After three weeks plus in France I returned home to a much changed patch. No birdsong, everything keeping out of sight, rampant greenery and very few additions to the patch lists. Nevertheless in the words of Edith Piaf " Non, je ne regrette rien". The passion, fervour and sheer excitement of the Euros more than made up for a scarcity of birds.
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| Stade de Lyon |
The trip was not entirely wasted birdwise as I racked up
manx shearwater from the ferry, and in various locations en route South I picked up
white wagtail, redstart, black redstart, and black kite. Highlight was a stopover in Gap and a day off driving. We took a bus up to a chateau, had a picnic lunch, a walk around the chateau, and then walked back down into Gap. This gave good views of a pair of
red-backed shrike and eight
griffon vultures. Try sorting your bird of the day from those two.
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| Walk near Gap |
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| View over Gap from the Chateau |
Belfast WOW was a haven of peace and tranquility with breeding common and arctic terns, Mediteranean gulls, black-headed gulls, mute swan, coot, moorhen, mallard, shelduck, greenfinch, goldfinch, chaffinch and lesser black backs. The autumn wader passage has started, sorry, I know we are still awaiting summer. There were 3 common sandpiper, 60 bar-tailed godwit and 35 knot this week.
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| Med gull with chick |
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| Med gull |
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| Black-tailed godwit |
We are off to Bolton on Wednesday so hopefuly a bird or two there to boost the year list - I am still missing willow tit!!
WOW patch list:
80 Sand martin
West Bangor patch list:
64 Gannet
2016 list
168 Manx shearwater
169 White wagtail
170 Black kite
171 Redstart
172 Black redstart
173 Griffon vulture
174 Red-backed shrike
