July 19, 2006
Catching up
The conference season approaches, and as usual I find myself racing to get things finished for the end of July (no bad thing given the general lack of birding interest) - hence the lack of recent blog entries. Two weekends ago I headed down to the south of France to see what I could see. In the hills north of Montpellier, there was a deafening chorus of Cicadas.
I also saw my first (of many) Great Banded Graylings, a larger and prettier butterfly than you might imagine from this photo.
Of birding interest, a few flyover Rollers (Rollier d'Europe), Bee-eaters (Guepier d'Europe), a lone male Montagu's Harrier (Busard cendre), and this Southern Grey Shrike (Pie-grieche meridionale).
Sunday morning was uncharacteristically overcast, so we headed to the Peau de Meau reserve in the Crau to look for desert species. Bird-wise, it was very quiet - a lone singing lark was probably Short-toed (Alouette Calandrelle), a single Stone Curlew (Oedicneme criard) and Lesser Kestrel (Faucon crecerellette) were typical birds of this arid zone. Rollers were fairly common, though not very approachable - here are some 'atmospheric' shots through the heat haze.
A Hoopoe (Huppe Fasciee) landed in a tree for just long enough to get this photo.
By 1130 things were starting to get hot....
If the birds were somewhat inactive, a nearby stream was teeming with insect life, including this attractive Copper Demoiselle...
... and Blue-eyed Hooktail (thanks to John Oates for the IDs on these).
This Scarce Swallowtail was most confiding.
The afternoon was spent dodging mosquitos in the Camargue. Flooded fields in the north hosted some decent gull flocks - mostly Black-headed and Yellow-legged (Mouette rieuse et Goeland leucophee), with smaller numbers of Mediterranean Gulls (Mouette melanocephale).
I found a lone Gull-billed Tern (Sterne hansel) in their midst.
Despite the early date, many migrant shorebirds were noted, the most common of which were Wood Sandpipers (Chevalier sylvain), plus a few Common and Green Sandpipers and a Greenshank (Chevaliers culblanc, guignette et aboyeur). Black-winged Stilts (Echasse blanche) were abundant as ever.
At the reserves of La Capelliere and Salin de Badon, many young Night Herons (Bihoreau gris) were in evidence, and a single Spoonbill (Spatule blanche) was a pleasant surprise.
Other wildlife at these sites including this sorry-looking Scarlet Dragonfly
a few of the native turtles (Cistude d'Europe)
and several of these large, bright green lizards (ID anyone?)
On racing back for the world cup final, we were extremely fortunate to see a Eurasian Bittern (Butor etoile) fly right over the car - a good bird to end the day on. Drowning our sorrows after France's defeat.
