30th - Today I decided to take a trip to a rarely visited reserve close to the plage de Piemanson, the Domaine de Palissade. The weather was hot and sunny with a weak southerly breeze, the early mist having been quickly burnt off by the sun. On the drive down the D36 I stopped briefly by the Tour du Valat and noted a White Stork gliding in to land, a Common Sandpiper and Squacco Heron flying along the roadside canal and a flock of 30+ Cattle Egrets in a field. At the reserve I walked along the trail to La Baisse Claire and soon located a number of warblers in a copse of trees. I spotted a pair of Sardinian Warblers, male Lesser Whitethroat and a Melodious Warbler, plus I heard a Spectacled Warbler give its characteristic alarm call. As I continued along the track 3 Goldfinches flew over. From the hide overlooking the lagoon I found a flock of 40+ Little Egrets, 8 Grey Herons, 2 Purple Herons, a single Greenshank, 2 Common Sandpipers and 6 Black-winged Stilts. I also spotted a juvenile Marsh Harrier on the ground eating a small mammal and a Grey Heron catch an eel and carry it away, presumably to feed its young. I continued on the track to the next lagoon where I had more distant views of a pair of Black-tailed Godwits and another sizeable flock of Little Egrets (> 50 birds). Returning to the main path I continued on to La Sableuse and from the hide noted an impressive selection of waders. These included 2 Grey Plovers, 30+ Dunlin, 4 Wood Sandpipers, an Oystercatcher, 20+ Little Ringed Plovers, 12 Green Sandpipers, 8 Common Sandpipers, 40+ Ruff, 4 Greenshank, 3 Black-tailed Godwits and a single Spotted Redshank. There were a number of Little, Common and Sandwich Terns feeding over the lagoon too. On the walk back I noticed a colony of Grey Herons in trees by the Rhone.