La Cité des Oiseaux, des étangs attractifs dans le bocage vendéen

The French department of Vendée is particularly known for its bocage. Despite the « optimization » initiated in the 1960s and the development of urbanization, this agricultural landscape, made up of plots bordered by hedges or groves, dotted with castles and religious monuments and marked by the civil war which opposed the Republicans and the Royalists during the French Revolution, still dominates the interior of the department, and in particular the hilly part bordered by the department of Maine-et-Loire.This granitic country, called the Haut Bocage, is dominated by the Mont des Alouettes (232 meters), the Puy Crapaud (269 meters) and the village of Saint-Michel-Mont-Mercure (290 meters). It attracts many visitors every year thanks to the famous Puy du Fou park. Not far from there, the Cité des Oiseaux, a departmental reserve of 56 hectares protecting three ponds and located in the commune of Landes-Genusson, is much less known. However, it is a wetland of great interest thanks to its position on an important migratory axis, and rarities have already been noted there, such as a Pied-billed Grebe which remained for several weeks during the fall of 2020. 
Thanks to the staff of the reserve, we propose to you a presentation of the City of Birds and its avifauna. We would like to thank Louis-Marie Préau (website Louismariepreau.com) for helping us to illustrate this article: an exhibition entitled « Les Oiseaux des étangs » is currently devoted to him in the reception centre.