11th - Today we visited the Etang des Aulnes and the northern Crau in the early morning and in the evening took a trip to Pont de Rousty in search of owls. At the Etang we walked the path through the trees alongside the lake and heard a wonderful chorus of Nightingales, warblers and tits. A Green Woodpecker flew across our path but disappeared over nearby fields. We spotted a female then male Stonechat perched in the bushes giving its characteristic 'tack' call. On the lake we had a pair of Great-crested Grebes, at least 3 Common Terns, a single Common Gull perched on a buoy and, on the far side, a hunting Hobby. The bushes adjacent to the lake produced a pair of Nightingales, (giving their alarm call non-stop for 30 minutes or more!), several juvenile Blue Tits, a Great Tit, a Whitethroat, 2 Melodious Warblers and a Fan-tailed Warbler. Several Bee-eaters then flew over along with a Purple Heron. As we moved along to the reedbed we heard at least 2 Grasshopper Warblers reeling and soon had excellent views of one of the birds. Cetti's Warblers were also frequently heard although they remained more elusive as did the single Reed Warbler that was also heard. From the tall beech tree near the road I heard the characteristic fluty call of a Golden Oriole and sure enough one was spotted high amongst the leaves. Eventually everyone had decent views of the male. A wonderful bird! We decided to move on to the Crau and as we drove along the road I spotted a splendid adult Bonelli's Eagle that was perched on a fence-post. Unfortunately it flew to a nearby tree and so could not be photographed but still it gave decent views to all. It didn't take us long to connect with our first birds on the Crau as a male Southern Grey Shrike became very agitated with our presence and gave a wonderful display of aggressive behaviour.



A number of Black Kites were swooping overhead and a male Marsh Harrier soon joined them. As we moved further onto the Crau we spotted several Tawny Pipits, a Northern Wheatear, 3 Lesser Kestrels and around a dozen Little Bustards including 4 males. Surprisingly, the flock of sheep that were feeding close to us then put up a flock of over 40 Little Egrets! Hardly the habitat one would normally associate with this water loving species! We also managed to see a group of 7 Calandra Larks and numerous Crested Larks.
In the evening a quick trip to the Pont de Rousty mean't we spotted a pair of Spoonbills as they flew towards their roosting site and then as the sun disappeared behind the horizon an adult Little Owl came and perched on a tree right next to the car park. It was soon making short hunting flights to pick up insects from the ground and gave us all excellent entertainment for close on 30 minutes. Unfortunately no Scops Owls were present tonight.