France & Spain - August 2005

by Ben Macdonald

Having had our Austria trip pulled at the last minute due to the Heathrow strikes, it turned out to be an incredible stroke of luck as, two weeks later, we looked back on a brilliant trip through France and North Spain that could not have yielded more our of our most sought after birds.  

Taking the camper van, we had planned to cut down through France to the La Brenne Regional Park before moving down into the heart of the French Pyrenees, eventually returning by the Biscay ferry. The crossing was uneventful except for several Great Skuas and Yellow-legged Gulls. We arrived at Caen and enjoyed our first night of French cooking au bord de la cote Normandie.  

We drove for most of the day towards Mezieres-en-Brenne in the Indre region and that evening set out into the Brenne for our meal, stopping en-route at our first étang, Gabrieu. Almost immediately we were greeted with four Cattle Egrets, obviously part of a post breeding flock. A Black-necked Grebe, a breeding speciality of these lakes, was on the water and best of all were the fishing Whiskered Terns, our first lifer, hovering brilliant close to us revealing their short tails, grey belly and contrasting white cheek. A Marsh Harrier was an expected addition to the list. That evening we dined overlooking the Étang Gabrière, where even as we ate, an Osprey flew in to take a fish and, as dusk settled over the lake, Night Herons came flying in to roost, two juveniles circling the restaurant right over our heads, their drooping heads making for a characteristic flight silhouette. A fantastic introduction to this diverse and little-known region of France.  

Our principle aim, bird-wise anyway, on visiting these lakes may sound a little tame to you more experienced birders but it was this – to find Purple Heron. This fantastic wetland species had eluded us for so many years, somehow, that it was definitely one of our biggest European targets. In overcast weather we arrived at the Chérine reserve, where Cirl Buntings sang from wires and Fan-tailed Warblers called their “Zzit” from overhead. At the visitor centre, an incredible diminutive European Pond Tortoise was found sitting on a dried up bank. The drought has affected the water life of the Brenne much this year. We moved onto the hide, where some impatient scanning of the many Grey Herons almost immediately yielded a very different bird – a Purple Heron, sitting plumb in the open at the edge of a reed bed. After years of waiting, this fantastic bird was finally revealed to us as it first caught fish, walked, then flew! The incredible snake like neck, colouring and plumes make this a wonderful bird to observe. We moved onto the Étang de Beuregard. A short walk to this étang showed passage in full swing; a post-breeding flock of Black-winged Stilts and huge numbers of Whiskered Terns including many young birds. Butterflies were beginning to emerge and we were able to photograph Great-Banded Grayling, Sooty Copper and Short-tailed Blue. We finished the day at a campsite on the Étang de Bellebouche.

The following morning we left the van for a pre-breakfast walk. The woods held another lifer – the easily-identified (!) Short-toed Treecreeper, which finally uttered a call which gave it away. Large numbers of Pied Flycatchers were moving through, while three Hoopoes were an unexpected bonus here. A Purple Heron, as if to prove its status as an easily found bird, flew in from the nearby heronry to start fishing. We passed the Étang de Gabriére again towards lunchtime, picking up another Osprey and, totally unexpectedly, a rather early flock of Great White Egrets, presumably from Eastern Europe or dispersing from the colonies on the Atlantic Coast – a lifer again. As we passed on, we met a flock of 80+ Cattle Egrets and a another Purple Heron flew past. At the Étang Massé things were very quiet except for a criminally brief Southern White Admiral which flew over and a single Water Rail. Then onto the Étang Blizon, where we met, amazingly, our first birder of the trip. He told us, somewhat to our disbelief, that a pair of the locally rare Squacco Heron had appeared just up the road – and so off we went on our first foreign twitch. Five minutes later we had them staring down the scope barely ten feet away, an incredible species with a colour I’ve never seen in nature before. A cracking lifer, and heron species number seven. Also on Blizon were at least three more Purple Herons, many Great White Egrets, the ubiquitous Whiskered Tern, Marsh Harrier, Kingfisher and distant Honey Buzzard. Content with our luck, we stopped briefly at the Étang Foucault, picking up Grizzled Skipper, before heading back to Bellebouche. Stopping by an un-named étang for a flyover Purple Heron, we found another adult sitting literally at our feet, swallowing fish. This was too much, so we left.  

Our final day in the Brenne was somewhat quieter. A woodland walk in the Foret Lancosme was typically frustrating, with both Black and Middle-spotted Woodpeckers heard but not seen. Butterflies fared better, with Map Butterfly and Purple Emperor putting on a good show. A single Great White Egret was seen on a small lake, while at the dried up Étang Cordreau a pale male Honey Buzzard gave cracking views while Foucault held a huge flock of Cattle Egrets. At dusk we did a farewell trip to Blizon, watching the egrets fly in to roost, and clocking a Tawny Owl on the return trip.  

For those who have not been there, I recommend the Brenne. We didn’t even see it at its best, which would be during early summer when the orioles, bee-eaters and other exotics are all present. The phrase France Profound springs to mind, especially when you stay in eighteenth century chambres d’hotes or buy meat in Mezieres! Today we moved down towards the Lot Valley at Cahors, picking up several Honey Buzzards as we passed through the Dordogne valley. The Lot Valley is a fabulous contrast from Brenne with its imposing cliffs and hilltop castles. At dusk, another lifer sprang out of the gloom in the form of some Alpine Swifts, immediately recognisable even in silhouette by their huge size. We didn’t see them again, so who knows what their agenda was.

Next morning we ended our brief stay to head for the Pyrenees, but a brief roadside stop provided us with some excellent butterfly photographs – a colony of Adonis Blue, Chalk-hill Blue, Heath Fritillary and more Great Banded Grayling.

Our journey became, naturally, more spectacular on reaching the Pyrenees but nowhere were we reminded more of how easy it is to “find your own” in this huge country that at a Aire in the Midi-Pyrenees. In five minutes, we had found Large Tortoiseshell, Glanville, Knapweed, Heath and Pearl-bordered Fritillaries and a Cranberry Blue. Two hours later, sitting at a café at St Marie de Campan, we watched the first of many Griffon Vultures overhead while drinking coffee. Perhaps the most memorable days were to follow, as we got to grips with the incredible raptor spectacular that is the French Pyrenees. That night, as we set up camp, a fantastic adult Golden Eagle came over the hill brow, landed twice, then drifted off. This incredible raptor is too often very distant but as it flew now you could see the golden mane of feathers behind the fearsome bill.  

Our first full day in these amazing mountains saw us push the Camper up to the Col de Tourmalet, where we began a walk towards the Pic du Midi. High altitude specialists, the ringlets, were in force, with Spanish Brassy and Gavarnie Ringlets being photographed. Water Pipits are common here, and mixed flocks of Chough and Alpine Chough were overhead. As the day went on, Griffons began to emerge in numbers, some criminally close Honey Buzzards passed overhead, as did a flock of 15 Red Kites. Our first Marmots, amusing creatures, bounded between the boulders. The highlight came, however, on our return, where a flock of nine Snowfinches worked their way up the hill towards us until they were foraging between the tripod legs and playing havoc with the Opticron’s close-focusing abilities. A fantastic first day, but all the time we had been scanning for a bird which has become a family legend despite never being seen – the Lammergeier.  

Cloud was depressing low as we headed towards Gavarnie, and only towards midday did the cloud recede into the valley below us. The cirque looked moody in its shroud, so we headed into the Valley d’Ossaue, where huge, sheer cliffs rose either side inviting the inevitably fruitless search for wallcreepers. Many Griffon Vultures were flying, and Chalk-hill Blue and Clouded Yellow butterflies were commonplace. We drove slowly up the tortuous road until suddenly the sky darkened (!) With a great crash of breaks we all piled out because right above us, on unbelievably long narrow wings was an adult Lammergeier, head dropping, wedge-tailed, gliding effortlessly away from us, more like some futuristic glider than bird. We watched it wheel into a flock of Choughs, looking tiny in comparison, before it vanished over the hill, re-appearing at intervals without once beating its wings, almost as if in slow motion. The day would, amazingly, get better. An hour later, we watched a pair of juvenile Golden Eagles talon locking and food passing to one another on a huge outcrop, while an adult soared behind us.

Red-backed Shrike, Cuckoo, Honey Buzzard and Dipper were just fillers before the Lammergeier came soaring across the valley again, its head turning back a forth, presumably looking for bones or tortoises to drop! An incredible day, and the fulfilment of a lifelong birding ambition.

With worse weather than yesterday we decided to walk the Cirque de Gavarnie today. Snow-melt was pouring down the sheer walls and crashing through the village due to the late rains. All was quiet except for a single Large Wall Brown and, much later, the long-awaited appearance of some Chamois – our first ever – standing precariously on a mountain slope. Griffons and a flock of Serin made up the rest until a brief stop in the mouth of the Ossaue Valley yielded several Marmots and a Rock Bunting, which took flight showing white tail sides.  

Today was to be amongst our best birding days ever in terms of quality, but it started off quietly in glorious sunlight with a photogenic Marmot as we made our way up the Heas Valley to the Barrage de Gloriettes. A huge passage of Pied Flycatchers was coming through, as were many Serins and warblers. Griffon Vultures flew so close you could see their eyes, three Honey Buzzards passed and a cracking male Rock Bunting appeared at our feet. Arriving at the Barrage de Gloriettes, it seemed that the good weather had brought butterflies out of cover and in no time we had seen and photographed Queen of Spain and Dark Green Fritillary, Iolas Blue, Wall Brown, Marbled and Red-Underwing Skipper and several others. Then, just above us heads, minutes after passing the 1500m mark, a family of Rock Thrushes flew in and spent the next hour trying to get good views of us as they sat atop rocks or foraged nearby. At one point a bush nearby was alive with both these birds and Black Redstarts, providing a picture in orange. A short walk provided little more so, in the great heat, we beat a retreat across the Barrage itself where Crag Martins were nesting. Way away on the cliffs a huge bird, orange underneath, soared and immediately landed. Something clicked in the depths of my mind and the scope was up. After fruitless searching of the spot, an orange-maned head with a bony, bearded point caught my attention – an adult Lammergeier at its nest, picked out with the naked eye from ½ a mile away, and my best spot to date. You cannot exaggerate what it is to have one of the world’s largest, most colourful and charismatic birds of prey sitting in the scope in no hurry to go anywhere. Its amazing orange front and “trousers”, black back and its incredible head complete with neat little beard. It held us rapt for over an hour as it sat in full view, making us wonder what we had done to deserve such views. Eventually we left, and even a cracking Short-toed Eagle close-by was pushed from mind by the impression of this ultimate encounter! This bird is rare – only 500+ pairs exist in Europe and only 45 in France - if anyone reading this hasn’t seen one yet, there’s no excuse. That evening we took a walk around our new campsite at Gedre, and expressed mild surprise when another one flew straight overhead as we cooked.  

Our last full day in the Pyrenees was like a summary of what it was all about. It began with two Lammergeiers seen briefly from Gedre as we bought shopping. We returned to the Ossaue Valley in broad sunlight, and immediately the butterflies were there – Black-veined White, Escher’s Blue, Rock Grayling, Scarce Copper, White Admiral, Mountain Ringlet and Queen of Spain were all noted or photographed, but the best moment came when a huge Camberwell Beauty fluttered in front of the car.

Raptors soon became a feature with Griffon Vulture, the two immature Golden Eagles, two separate Lammergeiers and three Short-toed Eagles, including one perched, all within fifteen minutes! Rock Buntings, Water Pipits, Alpine Choughs, Dipper and Whinchat formed a supporting cast. Once again it was the wallcreeper that got away – but then does it really exist anyway? Next time, a trip to the Hecho Valley is on the cards for this species, though even at its known haunts it proves elusive.  

Time to leave the Pyrenees and head on into Spain. In no time the mountains dropped away leaving the flat expanse of coastal southern France. A single Booted Eagle was, amazingly, the only one of the holiday while a later stop in Spain produced another Short-toed Eagle and a large flock of Spotless Starlings. We stopped inland of the Santander, and spent the following day quietly exploring the countryside immediately inland of the Cantabria. The promising Embalso de Ebro was incredibly quiet and misty, so we moved on. A brief roadside stop provided, as well as the usual Griffons, a passage of three Short-toed Eagles and amazingly our second ever Camberwell Beauty which flew past and tantalisingly disappeared into a dry-stone wall! The rest of the day we saw more of the same, and the following we departed from Santander out across the Bay of Biscay.  

Being in Gloucestershire strictly land-bound in terms of sea-watching, our second crossing of Biscay was seized eagerly as one of few chances we get to get to grips with the true oceanic species. The voyage started quietly, and it was only mid-afternoon that the birds began to appear. First was a small flock of Cory’s Shearwater which appeared breath-takingly close alongside the boat. Several flocks followed and a single Balearic Shearwater, noticeably browner above than Manx, skimmed past. Later again, two Great Shearwaters appeared under our noses, separated at first in silhouette by their quicker wingbeats. Half an hour later a jet of water brought us to our feet – a vast Fin Whale, submarine-like, second largest mammal in the world, surfacing repeatedly, barely 200m from the boat edge. A few Arctic Skuas bobbed by and a long-winged, all dark shearwater with dark body was almost certainly a

Sooty Shearwater, a frustrating miss on this would-be lifer. Tantalisingly, the huge shearwater flocks began to appear only as the sun was setting – vast rafts of

Manx Shearwater with all of the other species there too. As dusk came, we were puzzled by what looked like a long, dark wave moving past us. Initially thinking it another whale, we could make out in the dark that hundreds of tiny birds were hovering, riding the wave – Storm Petrels. It was an incredible end to a diverse holiday and a brilliant cross-section of France’s diverse wildlife.  

Ben Macdonald.