21 Nov 2008

19th November 1988 - Quand Plage

Quand Plage is a typical small holiday resort, now boarded up for the winter and the promenade deserted except for ourselves. The high tide has just turned and we have an excellent view of the shore from the top of the sea wall. Birds are much the same as yesterday. The scoter have separated into groups of either males or females and immatures, at close range the cheeks of the latter look very pale. Both red- and black-throated divers fly close to the shore, one black-throated having a particularly smudgy face and neck (some birds do not finish moulting until mid‑­winter), all show a clear pale flank patch when they swim on the sea. Well out from the shore a few gannets are plunge diving, and little gulls dis­play an almost barn‑owl like flight as they search for food. There are also a few auks which are too far out to identify specifically. About fifty sanderling scurry along the shoreline.

We had walked a few hundred metres along the beach when nine shore larks announce their arriv­al with twittering calls, and land on an area of shells and small stones, some twenty metres in front of us. The adults are distin­guishable by having more black on their faces and tiny 'horns' above the eyes while in first winter birds the broader feather fringes make the black markings less distinct. Their well‑feathered thighs give the impression that they are wearing warm panta­loons - needed in the cold wind.

The larks move along the beach in a loose group, often in twos and threes rather than in a single party as they searched for seeds trapped between the stones. Their bills are noticeably shorter and stouter than those of the woodlarks. Mostly they hold their shortish wings above the back, but one bird that seems a bit agitated has an upright stance, cocking its tail and holding its wings low. They move away when a group of people with dogs come along the beach.

We move on towards Fort Mahon Plage, another small holiday resort a few kilometres to the north but miss a turning and the road takes us to l'­Authie, a small broad estuary that is the haunt of hunters. The place is littered with cart­ridges and each of the several small ponds hold a contingent of black decoy ducks, over­looked by one or more shooting bunkers. A few gunshots come from the inland end; but the only live bird in the area is a black-headed gull which is paddling the bottom of a pond with its feet, then dipping its head in to grab at disturbed crabs etc. There are roe deer slots on the salt­marsh but no other non‑human animals in sight.

We do not linger on the estuary, the tide is now well out, exposing an expanse of sand in one direction and saltmarsh in the other. Keeping as near to the water line as practicable we walk towards Fort Mahon Plage, and discover that the place is not quite as deserted as earlier this morning. It being a weekend, the beach is now well populated with dog walkers, joggers, etc and the local sand yachting school is giving its first lesson of the morning. Nevertheless we are able to continue watching, scanning through the gulls roosting on a sandbar for Mediterranean gulls that aren't there (just being hopeful), though there is one bird with Med gull shape but black‑headed gull markings ‑ hybrids are not unknown.

Of the dunes between the beach and the est­uary, part is open access, part is under the auspices of the Conservatoire de l'Espace Lit­toral, and the remainder is posted 'chasse gard­ee' ie hunting area. We walk through the first part where the vegetation is mostly fairly dense but through which an assault and fitness course has been constructed. The birds include tree sparrows and reed buntings, and a single male hen harrier.

The weather is now less windy than yesterday but there is a huge black cloud just to the south and another coming in over the sea. At about three o'clock the rain forces us to give up watching.

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