18th November 1988 - Baie de Somme

The Somme estuary might be best known for wartime events, but it is also one of the most produc­tive bird-watching areas on the Channel coast. The Parc Ornithologique du Marquenterre is closed for the winter so we con­tinued along the road and found some other interesting places.

The coastline of chalk hills is broken here by another extensive area of sand dunes. From the hamlet of St Quentin en Tourment a broad track leads through the dunes ‑ the Grande Dune Domaine du Marquenterre ‑ to the beach. The Domaine com­prises some 2,000 ha of Corsican pine plantation, plus stable and mobile dunes closer to the shore.

The 3 km long sandy track is fenced on both sides, showing clearly the amount of erosion on the path compared with the untouched land on either side. Every few hundred metres there is a board hung on a fence postdepicting some local animal or plant, together with another board giving some information about the species.

Thus we learn that there was a strong popula­tion of wild boar in the dunes but they are not often seen as they are nocturnal and can wander several kilo­metres per night. However, the fenc­ing is insuffi­cient to contain them for, in sev­eral places, they have pushed under the fence on one side of the path, crossed the track and made another boar-sized hole in the fence on the other side too. All we see of them are their foot­prints between the fences. Roe deer are another numerous mammal here, having adapted well to the dunes and plantations, but again all we see are slots.

We walk about a kilometre along the track and now it starts to rain, we wait it out and continue the walk. After another kilometre the rain comes again, we are out of the forest and the small pine tree under which we huddle soon begins to drip on us. I am ready to turn back but Jim votes to continue, pulled on by patches of brighter sky. By the time we reach the sea the sun is shining in a blue sky with cotton wool clouds.

Beyond the pines, the dunes have a dense covering of sea buckthorn, the berries of which, we are told, are high in vitamin C and an impor­tant source of food in winter, especially for thrushes. A ringtail hen harrier quarters a distant section, but there are plenty of small birds, including bullfinches and blackcaps in the scrub nearby.

Out near the sea the dunes are still quite mobile and efforts have been made, by planting marram grass and five rows of netting, to try to stabilise them. In one place even the two metre high fence along the path has been buried by the sand.

The beach itself is part of the 3,000 ha Baie de Somme Marine Reserve. Access is discouraged because of the maze of sand bars and creeks that can cut you off on a rising tide. The area is of inter­national importance for passage waders and wintering wildfowl. Thousands of gulls roost on the beach ‑ herring, common, black headed and greater black‑back ‑ while ten adult little gulls feed out at sea.

The tide is almost out and the water quite rough, but sea-watching is not impossible. One group of duck near the shore consists mostly of eider, another group consists of common and vel­vet scoter. In the sun the white eye patches and specula of the latter show up well, better than indicated in the field-guide. The birds take to the air one after another, showing off bright white secondaries, and fly north parallel to the coast. A single black-throated diver flies close to the shore, and a handful of grebe are quite active; these include great-crested and red-­necked in flight and two slavonian fishing nearer the shore. A red-breasted merganser completes the line up.

Although we did not appreciate it until later, the Baie de Somme Maritime Reserve was where most of the duck in the area were to be found. And since the area has been protected, the wintering popu­lations of several species of wildfowl have increased.

Wagtails have so far been conspicuous by their absence, one expects to see white wagtails as common on the continent as the pied sub­species is in Britain. But here is another species where the continen­tals have different habits. Some pied wagtails do breed along the coasts of France, Belgium and the Netherlands, often pairing with white wagtails (which also occasionally breed in Scotland). Both sub­species are migratory here and we have only just moved into their winter range. Even so we see just one today.

Soon after midday the sun disappears behind clouds again and we make our way back. Two ring­tail hen harriers now quarter the dunes. Across the path there is a fresh ridge of sand where a mole has burrowed underneath. The only mammals we actually see are rabbits, which the notice boards tell us had been so badly reduced by myxomatosis in 1953 that they no longer have much effect on the vegetation.

Back in the pine forest we find great-spotted woodpeckers and have a glimpse of a tree­creeper. Jim thinks it has the white flanks of the ordinary treecreeper but in this area it should be the short‑toed species. Un­fortunately it does not hang around for further identification.