Mark Lew1s
My real name is Mark Lewis
September 2nd
The annual family/birding holiday was to be a bit earlier than usual this year. We have fallen into a pattern of doing this trip in mid October recently, coinciding with what’s probably the best time to be here for eastern vagrants, and also allowing me a week in the office to relax and recover from my autumn Sanday trips. However, the lure of some warmer weather, and opportunities to swim in the sea were too much for other members of the party, so we found ourselves on Ouessant for the first week of September. With that came a different focus for me. Seabirds and waders would take priority, and bush bashing would take a bit of a backseat - although there would still be some migrants around to look for.
You can fly to Ouessant but that would be no fun, so most people, us included, prefer to take the cheaper and more scenic route which is to take the ferry from Brest or Le Conquet. There are usually birds to be seen on these crossings, and this trip was not going to disappoint. From Brest to Le Conquet the boat stays inshore, so ‘real seabirds’ were few and far between, although I did get 3 Balearic shearwaters among the gannets, sandwich terns, Mediterranean gulls and shags. Once past Le Conquet, the boat passes through more open water, and here, among the commoner species mentioned above were a couple of great skua, 3 sooty shearwater, and best of all, about 9 Cory’s shearwater, arcing over the water and passing close to the vessel from time to time. This was a first for me in this part of the world, and testament to what shaking things up a bit time wise can do.
Once on the island we slipped firmly into holiday mode and went for a long lunch, although even with just a few minutes around the house I’d heard plenty of chiffchaffs and a couple of blackcap. Once I was finally given freedom to roam, it became clear that there were more migrants around than I was expecting. En route to the reservoirs 4 spotted and 2 pied flycatchers gave themselves up, and there were plenty of hirundines and meadow pipits on the move. The reservoirs were too full to have any sort of margin and were therefore waderless, so we moved on back towards Lampaul via Porz Noan, where a common sandpiper picked along the shore among gulls and little egrets.
In Lampaul I set off through the cemetery to have a look at Prad Meur, buoyed by the larger than expected numbers of migrants, and I was not to be disappointed. Crossbills were not what I was expecting, but there was the unmistakable sound, and then site of a small group heading over the town. They landed in a couple of pine trees so I moved slightly to try to get a better look - and promptly slipped into a bank of nettles. One sting at a time, I can live with nettles, but when your hand, arm, and lower back/upper arse are covered in them it can get quite sore! Note to self….wear a belt! I retired to the post office/bookies/bar for a beer to take my mind off things, and then one thing led to another and it was tea time. Around the house in the evening there were marsh harriers, kestrels, chiffs, blackcaps and a single wheatear, and a freshening wind that I hoped would make a seawatching session productive in the morning.
The annual family/birding holiday was to be a bit earlier than usual this year. We have fallen into a pattern of doing this trip in mid October recently, coinciding with what’s probably the best time to be here for eastern vagrants, and also allowing me a week in the office to relax and recover from my autumn Sanday trips. However, the lure of some warmer weather, and opportunities to swim in the sea were too much for other members of the party, so we found ourselves on Ouessant for the first week of September. With that came a different focus for me. Seabirds and waders would take priority, and bush bashing would take a bit of a backseat - although there would still be some migrants around to look for.
You can fly to Ouessant but that would be no fun, so most people, us included, prefer to take the cheaper and more scenic route which is to take the ferry from Brest or Le Conquet. There are usually birds to be seen on these crossings, and this trip was not going to disappoint. From Brest to Le Conquet the boat stays inshore, so ‘real seabirds’ were few and far between, although I did get 3 Balearic shearwaters among the gannets, sandwich terns, Mediterranean gulls and shags. Once past Le Conquet, the boat passes through more open water, and here, among the commoner species mentioned above were a couple of great skua, 3 sooty shearwater, and best of all, about 9 Cory’s shearwater, arcing over the water and passing close to the vessel from time to time. This was a first for me in this part of the world, and testament to what shaking things up a bit time wise can do.
Once on the island we slipped firmly into holiday mode and went for a long lunch, although even with just a few minutes around the house I’d heard plenty of chiffchaffs and a couple of blackcap. Once I was finally given freedom to roam, it became clear that there were more migrants around than I was expecting. En route to the reservoirs 4 spotted and 2 pied flycatchers gave themselves up, and there were plenty of hirundines and meadow pipits on the move. The reservoirs were too full to have any sort of margin and were therefore waderless, so we moved on back towards Lampaul via Porz Noan, where a common sandpiper picked along the shore among gulls and little egrets.
In Lampaul I set off through the cemetery to have a look at Prad Meur, buoyed by the larger than expected numbers of migrants, and I was not to be disappointed. Crossbills were not what I was expecting, but there was the unmistakable sound, and then site of a small group heading over the town. They landed in a couple of pine trees so I moved slightly to try to get a better look - and promptly slipped into a bank of nettles. One sting at a time, I can live with nettles, but when your hand, arm, and lower back/upper arse are covered in them it can get quite sore! Note to self….wear a belt! I retired to the post office/bookies/bar for a beer to take my mind off things, and then one thing led to another and it was tea time. Around the house in the evening there were marsh harriers, kestrels, chiffs, blackcaps and a single wheatear, and a freshening wind that I hoped would make a seawatching session productive in the morning.