The Painted Lady, the Admirals, Some firsts and a Prima Donna

Little Egret near Lann Hoedic

Well here I am back from Brittany,reviewing my thoughts and my photographs and in desperate need of updating my blog. The Curious Fish and I had visualised endless opportunities to get on line (in Brittany) via Wi Fi and to keep our blogs up to date. This proved impossible because of the scarcity and limitations of hotspots and also the prohibitive costs on some sites which offered a WiFi (pronounced WeeFee) service (typically 6 to 9 euros for a couple of  hours). One of my personal objectives now I'm back in the UK is to find out about and cost more effective internet coverage for when we're travelling in the UK and Europe. I suspect cost will be a major factor in Europe. Any advise gratefully received.
Brittany is a beautiful place with wonderful, warm, welcoming and friendly people. It can be windy and for the last two weeks of our visit was very wet. The countryside is lush, verdant (not surprising considering the rainfall) and very unspoilt. The roads are quiet by West Midlands standards and population density per square mile significantly less than the UK. Drivers seem very courteous and everybody seems to obey speed limits.
The wildlife (which as you may have guessed from reading this blog is a particular interest of mine) threw me a lot of exciting moments and some thrilling 'firsts' with Avocets and a Black Winged Stilt (spotted by the Curious Fish) on the Salt Marches at Suscinio being top of the list. The Black Winged Stilt whilst close to the Avocets was actually mingling with the considerable numbers of Egrets which were feeding in the shallow waters.

Avocet at Suscinio

Black Winged Stilt in the murky distance

Did you just see an Avocet?

Sunrise at Lann Hoedic taken from Motorhome Wanda

The photographs (poor) of the above mentioned firsts are the best I could obtain in the wet and murky weather conditions. I even leapt out of bed at 6.00am one morning to try to improve on the photographs but the weather remained consistently grey and grim so my 15 min early morning drive to Suscinio was to little avail. The photograph shows the sunrise at Lann Hoedic near Sarzeau (that morning). This caused me much optimism (6.00am French time 5.00 am UK Time - Aarghhh!) but within 10 minutes it was pouring down again!!

I know the Curious Fish will be posting some photographs of Suscinio Castle etc on her blog shortly. Catch up with her as she catches up on http://www.http://www.randomwritingsofacuriousfish.blogspot.com

Order restored for moment, she's about to run!

Despite all the rain I had some huge belly laughs (suppressed for fear of frightening the birds) at the antics of a pair of Shelducks. The Drake was dignified and calm and trying desperately to be in control of his female, he kept calling her back to his side. She was having none of it and dashed off hither and thither to feed in various muddy dabbles seemingly at random. He was clearly nearing the end of his feather (sorry) as she dashed about...she was definitely the 'road runner' of the duck world. Duck 1 Drake 0.

Oh no she's off again!!

We did have quite a few sunny days which were great for Butterfly spotting. We were relocating from Trinity Sur Mer to Carnac when we stopped off to view the Tumulus of St Michael and parked in a sloping sandy gravelly parking area nearby (more about the parking in a minute). We visited the Pre historic tumulus which has been 'christianised' by the building of a church on top of it and on the way back came upon a Laurel at the foot of some lucky person's garden. The Laurel was in full sun, in full flower and awash with Painted Lady butterflys and Red Admirals I was overcome first with excitement and then with frustration for the laurel was probably 4 or 5 metres high with the flowers and the butterflies near the top. I did manage a few photographs when the odd beauty dropped down the bush nearer to my camera level.

Painted Lady Carnac

Red Admiral Carnac 

Now you know I mentioned the 'parking space' above...it sloped downhill from the entrance which conversely means you have to drive uphill to leave. Our rig with motorhome, trailer and car is over forty feet long and weighs in at six tonnes. The mistake I'd made was to reverse into the parking area with my bonnet facing up hill, not the brightest thing I've ever done with a front wheel drive vehicle on a dusty slippery surface. I suspect the dust cloud we created when we spun our way out of the car park was probably visible from the moon. Oh well!! lesson learned (until the next time?).

When we left Carnac we moved to Lann Hoedic near Sarzeau where the above murky Suscinio bird photographs were taken. Whilst on site (during a sunny spell) I managed to sneak up on a White Admiral Butterfly sunning itself on a patch of dry grass. This was another first (apparently we get them in Southern England but I've never seen one).

White Admiral Pitch 92 Lann Hoedic

Oh Happy Day