January 21, 2008
Wallcreeper, Richard's Pipits and sunshine
I headed down to the south of France this weekend, where the weather was unbelievably good - very much like the first days of the English spring in mid-March! We decided to go hiking in the Alpilles on Saturday, making an obligatory Wallcreeper (Tichodrome echellette) and crepe stop in Les Baux de Provence. When this was my number one most wanted bird, I dipped it multiple times at this site and elsewhere, but since then I've had an 100% success rate here. This bird gave amazing views on the south face: heat haze prevented me from getting crystal-clear photos, but I suppose I shouldn't grumble :-)
After lunch we walked out to the radio tower at La Caume. Strong winds meant the walk was virtually birdless, but the visibility was amazing, with the snow-capped Alps clearly visible out to the east.
Mont Ventoux has a decent covering of snow this year.
On the way home we made a stop at Mas Chauvet and struck lucky again with great views of the wintering Richard's Pipits (Pipit de Richard), much closer to the road than I've seen them previously and easy to spot in the freshly-mown fields. Buggers to digiscope in strong wind though!
Large numbers of Black Kites (Milan noir) were also making use of the fields, congregating in large groups much like Swainson's Hawks in the US.
On Sunday we walked up the Pic St Loup, hoping for eye-level views of soaring raptors. We didn't see this, though we were treated to the equally amazing sight of a glider being towed out and released into a thermal.
Typical birds of the habitat were seen, including Blue Rock Thrush (Monticole bleu), Dartford and Sardinian Warblers (Fauvettes pitchou et melanocephale). At lower elevations, a Long-tailed Tit (Mesange a longue queue) flock whizzed by...
... and a singing male Great Tit (Mesange charbonniere) added to the spring-like atmosphere.
