Wes Hobarth
Registered User
Newly joined see if you like my style of trip report. Unexpurgated
Part One
It all began so well. On Saturday 27 August we landed in a Montpellier ravaged by thunderstorms and torrential rain of the cataclysmic kind experienced by other parts of Europe in the previous week or so. The landing was the harshest thud I have ever endured and did my neck in making movement difficult for a day or two. But before this Norma and I had found her best friend Liz and Keith, our mentor, pedagogue and Dickensian tutor, as we were to find out, by the check-in area at Gatport Airwick’s North Terminal. Being a Bank Holiday weekend, Zoo does not describe the general chaos encountered. Keith said we could join a conventional queue or try the new fangled electronic jobby. We havered and a BA employee spotted our unnerved discomfiture and led us to three adjacent spare terminals. It seems this New Technology has not caught on yet and they are eager to market it. Despite simple screens and having to insert a Credit Card to confirm your identity a certain befuddlement set in at 5.30 am and he pushed the necessary Enter buttons and we all got seats together. We still had to go to another special desk to rid ourselves of our baggage and were still asked the same moronic questions by staff who also had not quite got grips with this new process. But it was nonetheless notwithstanding a relatively fast and painless activity.
Now there was a quality about Keith that hit my subconscious that was also unnerving. You know what it is like when you are looking at unfamiliar waders, gulls or warblers. Can you remember well the Jizz, colour and general features to satisfy a Nazi interrogation? Can most of us **** unless you have got two brains of course. Well Keith was like that. A Chameleon that could merge himself into an environment of whatever nature and then leave without a trace left on the memory. Spooky. There were but two other guests on this particular Fest. Elizabeth, definitely not a Liz, of a certain age, and Alison, a GP we were to discover, who contained within herself habits that were to infuriate, if you let them get to you. As we subsequently played swapsy with the seats in the bus my mission was to never end up beside her against stiff opposition from the rest of the Bus. These two we met briefly at the departure gate.
OK. So we are all congregated in Montpellier Airport. Keith eventually sorts out the paperwork for the hire wagon and manfully struts off to get it and bring it to a nearer car park so we only get drenched instead of totally sodden as we load up the vehicle. As we try to exit the car park the windows steam up as Keith drives down a one-way the wrong way. I am in the front with him on this occasion and spot the air-flow knob is on the internalised position. Discretely I make a change so as not to threaten his position as Leader. Early days yet. After much heavy duty manoeuvrings by us and other incompetents who can’t find their way out of an un and indeed mis-signed car park we finally hit the road for Beaucaire and the Hotel Robinson almost deep in the deepest Camargue (Route de Remoulins 30300 Beaucaire, Tel 04 66 59 21 32, Fax 04 66 59 00 03 and also at www.hotel-robinson.fr or contact@hotel-robinson-fr.
It is as I recall about a two hour drive with a stop off at a Motorway Service for a comfort break and snack. There are a lot of Gypsy girls about who are clearly seeking to give some sunshine in the rain to those who fancy a bit of dark coffee.
Anyway we all got a further soaking at this stop between the car park and the café.
We leave motorway-like roads and do some D-ones to arrive at our hotel where we take stock and check-in. The weather is still dire, so Keith suggests a bit of birding from some Wetland he knows some twenty odd km away. After getting “misplaced” several times we get there and clock for the group 37 species in the dank, dark and even-concrete rain Mosquito indulged environment The three varieties of Egret fairly abound, plus a B-C N-Heron and 36 Collared Pratincole (first two Lifer’s of the trip) were pretty good and 30 odd Bee-Eater, Eu Roller, Corn Bunting and Coot provided some supporting cast.
The evening meal was a real quality filler, plus, at this place, some free wine was a bit of serendipity at the end of a direly perfect day. The picnic lunches were also to prove near culinary triumphs.
The following day commences with the usual pre breakfast stroll. A walk up a hill behind the hotel. I don’t remember any remarkable birds but the scenery as the sun rose over some far hillsides was picturesque (pronounced picturescew) with the actinic quality of the light beyond measure. The meat of the day was to be an exploration of the western Camargue centering around the Maison du Parc with diversions to Stes Maries de la Mer, so we could say we had been to the seaside. Keith was astounded by the general dryness, which he had never encountered before. Although sunny it was a bit steamy after yesterday’s downpour.
Birds today were to total 69. Highlights, B-C N-Heron again, plus Little Bittern, Flamingos, White Stork (80+ on passage), R-C Pochard, Honey Buzzard (60+ on passage), Short-toed Eagle, which we had on most days in both locations, Whiskered and Caspian Tern, Crested Lark, Bee-Eaters by the 100, Hoopoe, all common Hirundines, Melodious and Sardinian Warbler, Spotted and Pied Fly (Spotted we saw every day in the Camargue but Pied’s ocurred every day in the Pyrenees as well), Cirl Bunting and Tree Sparrow. As yet I haven’t dipped on anything.
On the human front Alison is beginning to grate with one and all. She both Jabbers and Faffs incessantly. She misplaces things even more than Keith does the vehicle and is always fiddling with the zips and pockets of her Rucksack, especially annoying when we wish to disembark and she is in the way. She also seems to be treating Elizabeth as an errant and silly child, which is quite unfounded. I quite take to Elizabeth and find her an excellent seat companion as she generally falls asleep as soon as the bus is in motion.
The pre breakfast walk on day three clocks up our first Black Redstarts and we hear Cetti’s for the third day running but still can’t get on it. The weather is now cloudless and glorious and breakfast is al fresco on the Hotel terrace where the day’s plan is unfolded by Keith. The morning is to be spent at the famous Aqueduct Pont du Gard some forty minute drive north. We will then wend our way back to Beaucaire and head east for some mountainous hills the Chaine des Alpilles .
Somewhere today I dip on Wryneck, but on arrival at Pont du Gardwe we are greeted by 10 plus Alpine Swifts flying low over our heads. In short order the best and lengthiest view of Lesser Spotted Woodpecker I have ever had is much enjoyed. Our first White Wag is probably next. Garden Warbler also crops up along with, wait for it, eight Firecrest and Short-toed Treecreeper. This is followed up with at least six Crag Martins around the Aqueduct. We finally get Elizabeth onto Kingfisher after several failed attempts. As the morning wears on human disturbance increases dramatically so we ship out. An hour and a half’s drive including misplacements get us into the mountains east of Beaucaire. The road Keith wanted to go up is closed due the hazard of spontaneous combustion. We find some alternative location and shade for lunch. There are more Bee Eaters and Rollers and our first Ravens occur here. Along with several Sparrowhawks and a Hobby (the one and only on the trip).
We now drop down to the Village of St Martin de Crau to pick up permits at the Interpretation Centre for the Peau de Meau reserve we are to visit tomorrow. Along the way we break in the hamlet of Maussane for some very welcome home-made ice cream. Keith has now put a waymark of this location on his tattered map for future use.
Finally, before making for the Hotel, we decide to return to Gimeaux, our first birding on day one in the rain, to see if we can have the Pratincoles in unrestricted sun light. We are blessed with six and a flock of forty plus Corn Buntings. Gulls so far have been confined to Yellow-Legged and Black-Headed on each day and this is the case here. Wood and Common Sand are also about.
The log also shows we had Short-toed and Crested Lark six Cirl Bunting and our second and final Tree Sparrow sighting today. But for the life of me I cannot remember where.
As we satisfy ourselves with an al fresco dinner I reflect tomorrow is our last full day in the Camargue while Alison witters on about a lost cap for the front of her Swaro 8x32’s. Elizabeth has confessed to spotting a round rubber object on the floor of the hotel lounge last evening and had assumed it belonged to a local school group who had been doing some project filming in the hotel. She had picked it up and left it on a table, from which it is to be deducted the cleaning staff removed and discarded it the following morning. She rants on and wears out not only us but the Maitre D. I take my last swallow of beer up to bed.
Bird total yesterday was 57. Today, don’t ask me how, Alison has forgotten her Scope! Out on the Steppe it is incineratingly hot as we seek our prime targets of Little Bustard and Pin-Tail Sandgrouse. An out and back hike is required of some 3 to 4 km.
Through the brow sweat dripping on to my glasses I try to make out some decent observation details of a Booted Eagle found by Keith. I have to recognise the fact that I would never have got it without our guide. Do I count it? Oh bugger it YES! Next up is three easy Golden Oriele and remarkably clear views of 4 Sandgrouse both on the ground and flying. A big Lifer. But of Little Bustard there was to be no sign. Probably the worst dip of the trip.
While seeking a shady place for lunch Norma gets Stone Curlew from the van. A hasty stop and excellent views are had by all of a fine pair.
The afternoon finds us in and around the Etang du Fangassier southeast of the Etang de Vaccares (made famous by Alistair MacLean in his crap sixties thriller Caravan to Vaccares). This is sea and shorebird clean-up time.
Flamingos, Shelduck, Teal, mallard and Shov, Stilt, Lapwing, Little and Kentish Plov, Curlew, all three Shanks, Green Wood and Common Sand, Snipe, Little and Temmick’s Stint superbly together, Dunlin, usual gulls plus five Lifer Slender-billed, Gull-billed and Caspian Tern.
Species today was 67 with as yet unmentioned Goldcrest, N Wheatear and Tawny Pipit included. There were some possible candidates for Lesser Kestrel, but just to difficult to call.
So tonight we pack for a full days drive on the morrow to the Pyrenees and new horizons.
TBC
Part Two
It is the evening of the day as Mick once wrote for Marianne. We sit and await dinner in the Hotel Le Montaigu in the mountain valley Hamlet of Luc St-Sauveur. I have not provided details of this Hotel as I would not recommend it to anybody. After the sumptuous spreads at Hotel Robinson this was a real rip-off two-bit diner. Breakfast was nigh on bread and water, with cheese and ham extra on the room bill. Of four evening meals two were utterly disgusting main courses while one was fine and the other just bearable. Potatoes were over fried hash browns on three nights. The crème brulee desert was passable. The beer was a euro dearer than Robinson and they were inconsistent in the pricing of rounds. We also had to pay for wine here. Elizabeth and Alison had no showers, we had a shower head but no Bracket so a wash was an inelegant squat job.
Anyway we sit awaiting soup and for once Alison’s attention is elsewhere than herself. A party of Brits over to the left of my left shoulder is absorbing her. While having a smoke outside after our arrival and a sharp thunderstorm I had observed their return from a hiking trip. I knew they consisted of three strikingly attractive girls of apparently very similar ages, an older couple who could be parents and a young lad who could be taken for a right Nancy anywhere.
After much contemplation by all about who was related to whom, Alison suddenly blurts out something about the genetic endowment of four of the parties conks and remembers a cousin whose daughters sadly inherited his conk then rushes over to them - they are indeed her cousins except for Nancy who is one of the sisters, yes the three stunners are indeed sisters, boyfriend. Well did the rest of us fall about laughing or what. This was just so Alison! It was noticeable after in the lounge when Alison spent time with the party that the four youngsters studiously ignored her until they could head off for a bit of clubbing. Unfortunately, through politeness the parents could not do so.
But what of our journey today? It was a long haul of seven or so hours. Norma’s turn in the front ensured that no time was lost getting misplaced though.
Somehow out of the window and at pit stops we still managed 38 species, of which Red Kite, Griffon Vulture (Lifer), Common Buzzard, Common Pheasant and one dead Barn Owl were firsts for the trip.
But so opens our first full day in the mountains. Before dawn we ablute and congregate in dank blackness on the terrace at 07.15. Wandering up a hilly road behind the hotel common garden birds can be heard chirping vainly in the misty and moist conditions. Slowly a slate grey light begins to emerge as we return for a paltry breakfast.
Grumpy and dissatisfied we head off east to the Col du Tourmalet in lowering cloud and rain. A brief lay by stop as the weather clears for a moment just gives us time to stretch our legs and wonder what the view should be like before a cloud bank visibly sweeps up the mountain and overcomes us in a further downpour. We head on up and at the Col at some 2200 metres finally have sun and as we set off to hike two Lifer’s
In good numbers of both Choughs. Things are looking up. All the usual raptors follow as do the usual UK Pigeons who seem to be everywhere in Southern France. Hirundines abound as well. More trip firsts Grey Wag, Tree and Water Pipit and Alpine Accentor (Lifer) oblige after a bit of a struggle. Dipper is found on the way back down at one of a few stops to try for it.
A truly shite main course caps off the day.
A diversion before a cloudless morning hails big slog day up to the Cirque de Gavarnie. I have to say Keith is a Pearler. His direction finding instructions are so ******* good this is the sole reason I have dipped on so little this time around. He is the best yet. He also commands silence in the nicest possible way when all and sundry are squealing about a birds location. Also a pet phrase of his will forever stick in my mind when crap directions are issued. THAT IS NOT HELPFUL. Now, plaudit over, back to the plot.
In the better light actually able to see some common birds like Blackbirds, Tits, Robins and Blackcaps in the trees near the hotel. Had cheese and ham to go with the bread this morning despite the additional charge, I feel better. Still missing the freshly boiled eggs from Hotel Robinson. They had a machine where you could self time along with portable timers you could take back to your table to remind you when they were ready. That was service. Ah well.
So a drive south to Gavernie and then a big walk. Alison and Elizabeth and in a passing way Keith are Botanists. This particular walk leads to much flower looking and photographing thereof, a distraction that shreds Keith’s original timetable. It has a singular benefit. We reach our destination of a cliff face where there is a slim to none chance of Wallcreeper hours late. The choice is go back down for the so called packed lunch festering in the van or head up for a further bit of a slog to the hotel nestling beneath the Cirque. The latter wins. A superb lunch of sausage and chips followed up by Ice Cream. Bloody marvellous. Despite having dipped on Crested Tit on the way. Keith just said bad luck. But I suspect that was because I got Black Woodpecker and he did not. See, nobody’s perfect. Apart from our first Common Redstart, Black Kite, Chiff, Yellowhammer, Serin and Crossbill all the rest of our count of 45 for the day had been previously encountered.
The Duck tonight was the one decent meal at our shambolic Frog Faulty Towers.
On the final full day in the mountains there was one other bird apart from Wallcreeper, where hopes were fading. This would be our last chance. But there was a surprise in store for us before breakfast. No less than a congregation of 26 pale plumaged Kestrels (Juveniles?) congregated in some confers behind what passes for our Hotel.
Today our destinations are a reservoir, Lac des Gloriettes and another Col on the Spanish border the Col des Tentes. Again temperature is high and the reservoir is the lowest Keith has ever seen it. In the Car Park amongst Dunnock and Chaffinch is at least one Citril Finch (Lifer). Yellowhammer and Cirl Bunting are also about plus more Serin. Most of the usual soarer’s are up in the sky. Six Rock Thrush are counted along with two new one’s Wood Warbler(7) and Blue Rock Thrush(2). The latter Keith reckons is a good record as they really shouldn’t be here.
We drop down from the reservoir to find a spot for lunch. Keith stops at a grassy knoll on a rocky outcrop in full sun. I leave the rest to it and go beneath the rocks to find some shade. Having eaten my dry bread and slice of tired melon I lay back and scan the opposing mountainside and general sky for a while. Again the usual raptors are up there when a big bastard comes into view. I am trying to remember shape and Jizz when I hear Keith from the Knoll above yell Lammergeier. I confirm from below that I am on this next Lifer. A second one turns up before we leave along with another first for the trip of Goshawk. The next location is not really a birding one but a haunt for ramblers and climbers, though the scenery is breathtaking and there are staggering Glaciers that look remarkably other planet like through the bins. On the way down at a coffee stop there is a possible Golden Eagle, but distance makes it another one too close to call after a confirmed tally of 50 for the day.
So as Mick also wrote It’s all over now ( the Stone’s sixties stuff has so much verve, it is still their best period). Well not quite and there is a nasty sting in the tail for Alison and her faffiness I would not wish on anybody. Today (Sunday) we have to get to Toulouse for our flight home in the early evening. After breakfast we settle bills. Ours is missing one ham and cheese for this morning. Norma being far too honest points this out to the owner who just gives a gallic shrug. At ******* last something is almost ok about this excuse for a hotel.
Packed up and we are on the road again. We stop off on a side road up a valley near Lourdes for an hour or so of final Birding. Seven Red Kites are working the valley and on several occasions pass low over our heads filling the Bins with the low sun providing a photographer’s dream lighting. But that is not yet the end of it for one new bird both greets us and says farewell. An Egyptian Vulture adding to a final total of, by my reckoning, 139 species for the trip for both Norma and me. From this valley, the wagon and pit stops we tallied 43 species for the day.
In sweltering and intolerable humidity we make it to Toulouse Airport on time (Norma is in the front again) but we have some difficulty locating where to dump our trusty Citreon due to absence of signs. But we make it and unload the bus despite the usual one getting in the way. Now it is time to tell you that Alison is not returning to the UK with us. No. She owns a property somewhere in France that is a long way from Toulouse Airport and is expecting her daughter to fly in and meet her at Toulouse to drive off there in a hire car. Scene set. All bags out and ready to roll towards the terminal building we notice Alison both very flushed and Angst ridden far more than normal with zips adrift all over the place. She cannot find her driving license. Is it still at home or has she misplaced it somewhere over secure? Will her daughter who is well in transit by now be as daffy as her mother and forget hers? Will they be stranded forever in a parking lot or Arrivals at the beautiful concrete and Aluminium edifice that is this final blemish to an almost perfect holiday? None of us will probably ever know.
The End
AOB on other life forms out there and my general satisfaction with our company the Travelling Naturalist will follow as a postscript.
Cam & Pyr AOB
Mammals
Isard/ Apenine Chamois A.K.A Eddies
Red Squirrel
Alpine Marmot
Coypu
Brown Hare
Wild Boar
Amphibs and Reps
Common Frog
Common Wall Lizard
Drags and Dams
Beaut Dem
Emperor drag
Lesser Emp
Black-tailed and Keeled Skim
There were others but group ID skills were not up to it.
Moths
Hummingbird Hawkmoth
Butterflies
Swallowtail
Large White
Small White
Bath White
Clouded Yellow
Green Hairstreak
Small Copper
Adonis Blue
Common Blue
White Admiral
Camberwell Beauty
Red Admiral
Woodland Grayling
Striped Grayling
Two-tailed Pasha
Silver-washed Fritillary
Spotted Fritillary
Large Wall Brown
Large Skipper
Great-banded Grayling
Brown Argos
Sooty Copper (a tick for Keith)
To conclude. This holiday was overall bloody good. Unlike say, Birdseekers and Birdfinders this was not 24/7 relentless Birding. Given the light we had and Breakfast times, Birding was a half-hour to an hour before Breakfast and then from 09.00 to about 18.00 with dinner at 19.30 with the bird count starting around 19.00. This bit of evening reflection time was just perfect, instead of the usual 10 minutes from past experience. It was just a shame the first hotel was so utterly superb and the second, well, just crap. The Pyrenees clearly gets two tourist bites at the cherry, summer walkers and Skiers in winter. So maybe this is as good as it gets here. They have more than a modest sufficiency of one- time customers to be able to take the Piss. Nonetheless I will go with TN again. I like their style.
Over and out on the trip front until next time.
Wes, utimately
Part One
It all began so well. On Saturday 27 August we landed in a Montpellier ravaged by thunderstorms and torrential rain of the cataclysmic kind experienced by other parts of Europe in the previous week or so. The landing was the harshest thud I have ever endured and did my neck in making movement difficult for a day or two. But before this Norma and I had found her best friend Liz and Keith, our mentor, pedagogue and Dickensian tutor, as we were to find out, by the check-in area at Gatport Airwick’s North Terminal. Being a Bank Holiday weekend, Zoo does not describe the general chaos encountered. Keith said we could join a conventional queue or try the new fangled electronic jobby. We havered and a BA employee spotted our unnerved discomfiture and led us to three adjacent spare terminals. It seems this New Technology has not caught on yet and they are eager to market it. Despite simple screens and having to insert a Credit Card to confirm your identity a certain befuddlement set in at 5.30 am and he pushed the necessary Enter buttons and we all got seats together. We still had to go to another special desk to rid ourselves of our baggage and were still asked the same moronic questions by staff who also had not quite got grips with this new process. But it was nonetheless notwithstanding a relatively fast and painless activity.
Now there was a quality about Keith that hit my subconscious that was also unnerving. You know what it is like when you are looking at unfamiliar waders, gulls or warblers. Can you remember well the Jizz, colour and general features to satisfy a Nazi interrogation? Can most of us **** unless you have got two brains of course. Well Keith was like that. A Chameleon that could merge himself into an environment of whatever nature and then leave without a trace left on the memory. Spooky. There were but two other guests on this particular Fest. Elizabeth, definitely not a Liz, of a certain age, and Alison, a GP we were to discover, who contained within herself habits that were to infuriate, if you let them get to you. As we subsequently played swapsy with the seats in the bus my mission was to never end up beside her against stiff opposition from the rest of the Bus. These two we met briefly at the departure gate.
OK. So we are all congregated in Montpellier Airport. Keith eventually sorts out the paperwork for the hire wagon and manfully struts off to get it and bring it to a nearer car park so we only get drenched instead of totally sodden as we load up the vehicle. As we try to exit the car park the windows steam up as Keith drives down a one-way the wrong way. I am in the front with him on this occasion and spot the air-flow knob is on the internalised position. Discretely I make a change so as not to threaten his position as Leader. Early days yet. After much heavy duty manoeuvrings by us and other incompetents who can’t find their way out of an un and indeed mis-signed car park we finally hit the road for Beaucaire and the Hotel Robinson almost deep in the deepest Camargue (Route de Remoulins 30300 Beaucaire, Tel 04 66 59 21 32, Fax 04 66 59 00 03 and also at www.hotel-robinson.fr or contact@hotel-robinson-fr.
It is as I recall about a two hour drive with a stop off at a Motorway Service for a comfort break and snack. There are a lot of Gypsy girls about who are clearly seeking to give some sunshine in the rain to those who fancy a bit of dark coffee.
Anyway we all got a further soaking at this stop between the car park and the café.
We leave motorway-like roads and do some D-ones to arrive at our hotel where we take stock and check-in. The weather is still dire, so Keith suggests a bit of birding from some Wetland he knows some twenty odd km away. After getting “misplaced” several times we get there and clock for the group 37 species in the dank, dark and even-concrete rain Mosquito indulged environment The three varieties of Egret fairly abound, plus a B-C N-Heron and 36 Collared Pratincole (first two Lifer’s of the trip) were pretty good and 30 odd Bee-Eater, Eu Roller, Corn Bunting and Coot provided some supporting cast.
The evening meal was a real quality filler, plus, at this place, some free wine was a bit of serendipity at the end of a direly perfect day. The picnic lunches were also to prove near culinary triumphs.
The following day commences with the usual pre breakfast stroll. A walk up a hill behind the hotel. I don’t remember any remarkable birds but the scenery as the sun rose over some far hillsides was picturesque (pronounced picturescew) with the actinic quality of the light beyond measure. The meat of the day was to be an exploration of the western Camargue centering around the Maison du Parc with diversions to Stes Maries de la Mer, so we could say we had been to the seaside. Keith was astounded by the general dryness, which he had never encountered before. Although sunny it was a bit steamy after yesterday’s downpour.
Birds today were to total 69. Highlights, B-C N-Heron again, plus Little Bittern, Flamingos, White Stork (80+ on passage), R-C Pochard, Honey Buzzard (60+ on passage), Short-toed Eagle, which we had on most days in both locations, Whiskered and Caspian Tern, Crested Lark, Bee-Eaters by the 100, Hoopoe, all common Hirundines, Melodious and Sardinian Warbler, Spotted and Pied Fly (Spotted we saw every day in the Camargue but Pied’s ocurred every day in the Pyrenees as well), Cirl Bunting and Tree Sparrow. As yet I haven’t dipped on anything.
On the human front Alison is beginning to grate with one and all. She both Jabbers and Faffs incessantly. She misplaces things even more than Keith does the vehicle and is always fiddling with the zips and pockets of her Rucksack, especially annoying when we wish to disembark and she is in the way. She also seems to be treating Elizabeth as an errant and silly child, which is quite unfounded. I quite take to Elizabeth and find her an excellent seat companion as she generally falls asleep as soon as the bus is in motion.
The pre breakfast walk on day three clocks up our first Black Redstarts and we hear Cetti’s for the third day running but still can’t get on it. The weather is now cloudless and glorious and breakfast is al fresco on the Hotel terrace where the day’s plan is unfolded by Keith. The morning is to be spent at the famous Aqueduct Pont du Gard some forty minute drive north. We will then wend our way back to Beaucaire and head east for some mountainous hills the Chaine des Alpilles .
Somewhere today I dip on Wryneck, but on arrival at Pont du Gardwe we are greeted by 10 plus Alpine Swifts flying low over our heads. In short order the best and lengthiest view of Lesser Spotted Woodpecker I have ever had is much enjoyed. Our first White Wag is probably next. Garden Warbler also crops up along with, wait for it, eight Firecrest and Short-toed Treecreeper. This is followed up with at least six Crag Martins around the Aqueduct. We finally get Elizabeth onto Kingfisher after several failed attempts. As the morning wears on human disturbance increases dramatically so we ship out. An hour and a half’s drive including misplacements get us into the mountains east of Beaucaire. The road Keith wanted to go up is closed due the hazard of spontaneous combustion. We find some alternative location and shade for lunch. There are more Bee Eaters and Rollers and our first Ravens occur here. Along with several Sparrowhawks and a Hobby (the one and only on the trip).
We now drop down to the Village of St Martin de Crau to pick up permits at the Interpretation Centre for the Peau de Meau reserve we are to visit tomorrow. Along the way we break in the hamlet of Maussane for some very welcome home-made ice cream. Keith has now put a waymark of this location on his tattered map for future use.
Finally, before making for the Hotel, we decide to return to Gimeaux, our first birding on day one in the rain, to see if we can have the Pratincoles in unrestricted sun light. We are blessed with six and a flock of forty plus Corn Buntings. Gulls so far have been confined to Yellow-Legged and Black-Headed on each day and this is the case here. Wood and Common Sand are also about.
The log also shows we had Short-toed and Crested Lark six Cirl Bunting and our second and final Tree Sparrow sighting today. But for the life of me I cannot remember where.
As we satisfy ourselves with an al fresco dinner I reflect tomorrow is our last full day in the Camargue while Alison witters on about a lost cap for the front of her Swaro 8x32’s. Elizabeth has confessed to spotting a round rubber object on the floor of the hotel lounge last evening and had assumed it belonged to a local school group who had been doing some project filming in the hotel. She had picked it up and left it on a table, from which it is to be deducted the cleaning staff removed and discarded it the following morning. She rants on and wears out not only us but the Maitre D. I take my last swallow of beer up to bed.
Bird total yesterday was 57. Today, don’t ask me how, Alison has forgotten her Scope! Out on the Steppe it is incineratingly hot as we seek our prime targets of Little Bustard and Pin-Tail Sandgrouse. An out and back hike is required of some 3 to 4 km.
Through the brow sweat dripping on to my glasses I try to make out some decent observation details of a Booted Eagle found by Keith. I have to recognise the fact that I would never have got it without our guide. Do I count it? Oh bugger it YES! Next up is three easy Golden Oriele and remarkably clear views of 4 Sandgrouse both on the ground and flying. A big Lifer. But of Little Bustard there was to be no sign. Probably the worst dip of the trip.
While seeking a shady place for lunch Norma gets Stone Curlew from the van. A hasty stop and excellent views are had by all of a fine pair.
The afternoon finds us in and around the Etang du Fangassier southeast of the Etang de Vaccares (made famous by Alistair MacLean in his crap sixties thriller Caravan to Vaccares). This is sea and shorebird clean-up time.
Flamingos, Shelduck, Teal, mallard and Shov, Stilt, Lapwing, Little and Kentish Plov, Curlew, all three Shanks, Green Wood and Common Sand, Snipe, Little and Temmick’s Stint superbly together, Dunlin, usual gulls plus five Lifer Slender-billed, Gull-billed and Caspian Tern.
Species today was 67 with as yet unmentioned Goldcrest, N Wheatear and Tawny Pipit included. There were some possible candidates for Lesser Kestrel, but just to difficult to call.
So tonight we pack for a full days drive on the morrow to the Pyrenees and new horizons.
TBC
Part Two
It is the evening of the day as Mick once wrote for Marianne. We sit and await dinner in the Hotel Le Montaigu in the mountain valley Hamlet of Luc St-Sauveur. I have not provided details of this Hotel as I would not recommend it to anybody. After the sumptuous spreads at Hotel Robinson this was a real rip-off two-bit diner. Breakfast was nigh on bread and water, with cheese and ham extra on the room bill. Of four evening meals two were utterly disgusting main courses while one was fine and the other just bearable. Potatoes were over fried hash browns on three nights. The crème brulee desert was passable. The beer was a euro dearer than Robinson and they were inconsistent in the pricing of rounds. We also had to pay for wine here. Elizabeth and Alison had no showers, we had a shower head but no Bracket so a wash was an inelegant squat job.
Anyway we sit awaiting soup and for once Alison’s attention is elsewhere than herself. A party of Brits over to the left of my left shoulder is absorbing her. While having a smoke outside after our arrival and a sharp thunderstorm I had observed their return from a hiking trip. I knew they consisted of three strikingly attractive girls of apparently very similar ages, an older couple who could be parents and a young lad who could be taken for a right Nancy anywhere.
After much contemplation by all about who was related to whom, Alison suddenly blurts out something about the genetic endowment of four of the parties conks and remembers a cousin whose daughters sadly inherited his conk then rushes over to them - they are indeed her cousins except for Nancy who is one of the sisters, yes the three stunners are indeed sisters, boyfriend. Well did the rest of us fall about laughing or what. This was just so Alison! It was noticeable after in the lounge when Alison spent time with the party that the four youngsters studiously ignored her until they could head off for a bit of clubbing. Unfortunately, through politeness the parents could not do so.
But what of our journey today? It was a long haul of seven or so hours. Norma’s turn in the front ensured that no time was lost getting misplaced though.
Somehow out of the window and at pit stops we still managed 38 species, of which Red Kite, Griffon Vulture (Lifer), Common Buzzard, Common Pheasant and one dead Barn Owl were firsts for the trip.
But so opens our first full day in the mountains. Before dawn we ablute and congregate in dank blackness on the terrace at 07.15. Wandering up a hilly road behind the hotel common garden birds can be heard chirping vainly in the misty and moist conditions. Slowly a slate grey light begins to emerge as we return for a paltry breakfast.
Grumpy and dissatisfied we head off east to the Col du Tourmalet in lowering cloud and rain. A brief lay by stop as the weather clears for a moment just gives us time to stretch our legs and wonder what the view should be like before a cloud bank visibly sweeps up the mountain and overcomes us in a further downpour. We head on up and at the Col at some 2200 metres finally have sun and as we set off to hike two Lifer’s
In good numbers of both Choughs. Things are looking up. All the usual raptors follow as do the usual UK Pigeons who seem to be everywhere in Southern France. Hirundines abound as well. More trip firsts Grey Wag, Tree and Water Pipit and Alpine Accentor (Lifer) oblige after a bit of a struggle. Dipper is found on the way back down at one of a few stops to try for it.
A truly shite main course caps off the day.
A diversion before a cloudless morning hails big slog day up to the Cirque de Gavarnie. I have to say Keith is a Pearler. His direction finding instructions are so ******* good this is the sole reason I have dipped on so little this time around. He is the best yet. He also commands silence in the nicest possible way when all and sundry are squealing about a birds location. Also a pet phrase of his will forever stick in my mind when crap directions are issued. THAT IS NOT HELPFUL. Now, plaudit over, back to the plot.
In the better light actually able to see some common birds like Blackbirds, Tits, Robins and Blackcaps in the trees near the hotel. Had cheese and ham to go with the bread this morning despite the additional charge, I feel better. Still missing the freshly boiled eggs from Hotel Robinson. They had a machine where you could self time along with portable timers you could take back to your table to remind you when they were ready. That was service. Ah well.
So a drive south to Gavernie and then a big walk. Alison and Elizabeth and in a passing way Keith are Botanists. This particular walk leads to much flower looking and photographing thereof, a distraction that shreds Keith’s original timetable. It has a singular benefit. We reach our destination of a cliff face where there is a slim to none chance of Wallcreeper hours late. The choice is go back down for the so called packed lunch festering in the van or head up for a further bit of a slog to the hotel nestling beneath the Cirque. The latter wins. A superb lunch of sausage and chips followed up by Ice Cream. Bloody marvellous. Despite having dipped on Crested Tit on the way. Keith just said bad luck. But I suspect that was because I got Black Woodpecker and he did not. See, nobody’s perfect. Apart from our first Common Redstart, Black Kite, Chiff, Yellowhammer, Serin and Crossbill all the rest of our count of 45 for the day had been previously encountered.
The Duck tonight was the one decent meal at our shambolic Frog Faulty Towers.
On the final full day in the mountains there was one other bird apart from Wallcreeper, where hopes were fading. This would be our last chance. But there was a surprise in store for us before breakfast. No less than a congregation of 26 pale plumaged Kestrels (Juveniles?) congregated in some confers behind what passes for our Hotel.
Today our destinations are a reservoir, Lac des Gloriettes and another Col on the Spanish border the Col des Tentes. Again temperature is high and the reservoir is the lowest Keith has ever seen it. In the Car Park amongst Dunnock and Chaffinch is at least one Citril Finch (Lifer). Yellowhammer and Cirl Bunting are also about plus more Serin. Most of the usual soarer’s are up in the sky. Six Rock Thrush are counted along with two new one’s Wood Warbler(7) and Blue Rock Thrush(2). The latter Keith reckons is a good record as they really shouldn’t be here.
We drop down from the reservoir to find a spot for lunch. Keith stops at a grassy knoll on a rocky outcrop in full sun. I leave the rest to it and go beneath the rocks to find some shade. Having eaten my dry bread and slice of tired melon I lay back and scan the opposing mountainside and general sky for a while. Again the usual raptors are up there when a big bastard comes into view. I am trying to remember shape and Jizz when I hear Keith from the Knoll above yell Lammergeier. I confirm from below that I am on this next Lifer. A second one turns up before we leave along with another first for the trip of Goshawk. The next location is not really a birding one but a haunt for ramblers and climbers, though the scenery is breathtaking and there are staggering Glaciers that look remarkably other planet like through the bins. On the way down at a coffee stop there is a possible Golden Eagle, but distance makes it another one too close to call after a confirmed tally of 50 for the day.
So as Mick also wrote It’s all over now ( the Stone’s sixties stuff has so much verve, it is still their best period). Well not quite and there is a nasty sting in the tail for Alison and her faffiness I would not wish on anybody. Today (Sunday) we have to get to Toulouse for our flight home in the early evening. After breakfast we settle bills. Ours is missing one ham and cheese for this morning. Norma being far too honest points this out to the owner who just gives a gallic shrug. At ******* last something is almost ok about this excuse for a hotel.
Packed up and we are on the road again. We stop off on a side road up a valley near Lourdes for an hour or so of final Birding. Seven Red Kites are working the valley and on several occasions pass low over our heads filling the Bins with the low sun providing a photographer’s dream lighting. But that is not yet the end of it for one new bird both greets us and says farewell. An Egyptian Vulture adding to a final total of, by my reckoning, 139 species for the trip for both Norma and me. From this valley, the wagon and pit stops we tallied 43 species for the day.
In sweltering and intolerable humidity we make it to Toulouse Airport on time (Norma is in the front again) but we have some difficulty locating where to dump our trusty Citreon due to absence of signs. But we make it and unload the bus despite the usual one getting in the way. Now it is time to tell you that Alison is not returning to the UK with us. No. She owns a property somewhere in France that is a long way from Toulouse Airport and is expecting her daughter to fly in and meet her at Toulouse to drive off there in a hire car. Scene set. All bags out and ready to roll towards the terminal building we notice Alison both very flushed and Angst ridden far more than normal with zips adrift all over the place. She cannot find her driving license. Is it still at home or has she misplaced it somewhere over secure? Will her daughter who is well in transit by now be as daffy as her mother and forget hers? Will they be stranded forever in a parking lot or Arrivals at the beautiful concrete and Aluminium edifice that is this final blemish to an almost perfect holiday? None of us will probably ever know.
The End
AOB on other life forms out there and my general satisfaction with our company the Travelling Naturalist will follow as a postscript.
Cam & Pyr AOB
Mammals
Isard/ Apenine Chamois A.K.A Eddies
Red Squirrel
Alpine Marmot
Coypu
Brown Hare
Wild Boar
Amphibs and Reps
Common Frog
Common Wall Lizard
Drags and Dams
Beaut Dem
Emperor drag
Lesser Emp
Black-tailed and Keeled Skim
There were others but group ID skills were not up to it.
Moths
Hummingbird Hawkmoth
Butterflies
Swallowtail
Large White
Small White
Bath White
Clouded Yellow
Green Hairstreak
Small Copper
Adonis Blue
Common Blue
White Admiral
Camberwell Beauty
Red Admiral
Woodland Grayling
Striped Grayling
Two-tailed Pasha
Silver-washed Fritillary
Spotted Fritillary
Large Wall Brown
Large Skipper
Great-banded Grayling
Brown Argos
Sooty Copper (a tick for Keith)
To conclude. This holiday was overall bloody good. Unlike say, Birdseekers and Birdfinders this was not 24/7 relentless Birding. Given the light we had and Breakfast times, Birding was a half-hour to an hour before Breakfast and then from 09.00 to about 18.00 with dinner at 19.30 with the bird count starting around 19.00. This bit of evening reflection time was just perfect, instead of the usual 10 minutes from past experience. It was just a shame the first hotel was so utterly superb and the second, well, just crap. The Pyrenees clearly gets two tourist bites at the cherry, summer walkers and Skiers in winter. So maybe this is as good as it gets here. They have more than a modest sufficiency of one- time customers to be able to take the Piss. Nonetheless I will go with TN again. I like their style.
Over and out on the trip front until next time.
Wes, utimately
