Vive (les oiseaux de) la France!

A 14-day holiday (with about 10 half-days of birding) enabled me to catch up with some familiar, photogenic Mediterranean specialities and some pleasant surprises too. Our base was a little too far from the main Camargue hotspots and meant me having to drive between 30 minutes to an hour to get anywhere good. We also hit France in the middle of a heatwave, and birding was restricted to the 3 hours at the start and end of the day. There were some real eyecatchers including Flamingo, Hoopoe, Roller, Bee-eater and Purple Heron. The major rarity down here was the Elegant Tern at Digue de Piémanson, which I found without too much difficulty; I was also delighted to find a single Caspian Tern there, a Marsh Sandpiper and a party of about 10 Collared Pratincole at la Capelière (which can be elusive down here), a small party of Crested Larks at Saintes Maries de la Mer, a nice Melodious Warbler at Mas Thibert reserve, a juvenile Purple Gallinule at Le Pont de Gau reserve and a Southern Grey Shrike at St Martin de Crau. One other highlight was the sheer number of Little Stints (c. 50) and Curlew Sandpipers (c.500) at Digue de Piémanson, and the variety of gulls and terns here, including Slender-billed Gull (c.4), Mediterranean Gull (c.30) and Black Tern (c.10). A 'flock' of some 100+ Wood Sandpipers at Mas d'Agon was a sight to behold. Beaver, a 'perched' bat species and Hummingbird Hawkmoth were the non-avian highlights. Apart from this, I was pleased to acquire some 480 keepers including my best shots ever of about 8 species, the pick of the bunch being these: