October for the big arrivals. Uncoupling. The beautiful formation of cranes that return to the lake is suddenly broken by birds more eager to land, who then look at the wing and zigzag impressively to recover a little lower.

 

 

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Trio of egrets against trio of grey herons. After fishing, the birds spend long hours in peace on the banks of mud.

 

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In front of Chantecoq, the islet grows every day until it closes the basin that is called the Emprunt de Chantecoq. The earth was extracted to build the dam.

 

 

 

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Grande rue in Outines: partial view of this magnificent line of traditional houses.

October: typical cries above the village announce the first real wave of cranes.

(Drawing done in May and adapted on computer)

 

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Grey herons and great egrets frequent the meadows at times. If they are relatively tight and move often, they are looking for the earthworms. If they are distant and on the lookout, they are watching for voles. Here a water vole has been harpooned by a grey heron, which will have to escape the buzzard if it wants to eat it in peace.
The wild boars walk on the mudflats in autumn, rather at night than during the day. They are often large young to be as not discreet.  The cranes are only twenty metres away.

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At the little poplars road - most of which have disappeared- between weather station and Chantecoq, we open on Pointe des Loges, long mudflats in autumn that stretches north. The island of Chantecoq in the distance bars the horizon. Birds are numerous.

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The return of cranes to the lake is much more staggered than the departure of the dawn. From mid-afternoon to nightfall, the groups return from their feeding place. Misinformed tourists often wait too late. The time of return depends on the food of the day, the distance to the lake and the disturbances.
The island of Chantecoq at the moment, fleeting in the scale of the painter, where the shade of the trees of the dike darken the ochre of the mudflat. The watercolor is finished only the whole foreground is drowned in the blue shadow. End without looking, or being influenced by what we see.

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The beautiful ones are finally here! If the majority of them are far away, there are always a few groups close enough to have pleasant images, at least for the telescope.

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Cranes look for open spaces and shallow waters to spend the night. Do they fear the wolf or the lynx, absent here but present elsewhere? Arrived at dusk on the mudflats, they move until they have water halfway, groom themselves, and fall asleep grouped. The night is not so quiet. From the large groups raise a rumor all night that can be heard 2 km outside the dikes.

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Great white laundry! Concentrated on the channel of a pond in emptying, seagulls and egrets make ripaille. Tiny catches for one, average for the other, big carp and pike, coveted by fishermen, do not fear much of this air threat.
Far from the effervescence of the seagulls, just the whistle ricochet of the common sandpiper and the trill of a distant curlew.


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How do cranes communicate with each other? Are they mixed between Polish, Scandinavian and German? The departure of migrants often takes place between 10 am and noon. But the exits from the lake to feed are done much earlier, at dawn. Those who will migrate do not leave, and wait for the hour, according to what consultation?
The spectacle of departures is moving, from the dikes south of the lake on a beautiful day in October or November. In turn, the groups of 50, 100 or 200 birds follow each other for a few hours.

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The cyclist who passes on the dike is often well accepted by nearby birds, but this time, ducks and great egrets at the foot of the pebbles take off with a roar!
White stripes of the egrets against black bands of the foulques, between willow and oak, towards Noncérupt. No reserve of the blanks in the watercolor this time, but covering white added on top.

 

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The countryside around the lake has not many hedges, still some meadows and woods. Cranes animate this landscape throughout the autumn and winter season.

 

 

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Cranes are graceful. If they dance sometimes, as a parade, a simple landing against the wind shows their elegance. Chase and parade jumps do not please the pickled ducks who move away sharply.

 

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From the dike between the weather station and Giffaumont, we see an islet with the pretty name of Pont Hurlin, a real bridge on the road between Giffaumont and Arrigny, more than 50 years ago...

Cranes in the mist. This one highlights hundreds of cobwebs, between the cut corn cobs.

 

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In the middle of winter, flights return late, birds making the most of short days. The large V-shaped groups are more than a kilometre long, representing the sky as they travel towards the lake.

In the V-flight, it is obvious that the leading bird provides more effort, and guides the group. The relay is certainly during a long flight, but we never see it, perhaps because the birds take advantage of a moment when they are spinning to exchange their place?

 

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All the villages within a radius of 10 km around the lake are flown at each dawn by crane squads, more or less numerous depending on the population parked.

Nice show that morning in Droyes, south of the lake.

 

If one looks closely at a group of 3 or 4 cranes, it is often possible to distinguish 2 adults and 1 or 2 young with brownish head. That’s the classic family structure. Sometimes you even see a parent feeding their big offspring.

The usual cry of cranes, on two tones, is in fact the cry of the male to which the female responds in the second. It is hardly distinguishable from the male, with its slightly smaller size and more discreet red spot.

 

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Cranes vary their menu, according to criteria that we do not understand, but here they like to alternate corn, earthworms and acorns. In good years, they are periodically massed under the oaks of pastures or margins.

Although they do not fear the fox (they hunt it if it is near the nest), the group of cranes moves away in its passage, while the roe deer are close to them.

 

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To finish the review of herons, the great cousin of blongios, the most discreet and strange of the family: the great bittern. It does not often leave the reedbed shelter, when a too low water level or ice constrain it there. He then walks hunched, advancing his immense fingers step by step.

On a misty December day, he was hunting in the open just outside the house of the reserve!

 

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Der winter, that the snow too rarely whitens, superb Siberian austerity. The watercolor froze a little when it was applied (the leaf getting cold faster than water), giving a grainy appearance that I blurred after the fact.

 

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Just as rare as snowy, the frozen Der, where birds crowd on the few areas of open water. Cranes can withstand the cold, but the hard soil makes it difficult to forage. It would take a long time before they would actually suffer. It is for this reason that the majority of the population of western Europe winters in Spain.

Below -5°, cranes tend to tuck their legs into the feathers of their belly. This gives them the appearance of large geese or great bustard and does not seem to influence the maneuverability of their flight.

 

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The Port of Nuisement is entering a new year. The water is rising but not a boat will be moored for a few months. A little egret enjoys the winter calm and me the sun...

 

Watercolours and drawings by Jean Chevallier at the lake of Der in Champagne, to make you discover or just witness the beauty of the lake and its birds. In this second book, between two landscapes, the emphasis is on cranes and large wading birds, storks, herons, egrets and other long-legged birds.

 

 

Jean Chevallier, professional illustrator, has never been able to get rid of this passion for nature that has animated him since his childhood. The lake of Der, its landscapes and fauna fill his notebooks that when they overflow turn into a book, here for you.