A family holiday based in a mobile home
at Drancourt, just outside St. Valery-sur-Somme, would hopefully offer some
slightly different birding to Sussex without having to travel too far (although
including a delay on the ferry it took about as long to get to as it normally
would to Cornwall).
We had excellent weather, although unchanging
sunshine and light winds wasn’t good for migrants. Neither were neap tides helpful in viewing waders
in the massive Baie de Somme.
Areas visited looking for birds were
the area around Drancourt, coastal pools of Hable D’Ault, pine forest and beach
at Marquenterre, the small promontory of Le Hourdel, mudflats & roadside pools at
La Maye, marshes at Sailly-Bray and the Forest of Crechy. Megan and I also visited Eu, Abbeville and
Ramburelles while I dipped out of trips to City Europe and Sea Centre Nausicaa
(in Calais & Boulogne respectively).
We had an enjoyable time and I saw 65-80 species each day and about
110 in total, including several I don’t often see in Sussex.
At Drancourt at least 3 Hen Harriers including
a fine male were seen hunting over the fields behind the camp site as were 2
Hobbies with several coveys of Grey Partridges, 1200 Lapwing and 2 Wheatears,
but no buntings at all (none were seen all trip). Around the campsite were at least 3 vocal Tawny
Owls, a House Martin colony, a Lesser Whitethroat, a family of 4 Spotted
Flycatchers, pair of Crested Tits, our only Coal Tits (a flock of 5) and up to
5 Serins, including a male. On our last
morning 22 Jays flew south including a flock of 13.
We couldn’t find how to get close to
the marsh at Sailly-Bray although as there was a shooting party there I’m not
really sure that we wanted to. A Hobby over
nearby fields was some compensation. We
saw our only Red Squirrels in woodland at Ramburelles along with another Spotted
Flycatcher family and lots of Nuthatches.
A couple of hours walking in Crecy Forest produced 2 Firecrests, 7 Marsh
and 3 Crested Tits (with no pines in sight!) and 7 Nuthatches. A large raptor flushed inside the forest
might have been a Honey Buzzard but disappointingly didn’t give identifiable
views.
Our visit to Hable D’Ault produced a
Wood Sandpiper, 8 Black Terns and a Wheatear but almost every pool had a
pillbox overlooking a flock of plastic ducks.
Life expectancy of wildfowl there probably isn’t great. The good weather made Le Hourdel pretty much
a waste of time with a single Tree Pipit the best migrant seen during two
visits although distant Spoonbills were seen from the western side of the Baie
both times, along with thousands of gulls, usually too far out to check through
(the one colour-ring seen was too distant to read) although Yellow-legged and
Mediterranean Gulls were seen a couple of times.
On the east side of the Baie de Somme
(predominantly from La Maye), despite unhelpful tides, I saw 2 Little Stints
and 5 Curlew Sandpipers amongst Ringed Plover, Sanderling, Dunlin and
Turnstone. The shore hides overlooking
the reserve at Marquenterre produced a Great White and 4 Cattle Egrets, 120
Spoonbills, 1000 Knot, 500 Black-tailed Godwit, 15 Greenshank and a Kingfisher. The pines in this area (predominantly the car
park and along the northern edge where a long path leads to the sea) were good
for Crested Tits with 12 seen over two visits.
Crested Tit seems much commoner than Coal Tits in pines and was seen in
deciduous trees too (at Crecy) which makes its distribution in the UK somewhat
puzzling. More so as ‘Continental’ Coal
Tit always looks a more robust species than ours, yet ours seems to have ousted
Crested Tits, or prevented them spreading, in a way that CCT clearly hasn’t.
The best site I found was a roadside
pool just north of La Crotoy and just before the La Maye turning. Here over three short visits I saw 2 White
Storks, a Spotted Crake, a Water Rail, 6 Black-winged Stilts, 7 Black Terns and
last but not least, on a stop on our last morning, 82 Jays flying south
including a loose flock of 54.
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| Abbeville Cathedral, no birds here |
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| Eu, none here either |
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| Ramburelles 'castle', we didn't appreciate it was closed from 12.30-2pm and after looking around the grounds had to climb out over the side of the gate |
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| a family of Spotted flycatchers were hunting from the turrets |
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| St. Valery-sur-Somme harbour and tourist steam train |
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| fields behind Drancourt |
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| Megan looking for Hares (and flushing Grey Partridges) behind Drancourt |
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| Crecy Forest |
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| Colour-ringed Black-headed Gull at St. Valery, probably of Polish origin, Yellow-legged Gull behind |
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| most likely TAJW |
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| shooter's bunker and plastic ducks, a common sight on any open water outside of a reserve in the Baie de Somme area. It doesn't seem very sporting to me but maybe the wildfowl shoots back? |
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| Black-winged Stilt on roadside pool north of Le Crotoy |
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| one of four present on our second visit |
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| White Stork at the same location |
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| one of two seen on our second visit |
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| Spotted Crake on the same pool, my first for 15 years but well worth the wait |
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| impersonating a puffer fish |
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| perhaps not entirely unexpected but a very nice surprise all the same |
