This is a truly great area for birders and insect specialists due to the variety of habitat in the region with lots of lakes of various sizes and types, woodland and also more wildflower meadows than we probably have in the whole of the UK.
Highlights of the trips were being surrounded by the song of Nightingales, which Graham managed to photograph from the front door of our rooms after many fruitless attempts elsewhere. Black Kites were in abundance and a pair of Montagu Harriers were literally within a couple of hundred metres of La Confiance.
We also got a slow flypast by a beautiful male Golden Oriole, I saw my first Stone Curlew and had good views of a Hoopoe in the garden on our first afternoon. We saw Coypus on many occasions and they appear to be quite common and not particularly bothered about being around people.
We were also lucky enough to be in the middle of a mass emergence of Skimmers surrounding us on all sides as they waited to disperse. Our frenzied snapping was cut short by the appearance of a farmer on a tractor with serious grass cutting equipment which sent them all into the trees and out of the reach of our lenses.
Add to these highlights the sight of Graham trying to feed €18.60 in small change into the peage machine at Le Mans and then finding we were €1.20 short was very funny. It got better when he tried to pay the balance by credit card only to find that it took the whole amount by the card and then spewed out the cash we had already put in, leading to more frenzied scrambling. Thankfully the lengthening queue behind us were uncharacteristically patient.
Add to the mixture me falling backwards into a ditch during a late night walk whilst trying to avoid a late working tractor and my attempt to decapitate a French Customs official by accidently pushing the up button on the car window and it was a fun packed and busy break. I would have no hesitation in recommending the area as an unspoilt and beautiful part of rural France.
No comments:
Post a Comment