Sanary-sur-Mer

  For my final weekend in France until December, Laura and I arrange to head to the French Mediterranean coast, to the town of Sanary-sur-Mer near to Marseille where there were good oportunities to do whale watching. Sadly the weather came to demolish our plans. While the sun was out and the temperature was warm, the offshore breeze was too substantial and the whale watching trips we booked were cancelled. However, since we had already booked the transport and accommodation, we decided to go through with the trip and have a relaxing weekend by the sea. 

  We did not see any birds of note on the trip, with the highlights being a distant Mediterranean Shag and the usual Yellow-legged Gulls around the harbour. However, it was nice to see Moorish Gecko again, and the highlight of the weekend was my first wild Octopus. We did a short inshore boat trip with a glass bottom, and during this activity we saw our first Octopus, and then during a walk along the edge of the harbour at the end of the day, we had another sitting motionless just below the water surface, allowing us to get nice and close and have fabulous views. 

-Common Octopus

-Moorish Gecko

Wilgottheim

     This weekend I found myself back in Lauras parents village of Wilgottheim, about half an hours drive from the city of Strasbourg on the French-German border. Situated between the two ranges of the Vosges mountains, nearby VizMig watchpoints have produced some genuinely incredible counts of migrating birds, but I have never had the chance to be in the area during the autumn… until now!

  Thus I spent the weekend getting up early and exploring the hill behind the village, checking the trees and bushes there for grounded migrants and hoping for good numbers of birds flying over. Overhead it turned out was fairly quiet, with very little of note in terms of numbers besides double-figure counts of both Tree Pipit and Yellow Wagtail, although there were also many grounded birds confusing the overall total. I couldn’t wait around too long, but in the two hours I explored the area during the mornings it was pretty clear that no significant movement of birds was taking place.

  In the bushes it was excellent, with regularly Pied Flycatchers, Common Redstarts and Spotted Flycatchers, bulked out by the usual good counts of Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs, with the occasional Willow Warbler also thrown in. There was also a single Whinchat and Wheatear, two species I had not yet found in my explorations around Paris.

  In addition to the migrant birds, it was also a surprise to find both Middle Spotted and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers here. While there are larger trees, it is hardly a wooded environment and I did not expect to find these birds here. The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker especially showed very nicely! 

-Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

-Tree Pipit & Common Chiffchaff

-Spotted Flycatcher

-Common Redstart

-Pied Flycatcher

Lac de Créteil

   In the last week I returned to the Lac de Créteil to see what else had been arriving during the lively Autumn period. Overall, there has not yet been a dramatic change in the overall composition of interesting birds, but there continues to be an interesting trickle of migrants passing through that continue to make the site interesting and enjoyable to visit. 

  The lake itself saw a rather unexpected and pleasant surprise with a flock of no less than 13 Common Sandpipers flying around when I visited on Monday. Not long after however, the flock seems to have dispersed, as I did not record them again. The only other bird of note interacting with the lake was another, or the same, 1st year Mediterranean Gull that flew over distantly on the Wednesday.

  In the bushes there continues to be Pied Flycatchers, with five the highest count on the Wednesday. As per my previous visits, some of these have been quite showy. The same can not be said for the one Spotted Flycatcher I’ve seen in this period, which remained high in the canopy and out of sight. Additionally, there has been Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs and abundant Blackcaps to enjoy. A juvenile Hobby flying over the lake was also a nice bonus. 

  There was also an additional bird for my patch list, but unfortunately not one of any notable origin, when I found two Alexandrine Parakeets perched up. These larger versions of the very abundant Ring-necked Parakeet will soon also be dominating European cities, I am sure. 

-Common Sandpiper

-Pied Flycatcher

-Alexandrine Parakeet

-Migrant Hawker

Lac de Créteil

   I returned to the Creteil Lake today eager to continue searching for migrant birds. Today was far more productive than my last visit, and I had a great morning. In total, I managed five Pied Flycatchers, a Spotted Flycatcher, a Common Redstart, a Garden Warbler, eight Blackcaps and two Reed Warblers. It was quite the haul of birds, and I was very pleased with that outcome.

  Towards the end of the morning the weather turned a little gloomy, and there was a short rain shower. I wondered if there might be a chance this could drop something in, as occurs on reservoirs in the UK, but did not hold out too much hope. However, soon after it cleared I picked up a juvenile Mediterranean Gull flying low over the lake and then overhead, followed shortly by a flock of four Ruff that made off northwest without slowing down.

  Additionally it was nice to see the Little Bittern twice during my walk round, after only hearing it last time. It was a fantastic morning, and I am very much looking forward to coming back later in the week. 

-Pied Flycatcher

-Spotted Flycatcher

-Common Redstart

-Reed Warbler

-Mediterranean Gull

-Ruff

-Little Bittern

Lac de Créteil

   Finally recovered from any post-Ecuador jet-lag I headed out to the Lac de Créteil in the hopes of finding some migrant birds. I arrived just after sunrise and spent the best part of two hours exploring the lake and adjacent bushes. The weather was gloomy but only a few spots of drizzle fell whilst I was present. 

  The highlight of the morning were two Pied Flycatchers feeding on the egde of the lake. I flushed a Little Bittern, which vocalised in response but sadly descended deeper into the reeds and never came out again. Two Yellow Wagtails flew over and two Common Sandpipers flew across the lake, but otherwise it was a little quieter than I expected. Still, two Pied Flycatchers is something to build on, and I look forward to continuing to bird the site throughout the autumn. 

-Pied Flycatcher

Chateau Greifenstein

   After my return to the UK I flew back to France, but this time Lauras parents place in Alsace, on the German/France border. It makes an excellent change to urban Paris, with the stunning woodlands of the Vosges mountains less than an hours drive away, and the general area covered by small patches of woodland and open fields.

   We spent the afternoon walking near the Chateau Greifenstein near the town of Saverne. It being a Sunday afternoon I was expecting it to be busy with not much bird activity, but I was pleasantly wrong. There were not too many people around and birding was quite good. Granted it was mostly commoner species for the region, but that still involves Firecrest and Crested Tit, two species I do not see at home.

  But the highlight of the walk was an unexpected bonus bird for my France list; a superb Black Stork that flew over. This is a rare species in France, with only a small breeding population and while I knew there were a few in the Vosges I did not expect this encounter. It circled once over us before heading off north. Hopefully it has luck breeding wherever it sets up shop! 

-Black Stork

-Common Firecrest

Lac de Créteil

   There is not a huge abundance of birding sites within Paris, and having a car means those of the periphery of the city are often too much of a hassle to reach to consider worthwhile. However, with a little time on my hands this week, I decided to explore some sites within an hour on public transport of the apartment and had a really good time at the Lac de Créteil. Although it takes the best part of 45-minutes to reach, it certainly seems to have excellent potential that warrants investing a bit of time to travel to. 

  I’ve now got two visits wrapped under my belt, and I enjoyed both very much. The lake is home to several common wetland species, but the potential is there for rarer species (reinforced by several eBird records of interest from years gone by). Perhaps the standout is the population of Red-crested Pochards on the lake, with double figures seen on both days. These handsome ducks were not at all shy, allowing for excellent views. In addition, there is an Egyptian Goose present, which has not been recorded on eBird at this site previously. 

  In the vegetation around the lake there are a few species of interest. There had been no records of Cetti’s Warbler before yesterday, according to eBird again, so it was a bit of a surprise to find three singing males. Commoner species that are of interest to a birder from the north of the UK include Firecrest and Short-toed Treecreeper. And to round it off nicely I picked out a Pied Wagtail with two White Wagtail feeding on a cut grassy area, a nice little flavour of home for whilst I am over here. 

-Cetti's Warbler

-Egyptian Goose

-Pied Wagtail

-Red-crested Pochard

Brittany exploring for Aquatic Warbler

   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, thanks to our contact in the area, we were able to visit the private 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! 

-Quail

-Wryneck

-Black-crowned Night-Heron

-Water Rail

-Cirl Bunting

-Zitting Cisticola

-Common Redstart

-Purple Heron

-European Honey Buzzard

-African Sacred Ibis

-Black-winged Kite

-Coypu

-Common Wall Lizard

-Wasp Spider

-Mallow Skipper

-Wood White

-Southern Darter

-Scarlet Darter