Gourmet Spring Birding & Wine in south of France

Accommodation : L’Embresienne in the Corbières 

We start today with the coastal lagoons in the northern part of the Narbonnaise regional park, where we will look for waders and terns. After a coffee break, we head to the reed-beds for Moustached warbler, Bearded reedling and Great reed warbler. On the banks of the Aude river, and in the surrounding meadows and vineyards we should find Hoopoe, Lesser kestrel, Bee-eater, Woodchat shrike, Ortolan bunting and hopefully Roller if they are back.

If the prevailing north-westerly wind is blowing, we’ll start by heading for the spectacular south facing migration lookout spot above Leucate-Plage where we will hope to see the following species heading north: Roller, Bee-eater, Honey buzzard, Osprey, and possibly a few Alpine swifts.

Today we will be participating in the “Balade des 5 Sens” which is a 7km walk in the gentle hills overlooking the lagoons at Peyriac-de-Mer. The walk is punctuated with stops to taste delicious food and wine, but we will also be keeping our eyesopen for birds! We may well see Avocet and Black-winged stilt and hopefully a few Flamingo (though many will by now be nesting in the Camargue – their only breeding ground in France).

On our way up into the Corbières hills we will have a brief stop at one of the spectacular Cathar castles perched on top of craggy limestone outcrops. Then we’ll move on to the Bugarach observation platform and look across to the cliffs that are home to a group of Griffon vultures and where the Egyptian vulture has been known to nest. Finally, we will drive down the spectacular Galamus Gorge where we’ll be looking out for Alpine swifts, Crag martins,Blue rock thrush and Peregrine falcon.

After a peek at the White stork nest, the Grey heronry and hopefully Purple heron on the nest, we can also have a look around the St Louis marsh/reed beds to spot Bearded reedling, Purple heron, Moustached warbler and Bittern. After lunch we’ll head even further into the interior of the La Clape headland and walk down a craggy valley where we have a good chance of seeing Blue rock thrush, Rock thrush, Crested tit and possibly roosting Eagle owl.

Today we will be looking for species typical of the garrigue habitat including warblers such as Dartford, Subalpine Orphean and Sardinian, plus Ortolan bunting, Thekla lark and Black-eared wheatear. This is good raptor country too and we have a good chance of seeing Short-toed eagle, Bonelli’s eagle and Golden eagle as well as Montagu’s harrier and Hen harrier

We stop at a Mediterranean river gorge to look for Blue rock thrush, Common rock thrush, Crag martins before heading to the medieval town of Lagrasse where we will have an early lunch (cost not included) before the final transfer to Toulouse airport to connect with your flight home.