La Capeliere - 11/9

A day to celebrate so a trip to Capeliere was called for. The first hide produced a group of 4 Little Egrets, 5 Green Sands and 3 Snipe all feeding. Within minutes something spooked the birds, they all took off including an adult Bittern hiding in the reedbed. Always a nice sight ! The trail didn't hold anything of note so I returned to the main hide and here were good numbers of Green, Wood and Common Sandpipers feeding on the lagoon. In addition to these were around 15 Spotted Redshanks and a ringed Spoonbill. A Kingfisher was also perched on a wooden pole. I decided to move across the road to the lagoon by the road and here were the same waders as on Friday but also a number of Ruff and a single Purple Swamphen which was periodically calling in its inimitable voice. This is the 1st time I've seen this species at Capeliere. Next, I noticed an adult Water Rail on the far side of the lagoon creeping around in the reeds as they always do ! Later in the day we travelled to the cemetery in Arles where I noted a pair of Spotted flycatchers and along the road to Mouries I found a female Northern Wheatear in flight !