20th November 1988 - le Crotoy

Winter seems to have caught up with us again. It rains more or less continuously until lunch­time when we finally manage to get out and stretch our legs on the beach at le Crotoy. Nevertheless hunters are out in force ‑ we hear shots from 9 am until noon, though most of the birds to be seen are gulls which take no notice of the disturb­ance. Sunday morning joggers aren't put off by the weather either.

Near the upstream end of le Crotoy there is quite a gathering of gulls and a constant stream of more coming to join them. This area may be the source of the raw sewage washing up along the shore. The noisy throng consists of herring, common and greater black‑backs in all varieties of winter plumage, and several hundred black-headed adults but only one first winter bird ‑ sooner or later we should find lots of first winter birds and no adults! Another thousand gulls roost on the sandbanks beyond the channel, we check amongst them all and satisfy ourselves there are no Mediter­ranean gulls in sight. Beyond the gulls are a few each of curlew, redshank, oyster­catcher, grey plover and knot, and a thousand or so dunlin. Seven woodlarks work their way rest­lessly along the base of the dunes. Then the cold drizzle drives us back for shelter and coffee.

The afternoon shooters and fishermen are now walking over the estuary and we look for another viewpoint. To the south of le Crotoy the road runs alongside the saltmarsh; a few parking places are provided for the benefit of shooters, but we use one anyway and watch from the shelter of the van. The rain stops eventually and the huge black clouds drift slowly away to show the evening sun.

One hunter walks out onto the marshes and takes a few live duck out of his bag; the birds are tethered to a weight and calmly accepted the sit­uation ‑ they are probably quite used to being used as live decoys. Several times we see harriers quartering the marshes, often paying particular attention to the channels. The shooters ignore them. Small birds to be seen are mostly starlings, including an albinistic individual, skylarks, meadow pipits and house sparrows. A welcome sight is our first con­tinental kingfisher zooming though, just above the top of a channel, over the road and continuing along the channel on the other side. Kingfishers can bring a touch of magic to the gloomiest of days.