Natural reserve of the bench of Arguin

Geographical location

The Bench of Arguin is the whole of the sand banks visible with broad of the entry of the Bassin of Arcachon. These benches are more or less visible depending on the state of the Marée. This unit is the only important notch along the dune cord of the Gascon littoral.

Under the action of the marine currents, tides and wind, the sand banks continuously change form and of site between the Dune of Pilat and Cape-Tag points it.

Natural environments

Three natural zones are present:

a zone sub-littoral depth a 20 meters is the zone immersed permanently. Its funds are papered large Zostère S which form a vast herbarium.
a zone corresponding to the beaches and the zones of swinging of the tides are permanently altered by the wind and the waves.
the top of the sand banks is colonized by a typical vegetation of the dunes of the Atlantic littoral.

Flora

One finds the dune vegetation able to adapt to the extreme conditions of the Dune:

Sea reed,
Armoise maritime,
Panicaut maritime,
Linaire with sheets of thyme (plant protected at the national level which lives only in the south-west of France),
the Grande Zostère (plant protected in Aquitaine).

Fauna

On the Beach S, one can find invertebrates terrestrial and shellfish like the Sand flea. In the dunes, insects are present like the Hanneton Fuller living at the larval state.

The zone of swinging of the tides contains many invisible watery invertebrates with the naked eye whose birds as the waders are made a treat. They hide under sand while waiting for the rising tide.

But the site is mainly a surface of important occupation by the birds. The natural reserve of the bench of Arguin is used for the birds:

of site of reproduction . The Sterne caugek is present in great number (more than 4.000 couples per annum). The site is of importance for the reproduction of the Gravelot to collar stopped and of the Huîtrier magpie. The birds nest on all the sand bank.
of site of wintering . More than 30.000 limicolous whose variable Sandpiper, the ashy Curlew, the Oyster magpie and the russet-red Barge winters there with high tide.
of migratory halt . The site is used as halt in autumn and in spring during the migration of many birds.

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