Spotted Redshank

Tringa erythropus

See it BIGGER HERE
Today I was working in Bordeaux, so I took the opportunity to hot-foot it down to the Bassin d'Arcachon, in spite of the gale force winds and hail storms.

I found a superb walk that has the bassin and the sea on one side and ancient fish traps and saltings on the other - a real haven for birds.
The place is near the Dune de Pylla, which is the biggest dune in Europe - and which I noticed has three variations of its spelling on road signs ... and overlooks the famous and beautiful Bassin d'Arcachon.

To honour this I had to stop for a dozen oysters and a glass of white wine at one of the lovely little unpretentious restaurants in Arcachon for lunch - that was nice ...

Well, usually that is, as the wind was so high there was no way that birds could fly or land - it really was blowing a gale.

I saw quite a few different birds, in spite of the weather - so I imagine it is full of them when the wind is a few notches down the Beaufort scale.

One of the low points of the day was that my Lens died on me after only a month - let's see how good Sigma customer care is in France ...

The name of the bird in French is Le Chevalier Arlequin