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.

The long road home - 25th June to 6th July

We had decided that rather than retrace our route back through Finland and in to the Baltic States we would travel down through Sweden crossing 'The Bridge' in to Denmark and then through Germany in to Holland for a North Sea crossing.
We stopped over again at Vestre Jakobselv where a single Short-eared Owl was one of only two I saw on the whole trip.  first stop was still in Finland. The feeder at the campsite attracted a dozen Mealy Redpoll but nothing that looked good enough for Arctic.

Mealy Redpoll

We left Norway heading for Rovaniemi close to the Swedish border. Rovaniemi is on the Arctic Circle and has a large shopping mall devoted to Santa Claus and is the HQ for the Santa Claus post office where all letters sent to Santa end up. Of more immediate interest to me was a large landfill site just down the 78 towards Kivitaipale which had a wintering Steppe Eagle. I had directions from Jan and specific instructions not to drive in to the tip even if the external barrier was open. I arrived at the tip in light rain and parked by the external barrier, which was open, I then had a 3km walk to the inner fence surrounding the tip. As a neared the tip I saw at least 30 Raven and 50 Hooded Crows along with parties of Common Gulls. There was no way in to the tip so it meant viewing over the fence, I soon picked up 2 distant eagles but they were just dots several kilometres away. There was a single car park outside the gates and after 30 minutes or so the occupants returned who were three Finnish birders. They had been round the edge of the tip and confirmed that my two distant eagles were Golden but they hadn't seen the Steppe. The offered me a lift back to the outer barrier which I gladly took, as we approached the outer barrier we now found that it had been closed which was the reason the Jan had advised not to drive in which now proved excellent advice as I parted from the 3 Finns who were now stranded inside the barrier.
It rained almost continuously for the next couple of days so other than posting cards from Santas Post Office and visiting the Polar Museum in Rovaniemi there was not much else to do so we headed off for Sweden.
I made a visit to Gammelstadsviken, a small nature reserve where a Grey (Red) Phalarope had been reported but saw very little other than a few flocks of Little Gulls and several Pied Flycatcher and had what was virtually my only encounter with significant numbers of mosquitoes which kept Pam in the van.
Continuing south on the E4 we stopped briefly at the Skuleskogen National Park which was very busy and with a single track boardwalk not easy to get round. We finally stopped at the Mavikens campsite near Mjallom where the sky finally cleared and we enjoyed several days of sunshine and summer like warmth!
There were at least 6 pairs of Slavonian Grebes close to the campsite which had already started their post breeding moult. It was difficult to know where they were in the breeding cycle as all the birds seemed to be in pairs and there was quite a bit of threat displaying and chasing.

Slavonian Grebe - threat display

Slavonian Grebe - fighting

On the lake I also had a pair of Velvet Scoter,and several Red-breasted Merganser and Eider. The woodland were strangely quiet with no Chiffchaff or Willow Warbler singing and just the odd Whitethroat and Pied Flycatcher around the campsite.
Further south we had our first juvenile Osprey just north of Vallvik where we stopped overnight.

Osprey - juvenile

A Willow Warbler was notable here in that I hadn't seen or heard any for awhile.
As we neared Stockholm we spent a couple of nights at Vaxholm. Here there were several Honey Buzzard, Marsh Harrier, Crested Tits, White Wagtails with young and a few Greylag and Barnacle Geese.
Remaing on the E4 we crossed the southern tip of Sweden stopping at the huge Vattern Lake where it was very windy and the only birds of note were Red Kites.
Heading towards Malmo and the crossing to Copenhagen we were passing so close to Falsterbo that I couldn't resist having a look at this migration hot spot. I saw no birds of real note but Swifts were in large numbers over the village and perhaps already looking to head south.
We crossed 'The Bridge' made famous by the TV crime series of the same name then stopped in Copenhagen before driving across Germany and catching the Hook of Holland to Harwich ferry ending a fantastic journey around northern Europe and completing my two year birdwatching trip around all the hotspots of mainland Europe.

Porto Lagos to the Black Sea Coast

I left Mandra Beach on Sunday morning (1st May) but had a look round the pools before I left. I'm glad I did because a Great Spotted Cuckoo flew past calling as I walked down the track. 

Great Spotted Cuckoo

The waders appeared to be pretty much as yesterday although I couldn't find any Marsh Sandpipers but on the plus side I think there must be at least 4 pairs of Spur-winged Plover on the drier areas surrounding the pools.

Spur-winged Plover

My next stop was the Evros Delta, I knew access could be difficult here and hadn't bothered to arrange a permit for the restricted border area. As it happens I met a bird watching couple from Preston who had just come from Evros, they had a permit but said that no photography was permitted in the border area which kind of supported my decision not to enter that area. I went to the visitor centre but it was closed, it was Easter Sunday in Greece so most places seemed to be shut.

I tried the area known as the Isabelline Flats which, unsurprisingly, is supposed to be good for Isabelline Wheatear. The area was agricultural land with fields full of crops and I soon got lost on the rough tracks. It didn't look like good habitat for Isabelline Wheatear which have similar habitat preferences to our Wheatear in my experience. Needless to say I didn't see any so headed for some pools by the beach. I ended up going back around Alexandria airport but eventually got to the beach which was actually very good  with small pools holding Wood Sandpipers and Little Stints and the rough coastal vegetation Short-toed and Crested Larks plus Tawny Pipit and a Black-headed Wagtails. As I drove on I disturbed a Collared Pratincole, parking up I soon located more and there were probably 20 in the area. It was early afternoon by now and the light was terrible, especially for photographing birds overhead. 

Collared Pratincole

After an hour or so with the pratincoles I decided to call it a day at Evros, it's probably a great area if you know it I didn't.

I headed for the Dadia Forest which was about an hours drive to the north and was on the route I planned to take into Bulgaria.

It was a good road getting there and I arrived at the plush visitor centre where the staff were very helpful and I watched a video about the raptor conservation in the forest which was very good. The nearby hotel was full, there seemed to be some sort of party going on with load music and dancing. I declined the offer to join in the the personnel at the centre kindly allowed me to park overnight on their car park.

I did the walk to the raptor observation hide and was pleased to hear and then see several male Eastern Bonelli's Warblers. It was difficult photographing them with the changing light in the wood and their constant activity but I persevered and eventually got some reasonable photos of this lovely bird that is a smaller version of our Wood Warbler.

Eastern Bonelli's Warbler

The Collins Guide suggests that dark lores may be a feature for separating Eastern from Western Bonelli's but these looked to have pale lores from most angles.

There was nothing to be seen from the hide late afternoon so I walked back having seen or heard 6 or 7 Bonelli's.

The following morning I took the organised bus back to the raptor hide, where animal carcasses are put out for the vultures. It was €4 for a one way trip as I planned to walk back again. It was overcast and raining which didn't bode well but the lady guide was optimistic so I and half a dozen interested Greeks headed off.

Egyptian, Griffon and Black Vultures

Black Vultures squabbling

Sat in the trees around the feeding area I counted 17 Black, 7 Griffon and 1 Egyptian Vulture which was joined by two others a little later on. As one Egyptian Vulture arrived it immediately mated with the original bird which got the other vultures attention (see photo). The distance was too great for decent photos but it still made for an impressive sight.

I was impressed with the set up and bought one of their T-shirts, I should probably have got a mug as well! I left around mid-day but on the short stretch of road which connects Dadia to the main road up to the border I had two Short-toed Eagles, Osprey, Common Buzzard and adult Lesser Spotted Eagle. It's definitely a good area for birds of prey.

Lesser Spotted Eagle - adult

Osprey

I then drove about 500Km to the Black Sea coast stopping at Kamchia just short of Varna. Stopping on the way I had several Ortolan Bunting which were new for the trip.

Ortolan Bunting - male