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Haute Vallée de Chevreuse Regional Nature Park

Natural Park · France

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Photo © Nima Izadi

Photo © Nima Izadi — CC BY 4.0 — Source: Wikimedia Commons

ABOUT

Where the wooded hills of the Île-de-France fold into a green valley just southwest of Paris, a protected landscape of beech and oak forest, hedgerowed farmland and clear chalk streams opens up around the small town of Chevreuse. This is a temperate, oceanic-influenced countryside with no dry season: rain falls across the year, springs and small rivers run reliably, and the vegetation stays verdant from the first green flush of spring through the damp, misty weeks of autumn. The terrain is a mosaic — dense broadleaf woodland on the slopes, open meadows and cultivated fields on the valley floor, wet rushy hollows and wooded marsh where drainage slows, and old stone walls and hedges stitching the parcels together. That variety of habitat supports a correspondingly rich fauna: woodland songbirds and other passerines in the canopy and undergrowth, birds of prey hunting over the open ground and forest edges, small forest mammals and deer moving between cover and pasture, and amphibians and aquatic invertebrates in the streams and ponds. It is a working rural landscape as much as a wild one, and its ecological character comes from that long coexistence of farming, forestry and water.

WILDLIFE

Month

Type

Branta canadensis

Alopochen aegyptiaca

Anas platyrhynchos

Reeves's Pheasant

Syrmaticus reevesii

Common Pheasant

Phasianus colchicus

Common Wood Pigeon

Columba palumbus

Eurasian Collared Dove

Streptopelia decaocto

Rallus aquaticus

Gallinula chloropus

Black-headed Gull

Chroicocephalus ridibundus

Great Cormorant

Phalacrocorax carbo

Western Cattle Egret

Western Barn Owl

Middle Spotted Woodpecker

Dendrocoptes medius

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

Dryobates minor

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Dendrocopos major

Black Woodpecker

Dryocopus martius

Falco tinnunculus

Rose-ringed Parakeet

Psittacula krameri

Eurasian Magpie

Western Jackdaw

Coloeus monedula

Poecile palustris

Eurasian Blue Tit

Cyanistes caeruleus

Hirundo rustica

Western House Martin

Delichon urbicum

Long-tailed Tit

Aegithalos caudatus

Common Chiffchaff

Phylloscopus collybita

Zitting Cisticola

Cisticola juncidis

Eurasian Blackcap

Sylvia atricapilla

Troglodytes troglodytes

Eurasian Nuthatch

Short-toed Treecreeper

Certhia brachydactyla

Turdus philomelos

Common Blackbird

Erithacus rubecula

Phoenicurus ochruros

Passer domesticus

Prunella modularis

Motacilla cinerea

Eurasian Chaffinch

Fringilla coelebs

Branta leucopsis

Bar-headed Goose

Northern Shoveler

Spatula clypeata

Cuculus canorus

Great Crested Grebe

Podiceps cristatus

Common Sandpiper

Actitis hypoleucos

Egretta garzetta

European Honey Buzzard

Pernis apivorus

Eurasian Sparrowhawk

Accipiter nisus

Common Kingfisher

European Green Woodpecker

Eurasian Golden Oriole

Oriolus oriolus

Red-backed Shrike

Lanius collurio

Garrulus glandarius

Corvus frugilegus

Lophophanes cristatus

Cetti's Warbler

Phylloscopus trochilus

Acrocephalus schoenobaenus

Common Reed Warbler

Acrocephalus scirpaceus

Acrocephalus palustris

Melodious Warbler

Hippolais polyglotta

Common Whitethroat

Curruca communis

Common Firecrest

Regulus ignicapilla

Regulus regulus

Common Starling

Sturnus vulgaris

Turdus viscivorus

Common Nightingale

Luscinia megarhynchos

Common Redstart

Phoenicurus phoenicurus

European Stonechat

Saxicola rubicola

Western Yellow Wagtail

Motacilla flava

Coccothraustes coccothraustes

European Greenfinch

Chloris chloris

Linaria cannabina

European Goldfinch

Carduelis carduelis

Serinus serinus

Emberiza citrinella

Red-breasted Goose

Branta ruficollis

Common Shelduck

Tadorna tadorna

Tadorna ferruginea

Cairina moschata

Aix galericulata

Spatula querquedula

Eurasian Wigeon

Mareca penelope

Red-crested Pochard

Aythya fuligula

Coturnix coturnix

Red-legged Partridge

European Turtle Dove

Streptopelia turtur

Tachybaptus ruficollis

Black-necked Grebe

Podiceps nigricollis

Recurvirostra avosetta

European Golden Plover

Pluvialis apricaria

Northern Lapwing

Vanellus vanellus

Black-tailed Godwit

Lymnocryptes minimus

Eurasian Woodcock

Scolopax rusticola

Gallinago gallinago

Green Sandpiper

Tringa ochropus

Mediterranean Gull

Ichthyaetus melanocephalus

Yellow-legged Gull

Larus michahellis

Ciconia ciconia

Pandion haliaetus

Western Marsh Harrier

Circus aeruginosus

Falco columbarius

Peregrine Falcon

Falco peregrinus

Poecile montanus

Eurasian Skylark

Alauda arvensis

Riparia riparia

Western Bonelli's Warbler

Phylloscopus bonelli

Yellow-browed Warbler

Phylloscopus inornatus

Common Grasshopper Warbler

Locustella naevia

Spotted Flycatcher

Muscicapa striata

European Pied Flycatcher

Ficedula hypoleuca

Saxicola rubetra

African Stonechat

Saxicola torquatus

Northern Wheatear

Oenanthe oenanthe

Anthus pratensis

Anthus trivialis

Anthus spinoletta

Fringilla montifringilla

Loxia curvirostra

Eurasian Siskin

Emberiza calandra

Emberiza cirlus

Common Reed Bunting

Emberiza schoeniclus

Anser cygnoides

Western Roe Deer

Capreolus capreolus

Western Red Deer

Red-necked Wallaby

Notamacropus rufogriseus

Myocastor coypus

Eurasian Red Squirrel

Sciurus vulgaris

Eurasian Harvest Mouse

Micromys minutus

Rattus norvegicus

West European Hedgehog

Erinaceus europaeus

Common Pipistrelle

Pipistrellus pipistrellus

Lepus europaeus

European Rabbit

Oryctolagus cuniculus

Clethrionomys glareolus

Ondatra zibethicus

Long-tailed Field Mouse

Apodemus sylvaticus

Greater White-toothed Shrew

Crocidura russula

Leisler's Noctule

Nyctalus leisleri

Nyctalus noctula

Kuhl's Pipistrelle

Pipistrellus kuhlii

Soprano Pipistrelle

Pipistrellus pygmaeus

European Pine Marten

European Badger

Mustela nivalis

Common Fallow Deer

View Complete List (179 more) →

COMMUNITY

0 Community observations

No community observations yet — be the first to log a sighting here.

Natural environment

Haute Vallée de Chevreuse Regional Nature Park

Generally mild conditions, with noticeable seasonal changes.

Usual climateHumid temperate with mild summersLowland

Average annual temperature 10.7 °C Average of the twelve monthly means

Average elevation 143 m Lowland

Climate pattern Humid temperate with mild summers Main environment around this hotspot

A year of temperatures

Monthly means, with the coldest and warmest highlighted

Monthly minimum · January 3.7 °C Monthly maximum · July 18.7 °C

Global temperature scale

−40°−20°0°20°40°

Terrain and elevation

143 m · Lowland

Average terrain elevation estimate across the hotspot; the figure does not represent its highest summits.

Elevation scale

143 m

02,0004,0006,0008,000m

Lowland

Long-term climate averages, not live weather.

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