Coastal trip

The  weather turned out to be wonderfully warm and sunny so we decided to visit a few coastal sites.  Starting at Espignan we came across 4 Whiskered Terns hunting the sewerage pools and a Great Reed Warbler singing in the nearby reed bed.  Checking the wet meadows nearby a Quail was calling incessantly and 8 Bee-eaters hunted from a dead tree.

We moved on to the meadows by the Aude just south of Fleury.  We had our picnic here to the multiple songs of Nightingales accompanied by Cetti's Warblers, Melodious Warblers and Golden Orioles.  A couple of male Montagu's Harriers quartered the heathland to the south and 3 Buzzards and a Black Kite passed by.  Five Lesser Kestrels were busy hunting and a Woodchat Shrike sat on a nearby bush. Checking the overhead wires 6 Rollers in pairs sat adjacent to specially provided nest boxes.

Next stop was at Pissevache where lots of birds were on the sewerage ponds as usual.  Eight Whiskered Terns hawked over the water with a single Black Tern.  Astonishingly the previous week I had seen a White-winged Black Tern here completing the full set of marsh terns.  About 40 Shelducks and a single male Red-crested Pochard were in residence as well.  Walking on the salt marsh we noted that quite a few pairs of Avocets were nesting and a distant island contained c40 Sandwich Terns and a few Little Terns.

We moved some way south to the Gruissan area and went to a small pool at a nature reserve and museum at Mandirac.  At least 30 Little Egrets were feeding here with 2 White Storks but more interesting was a single Squacco Heron.

Another good day and time to get home for supper.