A Brit abroad

Lac du Der and around

This weekend I headed east with Stephane Maquinay to bird around the Lakes of Temple, Amance and Der. Rain was the order of the day on Saturday. Along with Yves Massin and Olivier Laporte we searched for Grey-headed Woodpecker (Pic cendré), with partial success. We heard a few birds doing their feeble version of a Green Woodpecker's song, and Stephane and I had c. 2 seconds' worth of flight views - definitely a better view desired! We were able to muster a few other species of woodpecker here (including Middle Spotted and Black, pics mar et noir), and a few other woodland species until persistent rain led us to give up.

Birding around the Lac d'Amance from the van was a little drier, and produced a few more species of interest, including a Peregine (Faucon pèlerin) interacting with two Common Buzzards (Buse variable), and this mixed flock of White-fronted and Greylag Geese (Oies rieuses et cenrdées).

This White-front was particularly boldly marked (an old male?)

After a quick scan through the wildfowl at the Lac du Temple (my first Wild Boar, or sangliers, was the highlight), we said goodbye to Olivier and Yves and headed for the villages of Prunay-Belleville to search for the adult male Pallid Harrier (Busard pâle). No luck with that, but really great views of male Hen Harriers (Busard Saint-Martin), a Merlin (Faucon émerillon), Grey Partridges (Perdrix grise), Corn Buntings (Bruant proyer) and Crested Larks (Cochevis huppé). This was perhaps my first day of speaking French all day - I did ok save for an amusing misunderstanding (it turns out that the French word for to have a wee sounds exactly like their pronunciation of Pipit!).

We spent a very cold night in the van at the edge of the Lac du Der - at first I thought two years of California sunshine had made me over-sensitive to the cold, but apparently it was -6C! In the rising sun, a viewing blind allowed us to get very close to these Greylags and wild swans (based on size I think they were Bewick's but they never woke up, and in the subzero temperatures I wasn't too keen on waiting around to find out).

Stephane kindly put me on to 5 Velvet Scoters (Macreuse brune) in flight. While he scanned the lake I went for a walk which yielded the first of many Great White Egrets (Grande Aigrette) and Common Cranes (Grue cendrée). At the lake's edge I was able to get close to a Tree Sparrow (Moineau friquet)

and a feeding flock of Goldfinches glowing in the morning light (Chardonneret élégant).

This pair of displaying Great Crested Grebes (Grèbe huppé) was a sure sign of impending spring.

A welcome stop for coffee in Eclaron also produced this pair of White Storks (Cigogne blanche), looking decidedly worse for wear after deciding to tough it out all winter in the frozen north.

Soon after we came across a small feeding flock of Common Cranes, just about close enough to digiscope.

Around lunchtime, the east side of the lake proved very productive for raptors, including an enormous but very distant White-tailed Eagle (Pygargue à queue blanche), a Red Kite (Milan royal) and a Marsh Harrier (Busard des roseaux).

For me, the highlight of the weekend was the spectacle of hundreds of Common Cranes thermalling over the lake to gain altitude for their northbound migration. I got very snap-happy with this large flock.

In the late afternoon we decided to try for better views of the Grey-headed Woodpecker, but in spite of 3 hours of searching, we didn't even hear one call. Highlights of a rather quiet afternoon were my first French Willow Tits (Mésange boréale), a Firecrest (Roitelet à triple-bandeau) and a calling Chiffchaff (Pouillot véloce) - winterer or early migrant?

Pretty church near Lac d'Amance.

Sunset at the Lac du Temple

Posted by rjhall at March 13, 2006 4:23 PM