I had only just returned to Paris after Peru when my good friend David Darrell-Lambert informed me that he was going to spend a few days in the south of Brittany in northern France looking for Aquatic Warblers, a trip which sounded excellent and I promptly invited myself along for the ride. Thanks to Davids sleuthing online we had a contact in the area, so had been provided with some information on good areas of where to search. The ringing station in the area sees most of the action, but it is private and not a destination for tourists, so we had to make the best of it by exploring in the field.
There were several sites around the ringing station full of reedbeds, which we spent hours exploring hoping for an Aquatic Warbler, but we ultimately failed to find one. The reedbeds were full of activity, with Sedge and Reed Warblers in good numbers, as well as large numbers of Bluethroats. Apparently, the Bluethroats in the area are a shorter-winged subspecies part of the White-spotted Bluethroat group. Zitting Cisticola was another good bird we saw regularly whilst exploring the reedbeds, a species I have not seen properly since my work in Spain several years ago.
In addition to the reedbed species there were a lot of nice migrant species in the area, providing some very enjoyable birding. We managed small numbers of Whichats, Wheatears, Pied Flycatchers and Spotted Flycatchers, as well as a single Common Redstart. The latter is not common in the area, but for us there were locally abundant species that were much rarer for us to see. I saw only my second ever Cirl Buntings and Melodious Warblers, as well as getting views of Red-backed Shrike, Wryneck and Black-winged Kite. Every day we would see something of interest that would lift our spirits and keep us working towards our goal.
We also spent one afternoon birding the Parc naturel regional de Brière, which was a large wetland and arable area where we enjoyed some pleasant birding. The rarest species we found was a hazy Little Stint on the scrape, feeding alongside Wood Sandpipers and Green Sandpipers. But the other goodies included a few showy Water Rails and a nice Black-crowned Night Heron.
For the hotter parts of the days there were several insect species to keep us interested. I enjoyed seeing my first Southern Darters, which seemed to be the default darter species in the area. Odonata was not especially abundant, but there were several species of Butterflies of interest notably my first Wood White, and other goodies such as Long-tailed Blue and Mallow Skipper. Mammals were thin on the ground, but we saw a handful of Coypu including a very tame individual at one of the sites we frequented.
On our final morning we were able to visit the ringing station, but too late to see the two Aquatic Warblers they caught in the morning there. But there was plenty of enjoyable birding around seeing many of the same species, and in the hand we saw a Wryneck and a Quail! Although we were disappointed to leave without our main target, this was an excellent way to finish off our few days birding!
