Mark Lew1s
My real name is Mark Lewis
Sunday October 14th
As if following on straight from my Sanday trip, Sunday morning started with a walk to the ferry terminal in Brest through quite a bit of wind and rain. The ferry over to Ouessant has loads of potential though, and I wasn’t going to let a bit of weather stop me - a total lack of daylight was already doing a grand job of that. It got ‘birding light’ at some point between Brest and Le Conquet, and one of the first birds I saw was a fine drake common scoter, which are probably not very common in these parts. It was an otherwise quiet crossing though. A common tern was noteworthy, small numbers of guillemots and razorbills grabbed the attention of the French birders on board, and I made the most of the numerous opportunities to enjoy Mediterranean gulls and the odd Balearic shearwater that went past.
On arriving onto Ouessant we fell into the old routine of shopping for food and then ignoring it all and going out for lunch. Grabbed moments around the house revealed the expected chiffchaffs and robins, but the three black redstarts and the hooded crow and its hybrid offspring were more pleasantly surprising.
One hearty feed later and I was finally set free. Well - sort of. There is now an excellent WhatsApp group for birders on Ouessant, and although I’m intent on finding my own stuff, some messages are hard to ignore. I had picked up goldcrest, firecrest and bullfinches from among the many chiffchaffs around Ker’here when I got a message about an olive-backed pipit about 50 yards from the house! So, I ambled back that way, stumbling into a fine yellow-browed warbler en route, and joined the small group of twitchers waiting for it to come out. The pipit didn’t show, but the small group of trees it was supposed to be hiding in supported a constant flow of chiffchaffs, robins, 4 firecrest, a blackcap, a spotted flycatcher, and rather ominously, a sparrowhawk.
One failed twitch later, and I decided to have a wonder past the reservoirs and around Lampaul. It was late and gloomy, but the presence of the inlaws might account for the poor return! A moorhen and two coot on the reservoirs, several marsh harriers, three more black redstarts, and nice views of all three crows that were hooded to some degree.
A nice start to the trip, although if I’d been more inclined to twitch I could have added 2 red-breasted flycatchers, a rosy starling, a short-toed lark and a pallid harrier to the list.
Here's the Ebird list: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S49190451
As if following on straight from my Sanday trip, Sunday morning started with a walk to the ferry terminal in Brest through quite a bit of wind and rain. The ferry over to Ouessant has loads of potential though, and I wasn’t going to let a bit of weather stop me - a total lack of daylight was already doing a grand job of that. It got ‘birding light’ at some point between Brest and Le Conquet, and one of the first birds I saw was a fine drake common scoter, which are probably not very common in these parts. It was an otherwise quiet crossing though. A common tern was noteworthy, small numbers of guillemots and razorbills grabbed the attention of the French birders on board, and I made the most of the numerous opportunities to enjoy Mediterranean gulls and the odd Balearic shearwater that went past.
On arriving onto Ouessant we fell into the old routine of shopping for food and then ignoring it all and going out for lunch. Grabbed moments around the house revealed the expected chiffchaffs and robins, but the three black redstarts and the hooded crow and its hybrid offspring were more pleasantly surprising.
One hearty feed later and I was finally set free. Well - sort of. There is now an excellent WhatsApp group for birders on Ouessant, and although I’m intent on finding my own stuff, some messages are hard to ignore. I had picked up goldcrest, firecrest and bullfinches from among the many chiffchaffs around Ker’here when I got a message about an olive-backed pipit about 50 yards from the house! So, I ambled back that way, stumbling into a fine yellow-browed warbler en route, and joined the small group of twitchers waiting for it to come out. The pipit didn’t show, but the small group of trees it was supposed to be hiding in supported a constant flow of chiffchaffs, robins, 4 firecrest, a blackcap, a spotted flycatcher, and rather ominously, a sparrowhawk.
One failed twitch later, and I decided to have a wonder past the reservoirs and around Lampaul. It was late and gloomy, but the presence of the inlaws might account for the poor return! A moorhen and two coot on the reservoirs, several marsh harriers, three more black redstarts, and nice views of all three crows that were hooded to some degree.
A nice start to the trip, although if I’d been more inclined to twitch I could have added 2 red-breasted flycatchers, a rosy starling, a short-toed lark and a pallid harrier to the list.
Here's the Ebird list: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S49190451
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