Capercaillie71
Well-known member
I’ve recently returned from a 2-week family holiday in France. This was the maiden overseas voyage of a DIY camper van conversion that I’ve been working on for most of the past year, and involved a long drive down to Dover, ferry to Dunkirk and then another long drive down to the south-west of France and back, with various stops on the way. There was little opportunity for dedicated birding, but I kept a note of everything I saw and took whatever chances arose to explore suitable habitats.
Versailles
We spent three nights here to visit the palace and gardens. There were lots of noisy nuthatches in the campsite (although mostly keeping to the high treetops), which are always a novelty to me as I live in an area where this species doesn’t occur. Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and Chaffinches were the only other birds still singing in significant numbers at this time of year. In the gardens of Versailles itself I actually managed a somewhat mundane and unexciting lifer in the form of feral Ring-necked parakeets, which I have never seen living in the wild before.
Parc Naturel Régional de La Brenne
We spent one night in this area giving us an afternoon and part of a morning to visit some of the many lakes in this area. We visited the Réserve naturelle nationale de Chérine in the afternoon when we arrived and after failing to access the hides next to the visitor centre at Étang Cistude (locked gates with people staring at us from the other side) we moved on to the Étang de la Sous at the north end of the reserve. The hide here was quite busy, mainly with photographers, and it was a struggle to keep my son quiet. As a result we didn’t spend long here, but saw a few interesting species including Cattle Egret, Purple heron, Red-crested Pochard and Whiskered Terns, as well as a European pond tortoise. The open areas of semi-natural grassland and scrub on the reserve looked like good habitat and provided reasonable views of a male red-backed shrike, 2 hoopoes and a corn bunting. Black kites were common on the reserve and we had distant views of 3 marsh harriers.
Before leaving La Brenne the following morning we visited the Étang Foucault near Rosnay, where there is a hide overlooking a shallow lake that held a slightly different range of species, including Black-winged Stilt and Little Egret. It would have been good to have spent longer in La Brenne and to have had some better weather (it was only 17C and raining as we left to head south).
Dordogne
We spent a week in this popular area, staying near a small village called St. Cybranet, in the valley of a tributary of the Dordogne called the Céou. I didn’t find any really good birding areas here, but there were a few opportunities to catch up with species that I don’t see at home. I even managed a long overdue lifer in the form of a short-toed treecreeper in the campsite. Purists may not like the fact that I identified it on range and habitat rather than any actual physical characteristics, but I’m having it!
An early(ish) morning trip along a quiet cycle path that runs up the east side of the Céou valley produced good numbers of singing Cirl buntings every few hundred metres, with some giving close views, good views of Turtle doves, a family of red-backed shrikes, a hunting hobby, a calling quail and a few singing serins. Green woodpeckers, blackcaps and nuthatches were very common and noisy, but otherwise the woods on either side of the valley seemed quiet.
Elsewhere, black redstarts were nesting in the campsite buildings; crag martins were common around many of the castles and tourist sites (e.g. Castelnaud-la-Chapelle and Domme) and black kites were common (several visible at any one time from the esplanade at Domme).
Parc Naturel Régional de la Forêt d’Orient
Returning north we stopped for two nights in this area, about 100 miles south-east of Paris, near Troyes. We weren’t really there at the right time of year (the area supports large numbers of cranes in the autumn and wildfowl in the winter) and the weather was by now very hot (35C) but this looks like a fantastic area for birding, within 4 hours drive of the channel ports. The park is centred on two huge reservoirs surrounded by extensive areas of lowland broad-leaved woodland. Apparently six species of woodpecker can be found here, although inevitably we only saw the two common ones that we get at home. An internet search on birding in the area told me that red-necked grebes had recently started breeding to the left of the jetty in the popular tourist village of Mesnil St. Père, on the shores of the Lac d’Orient. Heading to this area in the evening it seemed unlikely as the place was teeming with tourists and leisure boats, but sure enough, there was a pristine breeding plumage red-necked grebe just to the left of the jetty- fantastic!
At the north-east end of Lac d’Orient there is an ornithological reserve with a hide in the woods, overlooking the reed-fringed edge of the lake. On arriving at the car park for the hide, I immediately heard a golden oriole singing in the forest on the other side of the road. I went off in search of it and eventually stood beneath the tree it was singing in, but 30 metres up in the dense canopy of oak and beech it was impossible to see. Nice to hear though. The hide itself (actually a bird tower) was a little quiet although a purple heron was visible just in front, two great white herons were wading in the shallows and one or two black kites were usually visible in the distance.
After this we went for a cycle ride along some forest trails in the Forêt du Temple, to the north-east of Lac d’Orient. We followed the promising-sounding Route Forestière de Fontaine aux Oiseaux. It was a bit too hot for many birds to appear though. I did see a distant honey-buzzard circling over the forest and the highlight was four black storks flying up from a muddy creek and landing in some trees at the edge of the marsh. This whole area would definitely be worth a visit in spring or autumn.
Versailles
We spent three nights here to visit the palace and gardens. There were lots of noisy nuthatches in the campsite (although mostly keeping to the high treetops), which are always a novelty to me as I live in an area where this species doesn’t occur. Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and Chaffinches were the only other birds still singing in significant numbers at this time of year. In the gardens of Versailles itself I actually managed a somewhat mundane and unexciting lifer in the form of feral Ring-necked parakeets, which I have never seen living in the wild before.
Parc Naturel Régional de La Brenne
We spent one night in this area giving us an afternoon and part of a morning to visit some of the many lakes in this area. We visited the Réserve naturelle nationale de Chérine in the afternoon when we arrived and after failing to access the hides next to the visitor centre at Étang Cistude (locked gates with people staring at us from the other side) we moved on to the Étang de la Sous at the north end of the reserve. The hide here was quite busy, mainly with photographers, and it was a struggle to keep my son quiet. As a result we didn’t spend long here, but saw a few interesting species including Cattle Egret, Purple heron, Red-crested Pochard and Whiskered Terns, as well as a European pond tortoise. The open areas of semi-natural grassland and scrub on the reserve looked like good habitat and provided reasonable views of a male red-backed shrike, 2 hoopoes and a corn bunting. Black kites were common on the reserve and we had distant views of 3 marsh harriers.
Before leaving La Brenne the following morning we visited the Étang Foucault near Rosnay, where there is a hide overlooking a shallow lake that held a slightly different range of species, including Black-winged Stilt and Little Egret. It would have been good to have spent longer in La Brenne and to have had some better weather (it was only 17C and raining as we left to head south).
Dordogne
We spent a week in this popular area, staying near a small village called St. Cybranet, in the valley of a tributary of the Dordogne called the Céou. I didn’t find any really good birding areas here, but there were a few opportunities to catch up with species that I don’t see at home. I even managed a long overdue lifer in the form of a short-toed treecreeper in the campsite. Purists may not like the fact that I identified it on range and habitat rather than any actual physical characteristics, but I’m having it!
An early(ish) morning trip along a quiet cycle path that runs up the east side of the Céou valley produced good numbers of singing Cirl buntings every few hundred metres, with some giving close views, good views of Turtle doves, a family of red-backed shrikes, a hunting hobby, a calling quail and a few singing serins. Green woodpeckers, blackcaps and nuthatches were very common and noisy, but otherwise the woods on either side of the valley seemed quiet.
Elsewhere, black redstarts were nesting in the campsite buildings; crag martins were common around many of the castles and tourist sites (e.g. Castelnaud-la-Chapelle and Domme) and black kites were common (several visible at any one time from the esplanade at Domme).
Parc Naturel Régional de la Forêt d’Orient
Returning north we stopped for two nights in this area, about 100 miles south-east of Paris, near Troyes. We weren’t really there at the right time of year (the area supports large numbers of cranes in the autumn and wildfowl in the winter) and the weather was by now very hot (35C) but this looks like a fantastic area for birding, within 4 hours drive of the channel ports. The park is centred on two huge reservoirs surrounded by extensive areas of lowland broad-leaved woodland. Apparently six species of woodpecker can be found here, although inevitably we only saw the two common ones that we get at home. An internet search on birding in the area told me that red-necked grebes had recently started breeding to the left of the jetty in the popular tourist village of Mesnil St. Père, on the shores of the Lac d’Orient. Heading to this area in the evening it seemed unlikely as the place was teeming with tourists and leisure boats, but sure enough, there was a pristine breeding plumage red-necked grebe just to the left of the jetty- fantastic!
At the north-east end of Lac d’Orient there is an ornithological reserve with a hide in the woods, overlooking the reed-fringed edge of the lake. On arriving at the car park for the hide, I immediately heard a golden oriole singing in the forest on the other side of the road. I went off in search of it and eventually stood beneath the tree it was singing in, but 30 metres up in the dense canopy of oak and beech it was impossible to see. Nice to hear though. The hide itself (actually a bird tower) was a little quiet although a purple heron was visible just in front, two great white herons were wading in the shallows and one or two black kites were usually visible in the distance.
After this we went for a cycle ride along some forest trails in the Forêt du Temple, to the north-east of Lac d’Orient. We followed the promising-sounding Route Forestière de Fontaine aux Oiseaux. It was a bit too hot for many birds to appear though. I did see a distant honey-buzzard circling over the forest and the highlight was four black storks flying up from a muddy creek and landing in some trees at the edge of the marsh. This whole area would definitely be worth a visit in spring or autumn.
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