Baisse de 500 Francs, La Phare de la Gacholle - 10/9

Another early start today for the long drive down to the environs of Piemanson beach. First stop at the beach corner and huge numbers of Little Stint are interspersed with around 20 Spotted Redshanks, a single Greenshank, several Green Sands, Common Sands and a Redshank. I drove slowly along the road scanning the flocks of waders. Soon I managed to find a small group of Ringed Plovers and Little Stints that contained 2 winter plumage Red - necked Phalaropes. I had hoped these would still be around as 4 were reported a couple of weeks ago. Result. Further along the road a tight flock of 200 or so Avocets were spotted and overhead the screeching of 3 juvenile Caspian Terns was heard. This time of year is particularly good for this species here. As I reached the beach another large flock of waders turned up a couple of Curlew Sands, good numbers of Dunlin, a pair of Turnstones and a Wood Sandpiper. I now headed to the Phare noting the large numbers of juvenile Yellow Wagtails along the roadside. Just as I entered the beach road at Amphise I spotted 2 juvenile Temminck's Stints right next to the road. They were incredibly tame and allowed excellent views. I parked the car in the car park close to the lighthouse and walked along the digue. In the lagoon to the south were 3 Curlews and a few Common Sands and in the one to the north were a splendid flock of around 200 Spoonbills. In the maquis were a few elusive warblers including Sardinian, Lesser Whitethroats and a good number of Whitethroats. On the drive back through the Camargue a single Osprey was feeding close to the road at Vaccares giving superb views. 2 Ospreys in 3 days, amazing !! Also on the journey a Roller perched on powerlines and a couple of Kingfishers flying by the road.