Carolina Wren in the Ivy

   Berry and I were back home and it was Saturday afternoon. We played Petanque in the backyard, tossing colored balls at a jack. Then, we sat at the picnic table and relaxed, slowly preparing a cook-out for dinner. Chicken kebobs and grilled cabbage, delicious. We finished eating and Berry suddenly spotted a Carolina Wren (Thryothorus Ludovicianus), climbing in and out of the ivy on the side of a pine tree, next to our bocce ball court.

   We admired the bird's rufus brown feathers. The Carolina Wren has a large beak. We can differentiate it from other wrens by the bright supercilium stripe just above its eye. It poked its beak under the leaves, searching for insects to eat.

   Then Berry noticed a second Carolina Wren on the fence. It chirped its very distinctive call and scratched its rump with its own beak. We got a pair of binoculars and our Sibley's. We studied both wrens and thought how lucky we were, to have two...

   Suddenly, a third Carolina Wren popped up on the fence with the second bird. We have three Carolina Wrens in our backyard. Amazing! There was one in the ivy, one on the fence singing, and another on the fence next to it. How lucky are we now.

Robert and Berry

Photo courtesy of dpancamo

Encore Chez Nous

   The title means “Home Again”

   Robert and I got up this morning in Luxembourg and ate a very nice breakfast at the hotel. We had cleverly packed everything up last night, so, as soon as the dust was off of breakfast, we drove to the Luxembourg Airport. There were workers digging and tunneling in the parking lot, and there were no signs.

   We initially had trouble finding where to return rental cars at that airport. Robert parked in short term parking and went in to ask at the counter. He came back to the car with a pen-drawn map on his baggage claim card. The rental cars went through an unmarked gate and down two levels of an underground parking lot… anyway…

   Robert and I flew then from Luxembourg to Frankfurt, Germany on a short puddle jumper flight. At the busy Frankfurt airport, we ate sausages and pretzels in the airport and then boarded a very wide jet plane for the eight hour flight over the Atlantic. During the flight, Robert read a book that he bought in France and worked crossword puzzles. Berry read her Kindle and tabulated our totals for this birding trip.

   The airport in Newark, NJ makes Frankfurt seem quaint. There we grabbed a ride in an almost empty plane for the trip to Memphis. All total, Robert and I spent eleven hours in the air. Robert’s brother and his wife met us at the airport. We will pick up Cosmo the dog tomorrow.

   This was a great birding trip and a fabulous vacation. France is a beautiful country. We identified a total of eighty-one Life Birds, which we had never seen before. It surprised us that so many ducks and geese live in Europe and America. Thanks, everyone, for reading the blog and being with us on our European birding trip.

Berry and Robert

Photos courtesy of wikipedia and bfowler

Quelle Escapade Pendant Nôtre Dernier Jour en Europe !

   This title means, "What Hi-jinks during our last day in Europe !"

   Yes, hi-jinks is the appropriate word. Berry and I woke up this morning in a huge comfortable bed in Strasbourg, France and we are now laying in a bed in Luxembourg, sincerely thankful that one of us was not in jail and the other searching downtown Luxembourg for a way to bail the other one out of jail. Yes. Let me start at the beginning.

   Berry enjoyed Strasbourg. Most French towns of medium size and large size are impossible to navigate. The center of every town seems to be full of unmarked one way streets. Robert drove more than twice down the wrong way on a one-way street, and he now remembers that amazingly empty lane is only for buses. Robert is creative and has a sense of humor.

   The Hotel Hannong in Strasbourg has an excellent breakfast, compared to most of them. There was one other hotel in Arcachon, France, which had fruit and meat and eggs, along with all the breads and juices and yogurts. There was someone there to cook you things. That does not happen in most hotels.

   We drove through a steady sprinkle from Strasbourg, France to Luxembourg. Robert parked the car and Berry paid for the parking. We want each person's behavior to be described accurately. We walked down into a large valley full of trees. Robert saw an olive bird with white wing bars. It did not have a seed eating beak. Berry and I could not come to any definite identification. We try to be honest with ourselves.

   Berry found a coffee house which was very much like a Starbucks. Robert had a large Americano with a splash of soy. Berry had the Oreo Frappuccino, which was coffee and cream and a crushed Oreo. Lunch followed. Berry had Chicken Cordon Bleu. Robert had braised pork with choucroute.

   Dessert for Berry was the superb and ubiquitous Crème Brûlée.

   Although we ate today, we did actually look for birds,too. There is a large forest behind the Hotel Ibis Airport. We walked slowly through old growth coniferous trees, searching for woodpeckers. A German girl waved at us. A Luxembourger with two dogs put them on leash for us. There were no signs and no name to this forest. Some hunters had put deer stands inside the woods. Robert playfully mounted one of the deer stands and continued looking for woodpeckers.

   Okay, now comes dinner. We came back to the hotel and showered and dressed for a fine dinner, and we found a popular seafood restaurant, "Chez Becano" on Rue de Clausen 1342 Luxembourg. The reason that I state the address is that this restaurant was on the road which led back to the hotel.

   Robert had the cod smothered in veggies. Berry had sturgeon in a red sauce. Robert had a cute orange flavored cake, which had been bent into a circle by the chef, very yummy. Berry had chocolate ice cream with something chocate inside of it. Robert got in the drivers seat when we pulled away from the restaurant.

   Berry started off in the passenger seat. All this is necessary to know. Robert was driving and pulled into traffic. It was to be a short trip back to the hotel near the airport. The traffic slowed at each of the traffic circles and then sped up afterwards. Then further down the road, suddenly everything ground to a stop. There were forty police, spread out on both sides of the road and some in the middle of the road.

   It was a police ratissage, a rat-catching operation. Our imaginations went wild. Were they searching for islamists? Had there been another attack? Forty police are a lot, anywhere. We imagined that they were rousting only foreigners, because they pulled a British girl over to the side of the road and fiddled around with her. Robert was driving, so he looked for his driver's license. Big search in the car and no license. Robert thought he left it in the room with his passport. Driving without a license, at a Luxemburger police rat-catching. Oh, no !

   So Berry got a great idea. Berry would run around the car to the driver's side and Robert would slide over. Berry had possession of her driver's license. Then the line inched forward. Two cars actually pulled out of line and sped off in the opposite direction. They blatantly avoided going through the police operation. The police just let a busload of people go through without stopping them. Carefully, Berry slowly pulled forward.

   Two Luxemburger police officers, one female and one male, approached the driver's side of our car. The large cop barks something in Luxemburger at Berry. They had not noticed that we switched drivers. I asked a question in French to get him to speak more slowly. He asked if Berry spoke English. She admitted that she did. They had her. The male officer took our rental car documents and Berry's drivers license to the left and turned Berry over to the female officer.

   The female then made Berry blow hard puffs in a breathalyzer. It was a drunk test. The lady officer told Berry to blow into the pipe. "Go...go...go..." Until the apparatus beeped. Berry got her score back almost immediately. Her blood alcohol level was 0.0 For dinner she drank a Coca Cola Light. She got back her license. Had Robert been driving without license or passport, in a foreign country... that would have been a disaster. Then, Robert impulsively snapped a photo of one of the cops. Oh, no.

   The angriest cop came over to the car and asked Robert why he took that photo. Robert stuttered some vaguely English words. The cop said that if one was to photograph him, one needed to ask first. Whew ! Tired of risking prison time in a dirty European jail, Robert became very quiet. Berry drove slowly back to the hotel.

   Tomorrow will be a long plane trip to Memphis. Good night.

Robert and Berry

Photos courtesy of rfowler, bfowler

Le Shopping et les Oiseaux au Meme Jour

   The title means “Shopping and birds, on the same day”

   Berry and I stayed a second day in Strasbourg. We had contemplated birding Germany, but would have taken more than a day. Going around France again would have taken more than a day. So, we went shopping. Or rather, Berry went shopping and Robert tagged along to translate. She found a huge place with lots of stores. This mall is called the “Place des Halles”.

   Berry bought several things. We brought our loot back to the hotel and rested. We left again, looking for a city park in the southeast and found the “Parc de l’Orangerie”. We birded it and as we strolled through the back of the park, we ran onto a full, regulation-sized Petanque court. Berry and I play a version of petanque at home and thought this was interesting.

   We ate lunch in the park, seated next to Spanish diplomats from the nearby European Parliament. Robert had a Tarte a l’Oignon. Berry had a Salade César. The Spanish diplomat closest to me ate fried potatos with mayonnaise and catsup.

   One bird was under a bush and walked out to greet us. The Fieldfare (Turdus Pilaris) is similar to the American Robin. Imagine a North American Robin with spots instead of the red breast. Perfect cousins.

   We visited a large park right next to the Rhine River. Berry and I froze in place when this little fellow started flitting. We finally got a handle on him. The Treecreeper (Certhia Familiaris) was scoping the limbs for bugs. Like it’s North American cousin, it travels sometimes upside down to get his bug.

   In that same park, we finally observed a European woodpecker. It was diving in and out of the limbs of a tree. Berry spotted it and then lost it. Then I found it and identified it. The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (Dryobates Minor) is the smallest woodpecker in the forests in France. I has difficulty drilling holes in wood, because it is so little.

   For dinner, we ate at a Spanish tapas restaurant, El Pimiento. Berry had the Paella Real. Robert had Jamon Serrano, Croqueta de pavo, Calamares a la Andaluza, a spinach salad with orange pieces and a large piece of bread smeared with tomato paste and with melted cheese and serrano jamon on top. On our way to Luxembourg in the morning.

Robert and Berry

Photos courtesy of wikipedia and rfowler

Voyage sur la Route

   Title means "Road Trip"

   After breakfast this morning, we started our day with a complete circulation of the Lac du Bourget. The word "lac" means lake. Lac du Bourget is a glacier alpine lake on the outskirts of Aix-les-Bains, France.

   While birding around the edges of the lake, we id'ed a lot of Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps Cristatus), one of the most handsome grebes we have ever seen. The crest is the top knot that it wears when it courts his lady friend.

   The Eurasian Coot (Fulica Atra) is a member of the rail family. It is much less secretive than most of the rail family. We saw it today swimming in open water. As most other rails, it is reluctant to fly. When taking off, it runs across the water surface with much flapping and splashing to aid it to attain take-off speed.

   We had not made it far enough north to justify to ourselves birding more in this area. We left the lake and for a goodly part of the day, Robert drove in the rain to Strasbourg, France. We stopped for sandwiches for lunch in Belfort, France. The pictures below were taken on the drive. Here is a picture of the Alps.

   The French autoroute from Belfort to Strasbourg goes periodically through a tunnel under the mountain, instead of around the mountain. This saves a lot of time. This picture is one of the tunnels.

   We arrived in Strasbourg by late afternoon. Strasbourg is a university town, situated on the eastern border of France with Germany. In fact, this area has often been a part of Germany. The city has a lot of German names and influences.

   After the long drive, we needed a nap before dinner, so we obtained a hotel room. We ate dinner at the cafe, "La Corde de Linge". We both had spaetzle. Spaetzle are a kind of soft egg noodle found in the cuisine Alsace. Alsace is the region of France, where Strasbourg is located. The Spatzle was very tasty. Berry hopes Robert will make some when we get home.

   After dinner, we took a walk around the historic center of the city. The old buildings were beautiful. Robert took the picture of the Mallard (Anas Platyrhynchos) below in the river that runs through the city. We have seen Mallards every day that we have been in France. Berry took the picture of the Mute Swan (Cygnus Olor).

   We went to a crêperie for dessert, then returned to the hotel for the night. We will be staying here in Strasbourg for two days, shopping and sightseeing. We may see a bird. We will surely enjoy the fine French cuisine.

Robert and Berry

Photos courtesy of wikipedia, bfowler, rfowler

Premièrement le Fleuve Rhône et puis, les Alpes

   The title means "First the Rhone River then the Alps"

   Our hotel room last night in Arles was right on the Rhone River. We had to walk across the river bridge to get to a restaurant to eat dinner. Today our plan was to drive north along the Rhone and to bird the river until we would break off and trend east toward the Alps. We wanted to be sure to avoid the city of Lyon. Lyon is the second largest city in France. It has a lot of traffic and no birds that we are interested in. The picture below is Berry on the bridge across the Rhone in Arles, France.

   France is a very technologically advanced and scientific country. France has been very active in developing nuclear technology.They try to sell reactors and nuclear technology around the world. The country derives about 75% of its electricity from nuclear energy, due to a long-standing policy based on energy security. Some of the political class are afraid that nuclear power plants will be targeted by terrorists. Robert and I could not get close to the one below on the Rhone River. So, we just took a picture below of the towers belching out smoke.

   The Massif Centrale is an elevated region in the middle of France. It consists of mountains and forests. We drove through a portion of this area today. We saw several Jackdaw (Corvus Monedula). This is a black bird with a grey nape and distinctive pale-gray irises. The Jackdaw is one of several birds of the Corvus, or Crow family found all over France.

   We stopped for lunch in Valence, France. Robert noticed that many businesses and restaurants were closed. He asked two different ladies about it. One well-dressed lady eating a sandwich out of a piece of foil, said it was the poor economic situation. The waitress hypothesized that the French people were just didn't like to work.

   We ate at an establishment named "Green'Box", with the apostrophe like that, a salad place in central Valence. We both had very fresh and tasty salads. We spent the rest of the day in the Alps. The mountains are very tall and rocky. Some of them had snow on the tops.

   At the edge of a mountain lake, we saw some Mute Swans (Cygnus Olor) and Robert popped a Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer Montanus), the first one of this trip, on top of a hedge.

   When we were finished, we decided to start looking for a hotel for the night. We drove down the autoroute to a city named Aix-Les-Bains and stayed at the Hôtel Des Eaux. The picture below is a castle located in the city of Aix-Les-Bains.

Robert and Berry

Photos courtesy of wikipedia and rfowler

Le Marais de la Camargue et la Ville d'Arles

   The title means “The Camargue Swamp and the city of Arles”

   Our trip to the ornithologically important swamp called Camargue started from the coastal city of Narbonne. We went down the Mediterranian coast and we bumped into Béziers, where there were cul-de-sacs waiting for us.

   We try to stay off of the large auto-routes (designated by the letter A). These are decent expressways, with two lanes in the countryside, with three or four around large cities. The problem with auto-routes is that you cannot get off of them when you want to. They only have exits about every third city. You cannot bird them.

   Lunch was at Casanova’s in Carnon, France. Robert had “le Thon a la Provencale”, a tuna steak with tomatoes and very large capers. Berry had “le Lasagne” and it was good.

   We came down the coast to l’Etang de l’Arnel. And then we went to the swamps of Camargue. These are the some of the birds we saw.

• Greater Flamingo
• Goosander
• Black Backed Gull
• Avocet
• Great Crested Grebe
• Magpie
• Cattle Egret
• Bonaparte’s Gull
• Stone Chat
• Gray Heron
• House Martins
• White Wagtail
• Shelduck
• Moorhen
• Little Egret
• Eurasian Collared Dove
• Garden Warbler
• Mute Swan
• Snow Bunting
• Little Tern
• Eurasian Goldfinch
• Wood Pigeon
• Black Winged Stilt
• Common Cuckoo
• Great Cormorant

   Here we present a collection of Photos taken in the Camargue swamp and some in Arles, France this evening.

   We walked across the bridge and wandered through the art district. For dinner, we went to the restaurant l’Apostrophe in the town square in Arles. Robert had the “Gnocchi a la Parisienne”, gnocchi with ham and mushrooms in a white sauce. Berry had “Steack-Frites” (that is how they spelled it).

Robert and Berry

Photos courtesy of wikipedia and rfowler

Le Vent, C'est Incroyable !

   The title means “The wind is unbelievable."

   Today we are starting the southern leg of our Birding France vacation. After breakfast this morning, we left the city of Pau, France, going west toward Toulouse in search of the Canal du Midi. The Canal du Midi is a canal in southern France. Made in the 18th century, the canal is 150 miles long. It connects the Garonne River at Toulouse to the Mediterranean Sea.

   This region of France is very windy due to the cool winds which descend from the peaks of the Pyrenees which collide with the warm winds of the Mediterranean Sea. When we stepped out of the car, the wind blew Robert's hat off and made it difficult to walk. The wind snapped open doors. The picture of the Canal du Midi below was taken just south of Toulouse.

   There are no roads that run along the entire length of the Canal. There is a bike path. So, the Painted Bunting Bird Club used our tried and true technique of driving up and down rural country roads, birding our way, and occasionally crisscrossing the Canal. One of the birds that we saw in the Canal region was the Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula Hypoleuca). The male is mainly black above and white below, with a large white wing patch, white tail sides and a small forehead patch. The bill is black, and has the broad but pointed shape typical of birds that eat insects while flying. Females are brown and nondescript.

   We were driving next to a small hillside lake. We saw one strange looking duck. It was the Red Crested Pochard (Netta Rufina), which we had never seen before. The adult is unmistakable. It has an orange head and red bill when it is breeding. We were very excited to see this duck because they are not in North America.

   We found a wind blown lake called the Barrage de la Gangues, located near the small town of Castelnaudary, France. The whole area is like a wind tunnel. The wind is incredibly strong. It was so windy that a couple of terns flying, could not make headway against the wind. A poor little White Wagtail (Motacilla Alba) walked across the dam instead of flying, to avoid being blow away. Even as our car approached, the little bird ran to the side of the road, instead of flying away. Truly is it windy when even the birds have a hard time flying.

   The sign below says that "All nautical activities are prohibited" on the lake. In the background of the same photograph, you can see several surf boarders. We saw about twenty surf boarders racing back and forth across the lake in wetsuits. They all seemed to be having a lot of fun wind surfing in the heavy wind and breaking the law.

   Typically restaurants in France serve lunch from 12 noon to 2 in the afternoon. The cook wants to go home, we understand. But we were having so much fun poking around the Canal du Midi and looking for birds that the time slipped by and it was 2:15pm before we started thinking about lunch. We could not find a single place that was still open. We decided to go to a Super Marché and buy bread, sausage, cheese, olives and bananas and Pringles chips. We parked the car beside a small waterfall and had a picnic. After lunch we went back to our birding.

   The last bird of note that we saw today was a Great Tit (Parus Major). We have seen these all over France. This one seemed to be hanging on to the back of a road sign, trying not to be blown away. I looked like it was working for him.

   We have installed ourselves in Narbonne, France on the Mediterranean coast. We got a room in the Ibis Hotel. We ate dinner next door and watched American television programs on our Smartphones.

Robert and Berry

Photos courtesy of wikipedia, rfowler, and bfowler

Un Pneu Crevé dans les Pyrénées

   The title means "Flat Tire in the Pyrenees"

   Today started out just like any other day. We ate breakfast in the hotel in the city of Pau and headed out to bird the foothills of the Pyrenees. The Pyrenees Mountains are in France and Spain. Some of the taller mountains had snow on the top. We both laughed when we both saw the sign below.

   As we were driving down rural mountain roads, we stopped at Les Bords du Gave. It is a nice place with a fast flowing river, a cute mill, a small little city park with a grandmother watching her grandchildren, an ancient church and a cool waterfall. We saw some of the birds we have discussed in previous blog posts.

   Our only new bird for today was the Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa Striata). We was perched on a tree limb and allowed us to look at him for an extended period of time. The Spotted Flycatcher is an undistinguished looking bird with long wings and tail. The adults have gray-brown upper coverts and whitish belly, with a streaked crown and breast. Difficult to see, except that it was perched so long on the limb.

   Around 11am, Robert noticed the car's check tire light had come on. When we checked the tires, we discovered that the right front tire was going flat. We pulled over to the side of a narrow rural road and prepared to change the tire. That is when we found out that our rental car from Hertz did not have a spare tire. Our day went down hill from there.

   We called Hertz customer service. They were very helpful. It took a while to explain to them where exactly we were, but once that was understood, the representative sent out a wrecker which arrived about an hour later. The mechanic determined that he could not fix the tire or replace it, so he loaded the car onto the wrecker and we went with him about 10 miles to the village of Arudy, France.

   When we got to garage, the mechanic told Robert that either someone would come to fix the tire or we would get another car. He assured Robert that we would be on our way no later than 4:00pm. Robert asked him if he would take us to a restaurant in the middle of the village and he agreed. We had a pretty lunch. Since we had plenty of time, we both got crême brulée for dessert which was brought to the table on fire to burn the sugar and Cointreau on top.

   After lunch, while we were waiting for the mechanic to come back to get us, we walked around the village. Robert explained how the old Romain churches were dark inside, because without the flying buttress technology, the old Roman Church was dark inside. We also stopped in at a sundry store, but did not but anything.

   We got back to the garage around 3:00pm. Our mechanic told us that someone from Hertz was bringing us another car. We waited at the garage until 5:30pm when the mechanic suggested that we call a taxi and go to a hotel. He was ready to go home for the day. Robert again called Hertz. The Customer Service Representative told him that they would send a taxi for us to take us to the Hertz counter at the Pau airport, which was about 30 miles away. We finally got to the airport at 7:45pm and got another car.

   Robert was having to do all the talking and handling of the issues because Berry does not speak French. In a nine hour period Robert was required to converse in French to the mechanic who had stones in his mouth, the fast talking waitress in a restaurant, and the taxi driver who took us to get a new car. He spoke Spanish to the cook in the restaurant and to a Spanish driver who came into the garage to ask driving directions to Spain. He responded in Chinese to a Chinese friend who e-mailed Robert about playing Go. And, all the while, speaking English to Berry. What a day, but he took care of me.

   After we got the new car, we had the wettest pizza we have ever had, then found a hotel room in the same city where we started out this morning. Good night.

Berry and Robert

Photos courtesy of wikipedia and rfowler