Ile de Re - 27th Sep '21 to 3rd Sept '21

 After all the on/off COVID restrictions in both the UK and Europe Pam and I finally got away to France at the end of August. Following our usual overnight stay at Camping St Louis in Autingues we headed for the Atlantic coast arriving at Eden Villages Camping L'Ocean on the Ile de Re on the 27th.

The Isle de Re is located about mid-way down the French Atlantic coast and is connected to La Rochelle by a spectacular road bridge which cost €16 for a car but there is no toll on leaving the island. Once on the island a bike is the perfect way to get around as there are cycle tracks all over the island.

Black-winged Stilt

The L'Ocean camp site was an ideal base and we spent most of our time exploring the salt pans and marshes west of the camp site but did make a couple of trips to the main town Saint Martin de Re.

Ile de Re: 1 Camp site, 2 Lilleau des Niges Reserve, 3 Phare des Baleines, 4 Tidal mudflats

We recorded 110 species during our week on the island with a good mix of resident and migrant species. All our records are on eBird under Isle de Re. For some reason the subsidiary sites on eBird for Isle de Re don't link to an island total so I entered everything as Ile de Re. 

There are some regular French birders who also put records on eBird so it's fairly easy to get an idea of what occurs where and when.

Salt pans close to Ars en Re

The campsite itself held a variable number of passerines with Firecrests, Pied Flycatchers and up to 3 Melodious Warblers.

Firecrest - male looking rather worn

Melodious Warbler

A couple of Black Redstart frequented a restaurant on the Chemin du Jardin du Boutillon. A small wooded area close to the coastal mud flats at 46.2073 -1.4915 held more migrants with Common Redstarts and several Common Nightingale giving their distinctive, autumnal croaks and whistles. As usual they were a lot easier to hear than see!

Common Nightingale

There was a small passage of birds of prey with Honey Buzzards on 29th (2), 1st (6), and 2nd (2). I also saw a Short-toed Eagle on 1st September which is close to the northern edge of its range in France and must be scarce on the Ile de Re and an Osprey flying south over the sea on the same day. Single Hobby were seen most days with three on the 1st.

Honey Buzzard - adult male top and juv 

Osprey -juv

Eurasian Hobby - adult

Marsh Harrier - male with Belgian wing tags

Living inland I was interested to see what gulls were present on the island. Around the salt pans there were individual Yellow-legged Gulls with a maximum of 10 counted. I also encountered several groups of Lesser Black-backed Gulls of the western race graellsii and up to 40 Herring Gull. Great Black-backed Gulls were seen in single figures and appear to be resident birds from the reports on colour ringed birds I saw. I counted 94 Mediterranean Gulls which favoured a small pool by the harbour at Ars en Re. Several birds were colour ringed and whilst some had been ringed in France two were from Hungary.

Yellow-legged Gull with darvic ring

Mediterranean Gull with French colour ring

The various salt pans held a few waders, particularly at high tide but there were many hundreds more out on the mud flats which must be an important feeding area for migrant shorebirds. 

I counted over 800 Black-tailed Godwits from a photo when they were disturbed over the mud flats but I only saw two Bar-tailed Godwits.

Black-tailed Godwits

There were many hundreds of Ringed Plover but I was unable to find any Kentish Plover which are here in small numbers. Amongst the Dunlin I found a couple of Little Stint and Greenshank were seen or heard every day.

I was pleased to see migrating Turtle Doves most days but three was my best day count. News this year that France has now banned the hunting of Turtle Doves is very welcome and gives some hope for the species future.

Turtle Dove

On 31st August I noted 47 Spoonbill on the mud flats in area 4 which increased to 58 the following day. As I was watching a group of 30 the following day they all took flight and flew directly over my head which was quite a spectacle. From photos it looked like at least one bird had a metal ring and several birds had coloured Darvic rings (see photo below).

Eurasian Spoonbill

Eurasian Spoonbill - lower bird with coloured leg ring

I only made one trip to the Phare des Baleines lighthouse area which is the best place for sea watching. I managed Gannet and several Sandwich and Common Terns with Sanderling and Turnstone on the beach. There were more Pied Flycatchers in the wooded areas and I had several Serin and calling Cetti's Warblers nearby.

Phare des Baleines

Since returning from the Ile de Re I have found a detailed write up by the Pajot family on the Cloud Birders web site of a year spent on the Ile de Re where they saw as many species as possible travelling on foot or by bike. They managed 250 species with a good selection of rarities so its well worth a look if you are thinking of visiting the island.

Brittany coast - 24th -28th August

This was my first trip to Brittany so wasn't quite sure what to expect but the coast is very scenic and very reminiscent of Cornwall to where the area has a strong affinity.
One bird I was keen to photograph was Red-billed Chough. Photographs of all dark birds are quite a challenge and need decent light and some colour in the background. The setting at Pointe de Pen-Hir was superb with a carpet of flowers atop rocky cliffs.

Red-billed Chough

There were not many other birds on the headland but Gannets were passing off-shore and I disturbed several Grayling from amongst the flowers.

Grayling

Moving down the coast I visited the small pools of Le Petit Loch, just south of Guidel Plage. There were a few waders round the edge including Greenshank, Curlew, and Common and Green Sandpiper. I searched for Bluethroat without success but did manage a single Wryneck with a few Cetti's and Fan-tailed Warblers and family parties of Stonechat.

Wryneck

The next stop was on the Quiberon peninsula were we stayed for a few days. On the drive to the end we made several stops and came across a nice area with gulls and terns as well as Rock Pipits, they were all of the race petrosus as we have in the UK.

Rock Pipit

Amongst the mainly Black-headed Gulls were several Mediterranean including some reasonably fresh juveniles which I don't see very often.

Mediterranean Gull - adult

Mediterranean Gull - juvenile moulting to 1st winter

We stayed close to the tip of the peninsula near the town of Quiberon. The rocky headland had plenty of shorebirds with hundreds of Sanderling and Turnstone with a few Whimbrel and Dunlin. Some of the Turnstone were still in reasonable breeding plumage.

Turnstone

I had male Cirl Bunting singing at the campsite and several more in the last bushes on the point. Most were adult males but I did manage to find a couple of juveniles.

Cirl Bunting - male

Cirl Bunting -juvenile

The only other bird of note was the large numbers of Wood Pigeon flying down the peninsula, several thousand in number. I can only assume they stop at the end and eventually return.

Birding around Thessalonika

Whilst based at Kerkini we made a few trips to the coast, twice to Angelochori near Peraia, which is salt pans and a lagoon and once to Kalochori.
Angelochori didn't have much on the saltpans, around 20 Mediterranean Gulls and a handful of Avocet and Black-winged Stilt with a single Sanderling and a few Kentish Plover. There were Fan-tailed Warblers calling which for some reason don't appear to be at Kerkini.

Mediterranean Gull

Around the lagoon there were both Calandra and Short-toed Larks and the former gave very good views as they displayed over the heathy area. 

Calandra Lark

This area was also good for birds of prey, primarily Kestrel but I also had my first male Red-footed Falcon and Honey Buzzard of the trip and a single Hobby.

Red-footed Falcon - male

There were a lot of Pallid Swifts which appeared to be moving inland from the coast, in a strong wind this provided a good opportunity to get some photos of these fast flyers and with the sunshine the pale feather edgings to the body showed up a treat.

Pallid Swift

Kalochori also had a plenty of Mediterranean Gulls, around 100, and a few Slender-billed (20) but there were also more waders here with a mixed flock of around 70 Curlew Sandpiper and Ruff.

Curlew Sandpiper and Ruff with Black-headed Gulls

We also saw several Stone Curlew here and got good views of one bird. These are the first I have seen since Spain so it was good to see them reasonably close.

Stone Curlew

I'm writing this in Thessalonika Airport, dropping Pam off for her return flight to the UK. From here I am going East towards Porto Lago and the Evros Delta.

A day on the Yorkshire Coast

It's been quiet for birds in Derbyshire the last few weeks so I jumped at Simon Roddis's suggestion of a day on the Yorkshire coast. American Wigeon at Scalby followed by Black-necked Grebes then Med Gulls and finally Surf Scoter at Filey were all on the menu so the day certainly had promise.
It looked like high tide was best for the wigeon, at low tide all the ducks are dispersed over the hundreds of rock pools but at high tide they tend to congregate together and can drift quite close. It meant an early start but we arrived about 08:30 just after the tide had turned and sure enough there were several hundred Wigeon in loose groups dispersed in front of us. It didn't take long to pick out the male American Wigeon, not in the closest group unfortunately, and whilst it occasionally looked like it would drift closer it maintained its distance. Great scope views though and close enough for a decent record shot.

American Wigeon - male with female Wigeon

On to the harbour. Single Razorbill and Guillemot were soon located and it wasn't long before we saw first one then both of the Black-necked Grebes, that have spent the winter there, diving by the harbour entrance. They gave fantastic views before drifting out in to the bay. If Carlsberg did eyes, I'm sure they would do them in red!

Black-necked Grebe

A dozen Turnstone in the harbour with a variety of colour-rings and flags on their legs. Not sure where these are from but I hope to be watching Turnstone on their arctic breeding grounds in a few months time.
Next stop the Holbeck car park on the south side of the town, armed with a bag of bread to entice the gulls closer. There was no real need for the bread. Black-headed Gulls with several Mediterranean were stood right where we parked the car.
I think watching and photographing these gulls at such close quarters was the highlight of the day for both Simon and I. We have both spent many hours watching the gull roosts locally, with occasional success giving distant views of a Med, so to have them in all identifiable ages, first and second year and adult in almost touching distance was fantastic.

Mediterranean Gulls - first winter

Mediterranean Gull - second winter

Mediterranean Gull - adult summer

Two of the adult birds were colour-ringed, Simon established one had been ringed as an adult in Antwerp, Belgium in May 2015 and the dark hooded bird above in Poland in May 2013. 
The bread gave us the chance to watch the birds in flight.

Mediterranean Gull - second winter

Mediterranean Gull - first winter

We knew the Surf Scoter off Filey Brigg was going to be more of a challenge to get good views as it tended to stay several hundred metres off shore in the bay. We soon located it and got surprisingly good views through Simon's telescope but it was well beyond sensible photographic range but the photo gives some idea of the 'jizz' and plumage of this second year male.

Surf Scoter - second year male

The brigg was otherwise quiet with just 8 Purple Sandpiper and a couple of Rock Pipits of note. 
It was early afternoon so we decided to call in at Bempton before heading for home. Plenty of auks on the sea and Gannet and Fulmar on the cliffs but no Kittiwake yet and we didn't see Puffin. Whilst there we heard that a Richard's Pipit had been seen again at Thornwick Bay which is only a couple of miles further on.
Fortunately Brett Richards was watching the bird when we arrived or it could have taken some finding, but it was the only passerine in the first field after the buildings on the coastal footpath. It was on the far side of the field and I didn't bother trying a photo but just as we were leaving I thought I might try a record shot and that's what I got. Still a great way to finish a fantastic day on the Yorkshire coast.

Richard's Pipit

Five days at Spurn - day 2, Thursday 24th September

Early start and I was in the Canal Scrape hide before first light. There were 2 Common Snipe right in front of the hide but no sign of Jack. The snipe moved off before the sun was fully up but got some reasonable photos anyway thanks to the technology in modern cameras.

Common Snipe ISO 5000 1/400 f4

Walking back around the Triangle a pale blob at the back of a field on Easington Road turned out to be a Barn Owl, it flew up several times before landing again and eventually flew in my direction. It was 10 am with a clear blue sky and with the sun behind me the owl looked amazing.

Barn Owl ISO 320 1/2000 f8

It moved through the back of the neighbouring field and went out of site.
One of the big changes, bird wise, since I was a more regular visitor to Spurn is the increase in Mediterranean Gulls. I found a juvenile on the shore at Easington Lagoons in the early seventies which was a real rarity at the time. Now the maximum day count is over 100 birds and I had already seen several birds but decided to head back to the lagoons in the hope of getting some photos.
There were at least a dozen birds milling around out at sea and occasional coming on to the shoreline and flying up in to the sky. It wasn't until I had some photos that I could see that they were catching craneflies which were being blown out to see on the strong westerly winds.

Mediterranean Gull adult ISO 400 1/1000 f9

I had only seen a couple of Chiffchaff and single Wheatear and Redwing so migrants still in very short supply. There was still one Yellow-browed Warbler in the area but so far I had had no luck in finding it.