SW Brittany (1 Viewer)

Hi, I'm going on a family holiday based near Plozévet for the last 2 weeks in June this year. Not really expecting any new birds but as I'm within easy striking distance of Pointe de Penmarc'h, Pointe du Raz and Pointe du Van, I'm wondering what prospects there are for seawatching at this time of year? Presumably, too early for any large shearwaters but would Sooty Shearwater and Storm Petrel be possible? Also what wind direction should I be looking for, at the various sites?
Finally, Mrs P fancies a boat trip to Île de Sein, which would be great in October but presumably unproductive for birds in June?
Any help gratefully received.
Dave

Hi, not the part of Brittany that I know best (especially in summer) but from what I see on Faune Bretagne (this website shows the latest sightings in the area http://www.faune-bretagne.org/), Pointe de Penmarc'h seems the best place for shearwaters (Mostly Balearic and Manx but also a few Sooties) but mostly in early June...
Birds you should expect in this area at this time of the year are : Gannet, Fulmar, Kittiwake, Peregrine, Red-Billed Chough and Dartford Warbler...

Thanks Val35,
I was aware of the website, but how did you see the June records? My French is not great, but I can only find records for the past 15 days!
Presumably for Pointe de Penmarc'h I would be looking for west or south westerly winds with birds then re-orientating west?

You can't see the June records because you didn't submit any sightings on the website yet. Yes, South westerly winds should be the best for seawatching at Penmarc'h.

Hi Dave,
One of the drawbacks of the biolovision database sites is that they don't allow non-subscribers to research previous records going back any length of time to be really useful for visiting birders. The only way around this is to sign up which will take only a few minutes, costs nothing, and which will allow you to do a multi-criteria research (make sure to select the period and the species in question as the default setting is only for the previous 5 days).

You can use the same username and password to sign up to all the regional sites including the re-vamped https://www.faune-france.org/ which is replacing the rather good rare birds site http://www.ornitho.fr/index.php?m_id=4 . Another case of ruining a perfectly good site that worked well in my opinion :-(

Ile de Sein is nice but don't expect too much in June. Sooty Shearwater would be an excellent record in June too ! Much more likely that you'll see good numbers of Balearics. Like in the UK you could come across something spectacular wandering around in mid summer (warbler, a swift sp. bee-eater, wader ?) so keep an open mind. Other than that it'll be pretty typical fare for the region; lots of familiar birds plus a few more continental extras.

Good luck !

Many thanks to you both. I'm now registered on the website and ready to go!