Birding day trip La Palme-Sainte Lucie April 2024

Merlin & Red-footed falcon on migration

We spent the morning enjoying open garrigue where a pair of Woodchat shrike gave us a great display! Stonechat taking food to an unseen nest and some good raptors on migration, most of which we thought were Merlin, but it turned out that on checking photos later, at least two were in fact Red-footed falcon. Some better sheltered woodland added wonderful views of Pied-flycatcher and a particularly brightly coloured male Common redstart.
The day continued down on the old salt pans checking out the migrating Yellow wagtails – some iberiae sbsp and some flava!
We ended up at the recently built nesting islands that are now occupied by a colony of Common tern. 

You can read or download the trip report with bird list here.

Day trip Gruissan April 2022

Day trip 12th April 2022 – Gruissan

Guide of the day: Karline Martorell accompanied by Philippa Benson
Participants: 10
Weather conditions: Cloudy all day with a fresh onshore wind. Temps ranging from 10°C to 16°C.

Highlights of the day: White stork (on the nest and bill clapping), Marsh harrier, Yellow wagtail, Purple heron, Woodchat shrike

We started with reed beds, nesting White stork, Purple heron and a very shy Purple swamphen… and ended the day in a quarry ogling a beautiful male Blue rock thrush with a dazzling blue head! Saltpans, waders, vineyards and Woodchat shrike and so much more in between!
Varied habitats and a wide variety of 70 species in total.

Read the full trip report and bird list via the link below and don’t hesitate to share the link 🙂 

Trip report and bird list 2022.12.04 – Gruissan

 

Day trip Les Coussoules – La Palme March 2022

 Day trip 28th March 2022 – Les Coussoules & La Palme

Guide of the day: Karline Martorell accompanied by Philippa Benson
Participants: 8
Weather conditions: Good weather partly cloudy with a very light easterly wind, temps ranging
from 10°C to 14°C

Highlights of the day: Osprey, Common redstart, Temminck’s stint, Yellow wagtail

The low lying dunes of les Coussoules are a favoured stopover for a range of birds on migration. We were lucky to get excellent views of a very cooperative Osprey (at first perched in a dead tree and then in flight) and amongst a fairly constant flow of Barn swallow and House martin Karline spotted the first Common swift of the season 🙂

The salt pans at La Palme turned up another first (quite late), several very intensely coloured Yellow wagtail (including one of the Iberian sub-species). Also, scanning a group of Little stint, Karline’s eagle eyes picked up a Temminck’s stint.

Just click on the link below to read or download the detailed trip report and bird list.

Trip report and bird list 2022.28.03 – Les Coussoules & La Palme

 

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