October 18th 2009

 

The birding started with the ferry crossing, leaving Brest at first light. The first part of the crossing is always quiet, but after our scheduled stop at le Conquet things started to get a little more interesting, with arctic tern, med gulls, common scoter and 12 balearic shearwaters putting in an appearance. On arrival onto the island we took a taxi to our rented house and after a very brief settling in period we headed off to Prad Meur, the little wooded bog next to the cemetary in Lampaul, the islands main town. It was clear that there had been some sort of arrival, as the bushes were dripping with chiffchaffs, with good numbers of thrushes too. After the first of many ciders, we walked back towards our house as we were to meet a taxi that was bringing us our luggage (after yet another Airfrance cock up!), bagging a nice juv Hobby on the way. AirFrance duly delivered our bags, right to the door, and it was while I was popping in and out with cases that I noticed a little movement in one of the trees in the garden. Up went the bins onto a stonking female type RBFly! I dashed off to get my Dad, who had chosen this point to have wandered off birding, and dragged him back to the garden, but of course it was nowhere to be seen. We gave the garden and surrounding brambles a good going over, turning up a lesser whitethroat, several chiffs, fieldfare and water rail, and were just about to give up on the RBF when it appeared in almost exactly the same spot I'd seen it in originally. I managed to get one awful picture before it shot off into the fading light, never to be seen again (by us, at least). What a cracking start to the trip!

 

October 19th 2009

 

Back to Prad Meur first thing in the morning and soon enough we have a YBW calling among the 20 or so chiffchaffs. Eventually, it showed well as we worked the sunny and more sheltered edge of the cover....the French birders seem awfully keen on getting right into the thick of the cover and slowly working through....this obviously works sometimes (just ask the 2 kids who found the grey cheeked thrush here last year!) but I can't help but thinking that a more patient approach may be better. If you're looking up all the time into the canopy, you'll get crap views of things, and the light under all that foliage must be shite as well. The 3 or 4 birders seemed oblivious to the calling YBW too...either they didn't recognise the call, or they did and they weren't at all bothered by it. I must admit it wasn't quite a typical YBW tsooweeet but it was definitely recognisable. Could it be possible that Ouessant is succumbing to the kind of chumpery to be found at British rarity hotspots? A friendly french guy I got chatting to remarked upon this a couple of times...saying that of the 40 or so birders on the island, perhaps only 10 were actually birding, looking for birds, while the rest were just going from text to text, even if it was a procession of yellow browed warblers.

 

The rest of the morning was spent dossing around doing holidayish family stuff, although it was clear even doing this that there had been an arrival of stuff, including several black redstarts. While eating near le Stiff we had a hobby and a buzzard, and in the late afternoon we got a pass to go and do some more birding. We headed off to the reservoirs, which has some of the rarest looking habitat on the entire island, with reedbeds, muddy edges, open water, boggy areas, bushes, it's all there.We flushed a few pipits which were working the muddy edges and in among the mepits was a larger, plainer, paler bird with striking white outer tail and well marked wingbars, that flew off independantly. We eventually relocated it working the waters edge and confirmed our suspicions that it was a water pipit. This is a species that was only recorded three times on the island in 2006, so by island standards it could well have been the best bird we found all week!

 

October 20th 2009

 

I woke up feeling awful but dragged myself out to the Crea'ch for first light with my Dad. Not a lot going on here save for a few black redstarts, and also a very, very big snipe. We flushed it twice and got very bad views, but I'm pretty sure it was just a common snipe, despite looking so big and strikingly barrel chested in flight. After a short time I felt shit enough to call it a day though, so we went home (via a cider stop, of course).

 

By the afternoon I had dosed up on tablets and was feeling pretty good again, so we headed back out. First up was the reservoirs again, where there was the same water pipit, and the first abietinus sounding chiffchaff I had heard all week, and then after that, we headed off to Porz Doun, in the far south west of the island. Just past the house we stopped by a likely looking stubble field and sure enough up came the skylarks. There must have been about 50 of them, including a smaller looking bird that refused to show well, or call. When eventually it flew by us at closer range we were able to confirm that it was a lapland bunting....a juvvy, that eventually landed back in the field and gave excellent views. Very nice....apparently Ouessant is the place to see this species in France.

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October 21st 2009

 

We nipped out first thing to have another look at the field with the lap bunt, as apparently a short toed lark had been seen there the previous day too. The same flock of Skylarks were present, along with the aforementioned bunting, which had decided it was calling today, but there was no sign of a short toed lark. We then headed into town for a bit of filthy twitchery, for a pop at the juvvy rose coloured starling that had been hanging around the church and one of the sheltered bays. We caught up with it at Porz Noan, where it showed really well along with some normal starlings and at least 5 black redstarts.

 

More holidaying in the afternoon, but in the evening we got up to the Stang ar Stiff for a completely fruitless look around. Excitement rose on leaving though, as a harrier sp drifted east behind a couple of houses....giving both brief and rubbish views. From the milliseconds that I was on it I got the impression of a narrow winged ringtail harrier, but despite a search during the fading light we could not relocate it. Later in the week we were to learn of a female hen harrier that had been seen in the same area, so that was almost certainly our bird....but it didn't half look narrow winged when I saw it.

 

October 22nd 2009

 

Up to the Crea'ch again for first light via a biref stop in town to have another look at the resident rosy starling. As we got to Kun, near the crea'ch, it was clear that there were loads of birds moving, with flocks of thrushes, chaffs and siskins going over. There were also lots of other birders working the bushes here so we decided to head 'inland' and explore some likely looking cover at Niou Izella that we'd seen from the road on the way in. The habitat here looked cracking, with scattered lines of bushes and reedbeds, and very limited access, which is probably why we didn't see anyone else here. We worked the lines of bushes down the sunny and sheltered sides, and after several chiffchaffs we heard a yellow-brow. My Dad glimpsed it a couple of times but it took a wee while longer for me to get onto it......although eventually it showed really well. Several more chiffchaffs later I heard another distinctive call.....a strong, sad piping call, coming from the heart of one of the bushes. It sounded just like a siberian chiffchaff, so I gave it a blast with the recording I have of sibe chaff on my phone. The  thing shot up out of the bush and sat right out in the open, calling away....a really good looking sandy brown and white thing, with the meerest hint of green in the wings, suggestion of a wingbar, jet black bare parts and a lovely rusty wash to the face and buffy flanks. I'm usually cautious with calling tristris, but if this one wasn't one then i'm a dutchman.

 

From here we moved towards our lunchtime meeting place (more holiday stuff in the afternoon, i'm afraid) stopping along the way at various likely looking spots. The single garden and bush at Poul Feaz had lesser whitey, firecrest, blackcap, and an abititmuss chiff, and the reservoirs had a party of long tailed tits, but no sign of the water pipit.

 

After lunch, we got news of a couple of penduline tits on the island, but the message was difficult to hear so we gambled on leaving it till the next day.....and accrued some brownie points in the process.

 

October 23rd 2009

 

We headed out to where we thought the Penduline tits had been first thing in the morning, stopping to have another gander at the resident Rosy starling along the way. Good job we did, as if we hadn't, we'd have never seen the other one roosting next to it! 2 birds together! What a cracking start to the day, and definately a self found bird, rather than last years rather dubious 'everyone else knew about it apart from me' one. After a brief detour to the wrong place, we eventually caught up with the two penduline tits at Kun, where we watched them destroying the bullrushes for a while, before they upped and left, with seemingly no reason, calling all the way. There were also loads of birds on the move today, with flocks of chaffinches, siskins, and skylarks going over.....we did about 5 minutes of vismigging, bagging a flyover serin, but then had to move off.

 

The afternoon was spent rather frustratingly traipsing around the south west of the island looking at larks and pipits, and seeing skylarks and meadow pipits. In the rain.

 

October 24th 2009

 

The morning was spent cleaning the house and packing stuff together in preparation to leave. Our boat was at 5pm, but we had to be out of the house by 12 so we had a good few hours to kill, so we killed them eating crepes and drinking cider in a restaurant at le Stiff. Some of the time was spent having one last look at the Stang ar Stiff, where the first bird we came upon was a yellow browed warbler, which gave some brilliant views. A fitting end to a very enjoyable week on the island! I know people get blase about YBWs but when I was a young lad they were rare birds, and they still give me a little thrill whenever I see one. So there.

 

So one final opportunity for some birding on the ferry....and it wasn't to disappoint. Stream after stream of auks, mainly puffins, with the odd balearic shearwater giving a close fly-by, a great and an arctic skua in the air together, and last, but certainly not least, a grey phalarope flew past the boat, before landing on the sea.

 

And then to cap it all, a lone bottle nosed dolphin rode the bow wave of the ferry a it sped towards Brest, giving all on board extreme close ups, down to a few metres, as it leapt out of the water next to the boat. Awesome.