Our orchard garden had a resident nightingale last year, heard and also frequently seen, near the compost bin and log pile which provided an ideal habitat. Sadly, it doesn't seem to have returned, although we do have great tits in the nest box. Black redstarts & swallows nest in the abandoned garage across the road. Hoopoes can be heard (hoop-oop-oop) in the vicinity and they occasionally visit the garden. If you have not seen one before – they are unmistakeable! Blackbirds, goldfinches & tits all visit the garden frequently. Rarer visitors have included golden orioles and a wallcreeper.
The Gironde marshes between Liboulas & Talmont are not an official reserve, but they have as much variety as the LPO reserves near Rochefort. The ponds are used for duck-shooting in autumn & winter, but in the spring & summer are home to lapwings, blackwinged stilts, ringed plovers, shelduck, citrine wagtails, herons, egrets, redshank, dunlin & common sandpipers. Ruff, godwits, avocets & other waders also stop off on migration. Kingfishers zip along the ditches, which are also home to occasional purple herons. The reedbeds are home to reed & sedge warblers, and cuckoos.
The fields around are full of skylarks, meadow pipits & fan-tailed warblers. The hedges harbour more nightingales, shrikes, bluethroats, whitethroat
s & other warblers. There is a stork nest down the track by the information board (as well as 2 others in the neighbourhood) & the adults can be seen in the fields round about, particularly close to the Meschers road) Marsh harriers, black kites, buzzards & kestrels hun overhead. Occasionally hen & Montagu’s harriers quarters the farmed fields, as do short-eared owls in winter.
For more birding spots, take the estuary road south towards St Seurin & Mortagne -The extensive reedbeds house penduline tits in winter & wallcreepers make their winter home in the chalk cliffs. Both species are however very elusive. At Mortagne, the lagoons in the marshlands attract many species of waders, ducks & geese in winter.
The whole Gironde estuary is a migration highway in spring and even more so in autumn. Ospreys are frequently seen at Bonne Anse north of Royan and Mortagne, and in 2009 Rothes, one of the chicks from the RSPB Loch Garten, spent four weeks near Port Maubert south of Mortagne, before she finally moved on to Africa.
Reserves in the area
Vitrezay to the south of Mortagne; and Station de Lagunage, Moëze & Marais de Yves all near Rochefort provide good birdwatching. The Station de Lagunage is Rochefort's showpiece ecological sewage treatment centre - the filtration beds provide a rich feeding environment for resident and migrating waders.
Migration Watch Special!
From late March to May. Take the ferry from Royan to Pointe de Grave – leave your car in the car park & cross as a foot passenger. Head up to the top of the dune & join the migration counters. On the best days (clear days after rain, with light northerly winds), thousands of swallows, housemartins & sandmartins will pass immediately overhead, with hobbies in pursuit. Other raptors of all sizes, including ospreys, also cross here, as do storks, spoonbills, cuckoos, hoopoes, & lots of finches.