Throughout my trip with associates near Cannes in southern France, my precedence was after all to catch up and spend some high quality time with my buddy group from college. Aside from my birding journey to the Coussouls de Crau, I couldn’t cease birding after I was exterior.
A spotlight was recognizing two Yelkouan Shearwaters with the scope from the shore. Far more frequent, and thus considerably much less thrilling, had been the Yellow-legged Gulls. They did show fairly entertaining nonetheless with their sheep- and cat-like calls.
A Cirl Bunting within the neighborhood was additionally good to observe. It was singing often, which made it straightforward to find on the treetops. This species is far more frequent in southern Europe than in central Germany the place I noticed it just lately, however is spreading northwards at a fast fee on account of increased temperatures.
The rocky hills proper above the coast had been notably good areas. Widespread Swifts and European Crag Martins had been the commonest species, however I additionally noticed just a few Pallid Swifts. Or moderately, I ought to say I recognized just a few and may need seen far more, I nonetheless discover it a problem to confidently determine these birds in lots of conditions.
I used to be notably excited to see a pair of Alpine Swifts. I haven’t seen this unusually fairly swift species many instances their moderately giant measurement mixed with the pied markings make for a fairly spectacular beast.
There are fairly just a few species of warbler that happen within the scrubby coastal vegetation, however I solely managed to get good views of the widespread and customary Sardinian Warbler. I hoped to see Western Orphean and Western Subalpine, however solely had possible views of the latter. Compensation got here within the type of (temporary) views of Blue Rock-Thrush.
Though I didn’t consider this space – which is moderately identified for its coast and cities – as a spot to go birding, I used to be positively stunned. The world provided an excellent stability between missing something of curiosity in birding phrases and being very thrilling with a lot of specials. This prevented me from being annoyed by the shortage of fine birds round (even when the aim of the holiday was not birding), whereas on the similar time there not being an excessive amount of to find and distract from the explanation why I went on the vacations within the first place.
