April 11, 2007
Languedoc coastal birding
My easter birding experience started before my plane touched down at Montpellier airport - the white dots in these pictures are Greater Flamingos (Flamant rose)!
A quick trip over to the Petite Camargue produced my first Purple Heron (Heron pourpre), Med Gulls (Mouette melanocephale), Caspian and Whiskered Terns (Sterne caspienne; Guifette a moustac) of the year, while a nearby flooded field held a new French species for me - the soon to be extirpated Sacred Ibis (Ibis sacre).
A Cattle Egret (Heron gardeboeufs) standing on a 'wild' white horse, digibinned from car - how Camargue can you get?
On Saturday a return visit to Cap Leucate turned up trumps when I finally connected with one of my long-time Euro bogey birds... Great Spotted Cuckoo (Coucou geai).
These birds were vocal and surprisingly numerous, and I bumped into this pair several times.
A much less desirable tick.
There was quite a lot of migrant activity, and I saw my first Sand and House Martins (Hirondelles de rivage et de fenetre) , Common and Alpine Swifts (Martinets noir et a ventre blanc) and Hoopoes (Huppe fasciee) of the year.
Inland, a lone female Montagu's Harrier (Busard cendre) was the only sign of raptor migration, and as the day heated up, bird activity soon died away. I finally managed a decent-ish shot of a car park Crested Lark (Cochevis huppe) digiscoped through the car window.
The Great Spotted Cuckoos were duly toasted on a beach picnic.
Just before flying home, a beach walk at Maguelone produced 4 distant Yelkouan Shearwaters (Puffin yelkouan) and a handful of Gannets (Fou de Bassan), more Common Swifts and the first Common Terns (Sterne pierregarin) of the year. The local flamingoes seemed to have taken up line-dancing to attract mates!
