BRITTANY 2nd-9th JULY 2008
This was what Ann would call a ‘proper’ holiday or near enough as we would ever
get to one as it was to involve no dawn-to-dusk birding and my general avoidance
of the human race. However, I managed to take a small moth trap, extra car batteries,
binoculars, telescope, three cameras and a small library of field guides without
her noticing, not! As in 2007, we drove from Tyneside taking the fast Condor ferry
from Poole to St. Malo and stayed at a relatives house in the small village of Tredias
near Broons which is only about 45 minutes SW of St. Malo. Here I could run the moth
trap each night, mooch about a few local woods and lakes and make a sortie ‘sightseeing’
at the coast to the north. As I expected, there were not that many birds available
but it was nice to see things like Cirl Bunting, Serin, Cetti’s Warbler, Black Redstart,
Great White and Little Egrets and a few early passage waders whilst ‘not’ birdwatching.
The moths were exciting for me with a number of species I just wouldn’t see in the
north of England. The photographs are of those species not shown elsewhere on this
site. It was disappointing for butterflies and dragonflies generally but the weather,
although warm and sunny occasionally, was a mixture of fairly strong westerly winds
and heavy downpours for several consecutive days. To compensate the red wine and
cheese were very good!
