Taunton Wildlife

France July 2010 - Loire-Atlantique continued -

Marais de La Grande Brière Mottière

Below: A juvenile Spoonbill literally makes a meal of catching a crayfish.

The Brière is known for its breeding marsh terns. These Black Terns were the more difficult, remaining quite distant, but nonetheless stunning...

...whereas these Whiskered Terns were easy, actively feeding young next to the tracks, including a distressed looking amphibian, apparently...

Below: Some waders from the Brière - Little Ringed Plover, Green Sandpiper and Common Sandpiper.

Below: I flushed this juvenile Cuckoo which must have been sitting on top of an information board on the path as I walked right by it, still it hung around for a few shots...

Below: Two of the 42 Black Kites in the air together above the canal, I think a juv harassing an adult...

Below: a disappointingly poor photo of Camberwell Beauty at the Brière. I saw two different individuals but they were very flighty so I only got two shots...

There were plenty of other insects about but, to be honest, I was overwhelmed with wildlife and, at times, didn't know where to point the camera! The Brière is a superb site.

Marais Salants de Guérande

This huge area of salt-pans in active use was right next to my base at Le Croisic. Although geographically impressive, it held little in the way of birds. I only found one pan of interest, with these Avocet and Black-winged Stilt, there were also two Common Sand, Marsh Harrier and (oddly) Sparrowhawk. All the other pans had just Little Egret and gulls (and notably no Yellow-legged Gulls that I could find).

Forêt du Gâvre

About an hour's drive to the east, this large Beech, Oak and pine forest was glorious. I spent 4-5 hours exploring here, picking up three life-ticks: Black Woodpecker (constantly calling but frustratingly difficult to actually see), Lesser-spotted Woodpecker and this Middle-spotted Woodpecker which allowed a couple of record shots...

A Great Spot and the omnipresent Greens made my 5 woodpecker day. Equally impressive here were the butterflies, including this beautiful Swallowtail which allowed macro-lens shots...

...and these fritillaries: top three - Queen of Spain Fritillary then two shots of Silver-washed Fritillary...

All the above butterflies feeding on Black Knapweed.

Below: I am including this photo of Speckled Wood, taken at the Parc de Pen Armel at La Croisic/Batz-sur-Mer, as I think it shows a transitional form between Pararge aegeria tircis and P. a. aegeria...

The chalet camping site we stayed at had coniferous trees which attracted Crested Tit, Serin, Firecrest and Short-toed Treecreeper, like this one photographed through our chalet window...