This title means, "The Valley of the Loire River".
Berry and I ate croissants and then washed clothes in Niort, France. For logistical reasons, we went ahead and paid for another night in the French town of Niort. The French do not let you take coffee out of the restaurant and they don't sell it in cups to go. This continues to be a sticking point with us. In the morning, Berry plans to swipe several cups of French coffee in a thermal cup she bought, so she can take coffee into the woods. Comme d'habitude.
To get our day started, we aimed toward the Loire River, but paused briefly along the way, at the little Lac du Cébron. It was closed until June 1. We used our binoculars to scan the pond. A Common Tern (Sterna Hirundo) was searching the lake too. The common tern is an agile flyer; he was making rapid turns and swoops up and down the lake, all while staring down at the water, looking for food.
Usually we place a musical note next to the name of a bird we hear, but don't actually see. While standing at the locked gate at the Lac du Cébron, we heard the distinctive call of the Common Cuckoo (Cumulus Canorus). We heard this call several more times throughout the day, but never did actually see the bird. We are still hoping to see it sometime during this trip, devising this using statistical probability.
Lunch in Saumur, France was light. Robert had a salad with chicken in it. Berry had baked goat cheese wrapped in bacon. We were anxious to begin birding, so we reached the Loire River and turned left. There was a fantastic road along the southern side of the river. A new Life Bird we found on this road was the Long Tailed Tit (Aegithalos Caudatus). Its tail is relatively long. Its plumage is mainly black and white, with variable amounts of grey and pink.
At another stop along the river, we briefly debated the identity of two waterfowl in the river. They swam upstream together. We ultimately decided they were Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps Cristatus). The grebe is an excellent swimmer and diver, and pursues its prey underwater. We studied the two of them while each of them dove several times.
There were fine homes and even castles along the Loire. We were birding and other people who joined the road with us were an assortment of fishermen with their equipment, young lovers embracing, teams of racing cyclists, young men playing Petanque, cattle staring at us, agricultural machines, livestock, and one old man dropping heavy things in the water.
We crossed the Loire and birded back down the other side. We turned out into the countryside and roamed a marsh and some farm land. Hundreds of birds were attracted to a farmer's freshly plowed ground. As we were searching for a bridge back across the Loire, Robert discovered a Eurasian Nuthatch (Sitta Europe). This nuthatch was foraging upside-down, descending a tree head first.
After a long and productive day, we drove the tiny streets back into Saumur, France and found a great restaurant called, "Bistrot Les Traditions". Robert adored the L'oeuf du mois. This was a poached egg in coddled milk with bacon and a mint leaf.
Robert continued with the second course, Babette grille, which was a nice cut of beef with an Asian smear, and Baba which is a pair of small cakes in pear juice with whipped cream. This was not Berry's first rodeo. She had the Supreme de Volaille aux langoustines (chicken breast stuffed with crawfish) and for dessert, and the Pirouette, a chocolate covered ball of something sweet. Bonne bouffe.
We were amused at dinner by a demonstration of the flight of two Montgolfiere style hot air balloons right over the city. We saw them first thru the window of the restaurant. We saw them again on the highway. The red one almost hit powerlines as we sped by.
Robert and Berry
Photos courtesy of wikipedia and rfowler
No comments:
Post a Comment