Things to remember:
- I couldn't drop off to sleep last night because of the still-stifling heat, plus I was bothered by itchy mosquito bites. At least I had good company in the form of at least four nightingales that were singing around and about the camper.
- The good company continued first thing this morning. I got up at 5.30am in order to make my way south to the Camargue in relatively cool conditions and - whilst coming to - was gazing bleary-eyed out of the camper when I saw what I first thought was a big black dog heading towards the back of the van. About 30 metres short, the 'dog' seemed to catch a whiff of me, stopped dead, then turned and ran off. Only at this point did I see the animal was a big old wild boar.
- The morning's drive was OK until I got to Avignon where I was snagged for well over half an hour because of the weight of traffic.
- The delay saw me arrive a bit later than I'd planned at the Réserve naturelle des marais du Vigueirat: a birding spot known to support the very rare collared pratincole over the summer months. I don't chase species ordinarily but do occasionally use one as a bit of a focus to theme my ventures.
- I braved the heat of the reserve but saw no pratincoles. The reserve was a treat, nonetheless. It was absolutely teeming with dragonflies and the bird species list grew quickly. Of the more notable were bee-eaters, purple heron, black-winged stilts, glossy ibis, squaco heron (loads of them) and, confirming yesterday evening's suspicion, a solitary night heron. I was lucky to spot this as it was in flight and moving away but I'm 100% sure of it. It's my first confirmed sighting of this species.
- I left the reserve about 1.00pm and was irritated to find the L200's engine warning light illuminated. I have an OBD2 reader with me and it showed faults related to the EGR valve. I can't clear the codes and am now figuring out what to do.
- I tried the reader after taking shelter from the relentless heat on a crappy old track under a road bridge where two good things happened. I got some really good coolish breeze channelling under the tunnel and also heard and saw a couple of hoopoes. Every cloud and all that ...
- As it cooled off slightly I moved on from my crappy track under a bridge and - from a far more benign spot - had a gentle potter on the bike with my bins to see what I could see. It turned out quite a lot. As well as more of the stuff I'd seen earlier, I saw a European pond turtle (pic), a snake slithering across the road in front of me of about a metre in length (looked like a grass snake but I don't know), a dozen rollers, and another new species for me: great spotted cuckoo.
- At the spot shown now which overlooks Mediterranean scrub and some agricultural land, I'm going to make an early start in the morning in another quest for pratincoles.
Post composed at 22:10 on Thursday 28th May 2026 from my intended overnighting spot N 43.47271°, E 04.81140° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:43.47271%2C04.81140
