Benelux Bonanza - CGN and Les Hemmes de Marck

Last week saw the Hiley brothers hit up Northern France, Belgium and Holland in a 2-day birding bonanza.

Mark and I stayed at 'Calais's worst hotel' on the Tuesday evening. A fine Steak at the 'Histoire Ancienne' and a big win at Casino Calais combined with the prospect of lifers and banter to come, though, meant that we were straight to sleep and oblivious to the purported poor state of the hotel!

Good job we got some sleep in, as it was up before dawn to smash down some Boulangerie treats before meeting X and heading off to Cap Gris Nez, our first port of call.

Birding at CGN in January was always going to be a cold one. We combatted this with some huge layers (including Seal Skins, Mexican socks and a disproportionate amount of Decathlon clothing) and some French rapping in the car park.

Sunrise at CGN.

Not a bad view. And the birds that started rolling in weren't bad either. A 2-hour seawatch threw up 30 Common Scoter, 6 Red-throated Diver, large movements of Guillemot, Razorbill and Gannet, 30 Great Grebes, 300 Cormorant, and, best of all, a roving Great Skua.

Mark managed to catch this classic Bonxie behaviour

From the Cap, we headed up the coast to the beach at Les Hemmes de Marck for some superb winter coastal birding.

We thought we were into some interesting wildfowl early doors. Doosra. The ponds we had stumbled on were full of decoys - plastic ducks and geese used to attract wild birds in by the hunters. After threading through the ponds and a hatful of armed Frenchmen, we finally reached the beach. There was excitement straight away as a Short-eared Owl took off from under our feet to start quartering the coastal scrub.

The Owl put up a mixed flock of passerines. Some long range viewing showed up flashes of white within the flock. Snow Buntings were in town, there was no question about that. A group of 20 broke off from the main bunch and landed close by. Shore Larks - gorgeous birds, and always nice to catch up with in their winter habitat.

We wanted to get closer to the main bunch but were cut off by a pretty nasty looking coastal river. Xander crossed easily in his fur-lined Wellies, but we were cut off. The solution - launch 1 welly across and employ some 'birding and hopping'. Easier said than done.

'Birding and hopping'
Waiting for the welly

Mission Failed

Several damp yards later,we caught up with the flock.



X managed a record shot of a fine Lapland Longspur and some Snow Buntings in with the Linnets that formed the majority.

We weren't the only interested party. The Short-eared Owl (bottom left) had recovered from an aerial dogfight with a Peregrine and was now keeping a close eye on the critters.

The walk back to the car produced a mixed flock of waders (Knot, Dunlin, Grey Plover) and then a ring-tail Hen Harrier, capping off a great mornings birding.

See Part 2 for more birding and banter!