French Excursion

I found myself with a free weekend ahead, so called up old pal Jono Williams and ended up heading over to catch up with him and do some birding around his now hometown of Verdun. I flew from Manchester to Luxembourg and was at Jono's house by 10pm. A couple of quick opening beers then off to bed for an early start.

Saturday 12th May

Up and out at 5.30am for a bird-filled bonanza at a few of Jono's favourite local sites. The overall abundance of birds was refreshing and very noticeable compared to home. Lots of singing common species in the extensive woodland and wetlands is a stark contrast to our over crowded and clearly impoverished landscape. But it also gives plenty of scope for hope that things can get better again.

Black kites are ubiquitous, but for me a pleasure to see them rolling around everywhere. A roadside red squirrel (much blacker  bodied than ours) was a first locally for Jono, then we quickly had reasonable views of a (presumed) European wildcat as it caught a rodent and crossed the road in front of us. Later in the day we were to bump into another which paused long enough to photograph. It seems the cats are not at all rare here and there is no apparent problem with hybridisation - recently published research shows this not to be a problem where population densities are higher than in Scotland and so raising hope for the reestablishment of our native cats (along with Lynx).

Rubbish photo I know, but it's a wildcat! Taken through the windscreen - the views were better than this suggests!!

The first birds of note were cronking great reed warblers, shouting from the roadside reeds, and a black woodpecker drummed unseen nearby (crazy loud!). At the main lake we notched up a singing Savi's warbler (with one seen well), 2 smart singing male white-spotted bluethroats, spoonbill, a single whiskered tern, garganey, osprey, turtle dove, marsh harriers and numerous cuckoos (including a superb 'red' bird - stunning). At least one hoopoe was calling nearby (a local tick form Jono), but remained unseen. Marsh frogs called everywhere and were very conscious in the ditched, every one as green as Kermit.

Bluethroat

Marsh Frog

Lady Orchid

Into the nearby woods before it got too warm, and the main targets was pretty easy. In fact there were at least 3, probably 5 collared flycatchers singing and showing. Luckily we happened across a male low down around a potential nest site which is was vigorously singing around. A female came in a couple of times to check out the option and he went into overdrive. Really excellent views. Most other birds in the woods were heard rather than seen - golden oriole, short-toed treecreeper, firecrest and hawfinch remained hidden, although we barely really tried to see them.

Collared Flycatcher - stunning birds!

Nest stop was Madine Lake, but en route we picked up a ringtail harrier along the road which seemed to be a hen harrier but disappeared too quickly. We went off to look for it to no avail, but were more than compensated by an overhead honey buzzard and then two pairs of Montagu's harriers. Male Monty's are always stunning, even more so when you see one in breath-taking high speed pirouetting display and calling almost overhead. Amazing.

Honey Buzzard

Along the way roadside spots included a couple of red-backed shrikes and pleasantly common stonechats.

At the Lake white storks were building a nest on a pylon near the car park, more great reed warblers, nice views of nightingales but the singing golden orioles were only glimpsed. The Lake itself was pretty quiet aside from the resident common terns, but 15 black terns passed through quickly. More surprising was a flythrough of 4 avocets - a local tick for Jono.

Then back to an old quarry site where we immediately saw a rather impressive adult eagle owl which flew across and landed to give excellent views. I'd visited this site before with Jono a couple of years back and only managed to see a chick, so the upgrade was most welcome. We had a look at another nearby quarry site only for history to repeat itself - 2 chicks in the regular nest site but no sign of the adults. No doubt we were being watched. It seems eagle owls are now locally common and use pretty much every available former and sometimes active quarry site. I'd guess human land reshaping has provided opportunities for this species in lowland areas that may not have been available before - good or bad? Who know, but it really can't be long before they establish in the UK.

Eagle Owl

Alien

And that was Saturday's birding. A fine day indeed in great company.... followed by a splendid meal with Jono and Aurelia in Verdun with a few drinks. Hardcore as we are, in bed by 11 knackered!!

Sunday 13th May

An altogether more relaxed affair with a late start due to heavy rain and - more honestly - laziness. We rechecked Madine but nothing new, then went on to Jono's most local site Lachaussee. Conditions weren't great, it was remarkably cold and breezy after yesterday's heat, so we mostly mooched around the hides and chewed the fat. Ornithological entertainment was provided by at least 3 stonking purple herons, one of which displayed in the reed (albeit distantly). A single black tern was present and hobbies and marsh harriers showed nicely too. Satisfied with the weekend's haul we retired to chez Jono for a chilled afternoon watching the premiership season finale (damp squib) before heading back to Luxembourg and homeward.

Purple Heron

A really excellent weekend - thanks Jono!