Things to remember:
- I heard cirl buntings at first light. No bad thing.
- It's been overcast all day today and the drives been a mixture of free-flowing N roads and quintisential French villages.
- Took on my first diesel after almost 400 miles on French soil and paid the equivalent of £1.34/litre.
- Had a very long lunch that included another short run and some interesting birding over a small lake surrounded by arable land. There were literally dozens of chiffchaffs gorging on flying invertebrates, presumably stocking up on their way back to their wintering grounds. As well as the chiffchaffs, there were loads of grey wagtails and huge skylark flocks amongst the more expected stuff
- Tonight's stopover is a place we've used before. It's a series of (working) gravel pits (some flooded) next to the Loire. We were last here on our way to Bulgaria four years ago and - in the height of summer then - it was quite magical with flocks of nesting bee-eaters and all manner of stuff besides. Today, it's not quite so enthralling. It's not that it's unpleasant, just far less exotic. Common redstarts and great-white egrets have been the best of the stuff that hasn't already headed south for winter.
- As a consolation, there are a few coypu about and I've watched some huge fish leaping.
Post composed at 22:00 on Tuesday 14th October from my intended overnighting spot N 45.76615°, E 04.19932° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:45.76615%2C04.19932