Wednesday 9th June
We had a 15.30GMT sailing from Plymouth with Brittany Ferries. It was windy up on deck but we stuck it as long as we could for some sea watching. There were Gannets and our first couple of Manx Shearwaters, then we retreated to the warmth of the bar for an afternoon G&T where we upped our shearwater total to 13 looking through the window. Dinner was had and we docked at 21.30 French time, followed by a short drive to St Pol-de-Léon where we spent the night in a comfortable B&B.Thursday 10th June
We departed at 08.30 for the long drive south. We stopped in a motorway lay-by to brew up some coffee in the camper van and have some much needed breakfast! It rained on and off the entire journey - to be honest I spent most of it asleep! We were beginning to spot a few birds on the journey - the usual abundance of French Buzzards! We arrived mid-afternoon at Bonneuil-Matours in the department of Vienne. The campsite was right next to the river Vienne which was extremely high from all the rain! We waited for precipitation to ease before putting up my tent, and the showers promptly started again..with some thunder and lightening to match! We hadn't been there long when we heard a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker nearby.
Friday 11th June
We continued along the circuit, surprised to bump into the stunning Lilypad Whiteface, powder-blue and black abdomen with the white face that it's name indicates. They were, of course, sitting out on the lily leaves. Dad was jumping for joy at coming across them! We continued to find a Montagu's Harrier, more Yellow-spotted Whiteface (total 19) also brief views of Scarlet Darter, Green-eyed (Norfolk) Hawker and the elusive hybrid newt, Triturus blasii (Great Crested x Marbled). On returning to the van we found a Violet Carpenter Bee, then drove back to the campsite.
We hurriedly rolled up the wet tent and made the drive to my beloved Parc Naturel Régional de la Brenne, across the border in the department of Indres. We travelled through Angles-sur-L'Anglin where I remembered our visit in October. We navigated through the parc, passing three Montagu's Harriers before arriving at Rosnay campsite to find a pair of Squacco Herons on the site pool, visible right from our pitch! We put the tent back up and made ourselves comfortable as we would be spending the next six nights here. After a meal we went for a walk and found the etang where the Squacco's had wandered from - it also provided us with a cute Muskrat, which Sue stayed to watch. We were shown the location of some stunning Tongue Orchids right by the road, and we finally settled down to bed as the rain began yet again, and I was put through another crap night in the tent!
Saturday 12th June
We awoke to a sunny morning, I was up promptly and off the the covered washing area where the lights had enticed a few moths in to shelter. There was a Cream-spot Tiger, Purple Cloud and Oak Beauty among many others. We breakfasted then set off to Réserve Naturel de Chérine, the site of my work here in October 2009. While looking at the signs warning motorists about "cistudes" on the road, and wondering if they crossed very often, we came across a lonely lump in the road... Mr Cistude, also known as the European Pond Tortoise - a very handsome fellow! We pulled into the carpark at Chérine and immediately bumped into a family of Melodious Warblers. One of the fledglings decided to acquaint itself with the windscreen and the wipers! Poor little guy, his mum was calling for him and he seemed afraid to fly back to his bush - but finally made it safely! We also got our first views of Golden Orioles feeding in the trees nearby, and a Ruddy Darter on the brambles. We had a look around the centre but the hide was closed so we moved on to the other side of the reserve.
We began to walk down a long track, coming across a small hide on our right - I was very excited as I had been part of the team beautifying the view from this hide. I remembered it as a dry, bramble covered area with an island of willow. What I saw now was a green-fringed wetland, filled with the sound of frogs and Nightingale - it was a glorious sight and a truly wonderful feeling to see it looking so vibrant and alive!! It couldn't have possibly looked more different from what I remembered. We continued down the the hide at Essarts which also looked - and sounded - very different, due to the raucous Black-headed Gull colony currently in residence! There were a few Red-crested Pochard dotted across the back as well. Along the track we found Small and Essex Skippers, a Wryneck, and exotic looking Green Forester Moths - a stunning relative of the burnets.
Then we drove over to the new hide at La Sous - a hide opened in April but already with a fabulous reputation for photographic opportunities. It was of course at this point that my camera died. Dead. Caput. There was a Whiskered Tern colony on the lilies, six pairs of Black-necked Grebes, Purple Heron fishing, a Gadwall with ducklings. And I had no camera. Kindly, Dad lent me his little Sony to take a few snaps, then Sue kindly donated the other Lumix for the remainder of the trip so I wouldn't be without!!! But the hide lived up to its reputation. We got cracking close up views of Little Grebe, a Great Reed Warbler catching a dragonfly right in front of us, a Kingfisher fishing from the roof of the hide just above our windows, and a Little Bittern flew across the water in front of us. Who could ask for more.
Sunday 13th June
After another investigation of the moths by the sinks (Swallow-tailed, Dew Moth, Barred Straw) we set of to the southern part of La Brenne to meet up with Nick Ransdale, one of Dad's fellow Naturetrek leaders for La Brenne and Vienne, and his wife Cora. We went to a secret location in search of the elusive Baskettail - a very fast flying, middle-of-the-pond-loving difficult-to-see dragonfly that has so far eluded even my Dad! Legend has it that these beasts, related to the emeralds only bigger and butcher, zooms around at such a speed, the likes of which you will not see in any other species, right out over the middle of a lake or high in the trees. The enormously long wings enable this powerful flight, and the huge hind legs mean that the angle of the body at rest is such that they will vanish in an instant. They love hot sunny days - needed to fuel this furious lifestyle - and of course, today was not one of them. We searched through the chasers and darters hoping to spot one, but we had no luck. Our disappointment was lifted slightly by the presence of half a dozen Lilypad Whiteface, a smart longhorn beetle and the presence of White Admirals - a butterfly I was determined to photograph!
Having failed at the Baskettail, we drove to a nearby picnic site for lunch. We were entertained as we ate by Banded Demoiselles, a Firebug nursery and a Wall Lizard in a tree stump! We drove to the edge of an etang where we found Great Green Bush-Cricket, Bee Orchids and White-legged Damselflies. Then we moved onto Rosnay Common (dodgy translation there!) where we were treated to some lovely sunshine in these beautiful meadows. There were hundreds of Tongue and Lesser Butterfly Orchids as well as many butterflies, including Marbled Fritillary, Marbled White, Heath Fritillary, Ilex Hairstreak and Sooty Copper. There was also a family of Red-backed Shrike nearby feeding young, and few Honey Buzzards soaring around on distinctive flat wings. It was a beautiful place to end the day, I slowly burned in the gentle sun surrounded by beautiful flowers and insects!Monday 14th June
After a brief visit from some noisey Black Woodpeckers in the tree by my tent, we sset off to Mézières-en-Brenne to shop for food - an opportunity to see the gîte the EuCAN group always stays in. Then back to Chérine where the hide would be open! We walked down the boardwalk (part of whoch was closed off to keep it quiet for the breeding Lilypad Whitefaces) and into the hide where we were greeted by Tony Williams - site manager for the reserve! We worked for him last year and he has met Dad through Naturetrek. We spent the as long as we could in the hide before it closed, then walked with Tony back to the carpark, arranging a time to meet and visit some places. Tuesday afternoon was agreed, and we set off to find some birds. We went to Etang Bellebouche where I was treated to my only bird tick for the trip - Middle Spotted Woodpecker! He sat right in the open showing off his rosy breast. We also had good views of Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and brief views of a Great Spot - Lesser, Middle and Great all in one wood! Good stuff! I finally got some decent photos of a White Admiral too. We drove near to Etang Vieux where we found Brenne Orchids on the verge, and walked along a track near the etang in the fading light, searching for damselflies. Here we found White-legged and Variable Damselflies, plus a wonderful female Dolomedes Raft Spider with eggs. We heard a distant Black Woodpecker as we left, but failed to get a sighting.
Tuesday 15th June
Squacco Herons were back at the campsite first thing, as well as a Night Heron coming into roost and a brief visit from Tony. He showed a spot on the map which is good for Woodland Brown (an uncommon butterfly discovered by Tony in La Brenne in 1999) and agreed to meet us at 16.00 to visit some more of my old work sites. Nick arrived at 10.00 to spend the day looking for some stuff . We found six Green Sandpipers near an old heronry on the way to Etang Beauregard. Here there were Black-necked Grebes, a brood of Red-crested Pochard and two hungry Muskrats. We found our first Willow Emeralds sheltering from the wind. We drove to Maison du Parc for lunch and stocked up on some souvenirs and gifts from the shop. It was almost time for us to meet Tony, we just had a few moments to stop and look at the Woodland Brown spot. Within minutes of pulling up on the roadside the getting out, one appeared, then another, and another! One even perched so we got a few distant shaky shots, but good enough to tell what species it is!!
We met Tony at the centre and briefly popped in to see Eric the dragonfly man! He recommended a few places to look for things (though these will now have to wait until next year) and very kindly gave us two exuviae - a Lilypad Whiteface and that Baskettail!! It was unmistakable even as a skin - very broad and VERY long-legged! Then Tony took us over to La Touch - an etang owned by the LPO and managed as part of the reserve but not open to the public. We looked from the hide over the lily-clad lake and were directed to Parnassus Leaved Water Plantain - one of the rarest plants in the world, apparently! We could not visit the main lake of La Touche as the Whiskered Terns are nesting and shouldn't be disturbed. Instead we drove over to Purais where I was stunned to see how much the reeds had spread (and cross to see the Blackthorn returning). The fire site was still there after eight months! I was glad to hear that the few Marsh Gentians found growing there had had Alcon Blue eggs on them, sadly we were a little early to see any adults. There were some lovely flowers to be seen: Fragrant Orchid, Greater Butterfly Orchid and the Marsh Helleborines where almost ready to flower. It was wonderful to see the place again.
As Tony departed (late for his meeting!) he pointed out a Lizard Orchid on the verge - a huge specimen! Once he had gone I somehow spotted the coil of a tiny snake poking out of the leaf litter. On closer inspection we decided it was an Asp Viper (the poisonous one) so didn't want to bother it too much! We were recommended two restaurants in Le Blanc - both of which were closed! So a delicious hot dinner from the Leclerc deli counter was consumed by the river as a Coypu swam up and down!Wednesday 16th June
We travelled south to spend a day with Nick and Cora in Vienne looking for some more dragonflies. The target was to visit some rivers and tick off a few clubtail species. The first location was the gorgeous rocky Gartempe River - like a giant River Dart! Here we found a newly emerged Small Pincertail on the rocks...but that was all. For lunch we headed further up river and, as we were eating, Cora suddenly appeared with an Orange-spotted Emerald she had just found! We got a few pics of the newly emerged individual, then Cora and I went off in search of its exuviae. We were pleased to come across dozens of them along the river bank - a mixture of emeralds, clubtails and one enormous Dusk Hawker (Westerne Spectre, I can't decide which name I prefer!) which we had to store in an olive jar! As we were searching I noticed a newly emerged Hornet Clearwing Moth and its pupa on the tree. Cora then went on the find another Small Pincertail and a pair of mating Hornet Clearwings!
We drove to look for some Bee-eaters but the rain started! We did manage to see them in a quarry, and also a male and female Adonis Blue. The rain got worse, and after some brief views of Stone Curlews in a field we headed for Nick's house for a cup of tea and then a delicious home-cooked meal!
Thursday 17th June
Thursday morning was an early (and wet) start, we had to pack up the tent in pouring rain and sit it in the washing up bowl for the journey north. We waved goodbye to La Brenne, stopping in Mézières to stock up for lunch. We arrived at La Lune early afternoon - a B&B run by an English couple. We had a much needed cup of tea and out up the tent to let it dry out. Dad and I went for a drive to some nearby woodland where we found a Red Squirrel feeding in a garden, and some more White Admirals for me to photograph!
I slept well.Very well!
Friday 18th June
We were treated to a breakfast of cereal, toast and boiled eggs, then set off on the last leg of our journey to Roscoff. We bought lunch on the way and stopped at Etan du Moulin Neuf to eat, spotting a few Black-tailed Skimmers, Downy Emerald and a possible Brilliant Emerald that wouldn't stay still!
We stopped just outside Roscoff to buy some wine (has to be done!) and boarded the ferry at 15.30. We found some comfy seats by the window, but failed to find a single shearwater. We relocated to the bar for G&T and some games. I spotted a bird just before I lost it from view...Dad took a look and to our astonishment realised it was Coot - a Coot in the middle of the Channel! Not at all what I was expecting! We had our dinner and docked in Plymouth at 20.30GMT. Only a short drive back to Chudleigh where we unpacked the van before the sun went down, then got settled back into home and was most delighted to be sleeping again in my own bed! NO MORE TENT!!
For more photos please visit the album:
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| 1 La Brenne 2010 |
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