I haven't posted here in a few months but since this 1st observation, the Tengmalm's Owl bred on Mt Ventoux with 3 young fledging in June!

Tengmalm's Owl (✅296) yesterday somewhere on Mt Ventoux 👀! It has bred in the area in the past but the last confirmed sightings are from 2006 (although the secretive nature of this species mean it may have stayed undected all along), big thanks to the observer who 1st recorded the bird on the 19th!

Found the Ring-necked Duck at Piolenc on my 2nd try (almost all the Common Pochards had left so it was easy to spot! The 1st American bird ever in Vaucluse! Also my 1st American bird in France! ✅295

Female Long-tailed Duck in Camargue yesterday! (✅294) in horrible weather conditions (rain and wind all day), I dipped: Indian Silverbill, Rose-coloured Starling, Greater Spotted Eagle, Temminck's Stint, Great Grey Shrike, Pine Bunting and Imperial Eagle 🥲🥲

Some great bits of birding yesterday! With a lifer, (2) Slavonian Grebes (my 293✅ for France)! Plus a new bird for my Self-found list with a nice adult male Greater Saup (although very distant). Also +2 PACA, with a Parakeet and some Common Gulls and a massive 400 Stock Dove flock!

And a good bonus in the form of a Spotless Starling!! ✅292 and ☑️350 World tick!

Quite a crowd by French twiching standards!

Incredible day twiching France's 2nd ever (and 1st twichable) Moussier's Redstart a beautiful male (apparently 1cy though it has a perfect plumage ^^) ✅291 French tick!

European Herring/Yellow-legged Gull, the 1st being local rarity (only 1 previous county record). The colour and dirty head point to a HG but small the white spots to the end of primaries and overall head structure (as pointed out by others) point to a YLG

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Little Bunting recorded migrating over Mt Ventoux with a remote recorder on October 22nd (following the Olive-backed Pipit on the same spot last autumn) quite decent for an inland site!
2nd county record for Vaucluse (last one was in November 2005)

I recently made this graph cumulating the last 10 years of Dotterel observations from Mt Ventoux the drop in mid-September could reflect a lack of observer pressure or the 2 peaks often observed with the 1st being mainly adults and the 2nd mainly 1cy birds

Sorting through Dotterel photos from August on Mt Ventoux. This year we reached a total of 14 (between the 22nd of August and the 19th of October), down from the record 30 of 2023. This is likely also down to less prospection in September and a lower effort altogether. 🧵

Also this nice drake Ferruginous Duck at the Bassin du Réaltor, my 2nd ever!

Dipped the Blyth's Pipit at Mas Chauvet, Crau this morning but had a nice time with the 10+ Richard Pipits still around!