BBREE
December 25th, 2008, 09:53 AM
Hi there,
In Jersey many arrivals of new wildfowl including Goosanders at Queen's Valley known locally as Les Vaux des Moulins where there is a good sized population of macroryncha Short-toed Treecreepers which are resident with Great-spotted Woodpeckers and sometimes Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers.It is near Grouville Marsh a hotspot for rarities near Grouville Bay and la Rocque where I live where there is a residdent Long-tailed Duck and wintering Blaearic Shearwaters which are present off the opposite ocast of Normandy in a group of fifty or more birds.Also wintering Sandwich Tern are flying around feeding at La Rocque in dozens still over Spoonbill, hundreds of Egrets and large flocks of waders, wildfowl and seabirds.A great destination for winter birding with direct flights to most UK airports.
In the Bay of Mont St Michel near Jersey 22 Lapland Bunting make up a fair sized flock near some Cranes, Ring-billed Gull and big variety or interesting shorebirds.Nearby is Etang de Careil where there are male Ring-necked Ducks.
In Finisterre at Kermor today Christmas day a big crowd of birders are having a Christmas day twitch en masse of the Lesser Yellowlegs which seems to be
happy there having been ther for quite some time appearing as though it is going to overr winter!
In the Camargue 75 Bewicks Swans are near the Tour du Valat owned by Bird Life International founder Luc Hoffman of Hoffman La Roche chemical fame!
Luc is a keen birder like my colleague Michel who works there studying bird flu there who hass been studying the colony of Glossy Ibis nearby and inviting me and colleagues to help ring them in the breeding season when young are everywhere but in the nests and we have to use ladders to get to them sitting in the bushes to ring them at Scamandre reserve where a pair of Hoopoes breed in the wall of the Reception building and show no fear.
Also Bee-eaters brered there and all nine species of breeding ardeaidae in Europe with thousands of Egrets, Herons and a good few Littel Bitterns, Bitterns amongst brereding Purple Gallinules near Albaron in the Camargue a good spot to see Rollers in summer on the wires.A sommeringii type Jackdaw is present in the area now and in the Crau a number of over wintering Richards Pipits plus amny species of raptor including Booted Eagle, probable Lanner, Merlins galore, Kites with a Black Kite still in Brittany not far from Jersey now. Many Black Storks in the Camargue area now with a good few Cranes.
At:-
http://www.ecosearch.com
a useful search engine to find out about the environment.
At:-
http://avian.pix.free.fr
photos and videos of the Lesser Yellowlegs in Brittany in Finisterre just downloaded.
At:-
http://perso.numericable.fr/nidf/
A new list of French bird species to download.
Kind regards from a mild sunny Jersey isle where a hundred or so locals are going now for a ddip in the sea clad simply is just swimming costumes and bikinis! Bertram.E.B.BREE in the sun of mild Jersey.
In Jersey many arrivals of new wildfowl including Goosanders at Queen's Valley known locally as Les Vaux des Moulins where there is a good sized population of macroryncha Short-toed Treecreepers which are resident with Great-spotted Woodpeckers and sometimes Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers.It is near Grouville Marsh a hotspot for rarities near Grouville Bay and la Rocque where I live where there is a residdent Long-tailed Duck and wintering Blaearic Shearwaters which are present off the opposite ocast of Normandy in a group of fifty or more birds.Also wintering Sandwich Tern are flying around feeding at La Rocque in dozens still over Spoonbill, hundreds of Egrets and large flocks of waders, wildfowl and seabirds.A great destination for winter birding with direct flights to most UK airports.
In the Bay of Mont St Michel near Jersey 22 Lapland Bunting make up a fair sized flock near some Cranes, Ring-billed Gull and big variety or interesting shorebirds.Nearby is Etang de Careil where there are male Ring-necked Ducks.
In Finisterre at Kermor today Christmas day a big crowd of birders are having a Christmas day twitch en masse of the Lesser Yellowlegs which seems to be
happy there having been ther for quite some time appearing as though it is going to overr winter!
In the Camargue 75 Bewicks Swans are near the Tour du Valat owned by Bird Life International founder Luc Hoffman of Hoffman La Roche chemical fame!
Luc is a keen birder like my colleague Michel who works there studying bird flu there who hass been studying the colony of Glossy Ibis nearby and inviting me and colleagues to help ring them in the breeding season when young are everywhere but in the nests and we have to use ladders to get to them sitting in the bushes to ring them at Scamandre reserve where a pair of Hoopoes breed in the wall of the Reception building and show no fear.
Also Bee-eaters brered there and all nine species of breeding ardeaidae in Europe with thousands of Egrets, Herons and a good few Littel Bitterns, Bitterns amongst brereding Purple Gallinules near Albaron in the Camargue a good spot to see Rollers in summer on the wires.A sommeringii type Jackdaw is present in the area now and in the Crau a number of over wintering Richards Pipits plus amny species of raptor including Booted Eagle, probable Lanner, Merlins galore, Kites with a Black Kite still in Brittany not far from Jersey now. Many Black Storks in the Camargue area now with a good few Cranes.
At:-
http://www.ecosearch.com
a useful search engine to find out about the environment.
At:-
http://avian.pix.free.fr
photos and videos of the Lesser Yellowlegs in Brittany in Finisterre just downloaded.
At:-
http://perso.numericable.fr/nidf/
A new list of French bird species to download.
Kind regards from a mild sunny Jersey isle where a hundred or so locals are going now for a ddip in the sea clad simply is just swimming costumes and bikinis! Bertram.E.B.BREE in the sun of mild Jersey.