BIRD WATCHING
 
Around the area you can expect to see hedge sparrows, blackbirds, song thrushes, starlings, robins, magpies, sparrow hawks, crows, jays, chiff-chaffs, bullfinches and various members of the tit family, included crested and long-tailed. You can expect to hear, if not see, the cuckoo, little owl and barn owl. We have a woodpecker in the garden daily.
Macareux Moine
  
Avocette
The cormorant feeds on flatfish and eels. It can often be seen in estuaries during the winter months.
Grand Cormorant
The grey wagtail is an elegant bird also seen frequently in our area.
The linnet is a charming bird that arrives in considerable numbers from Spain and Morocco in April.
The Brent goose is a visitor to bays and estuaries from October to April. It loves eelgrass.
During the winter, or passing through on their long migrations, you can see a vast number of species – barnacle geese, grebes, ducks, sandpipers, spoonbills and so on.
Busard des roseaux
Mouette tridactyle
The turnstone, as its name implies, pokes among stones and seaweed in search of food.
The ringed plover runs along the sands, pausing to pick up food.
Mouette rieuse
The curlew, with its distinctive long curved beak, searches out small creatures buried deep in the mud. It also has a fondness for shore crabs.
Goéland argenté and its young
Bécassine des Marais
The kingfisher is relatively common in our area, and many of our guests have reported seeing them. It nests in a horizontal burrow high on a river bank.
The kestrel is easy to spot. It eats small mammals and large insects.
Pétrel Fulmar
The dunlin, or red-backed sandpiper, is a wader frequently seen walking on mudflats looking for worms, crustaceans and small molluscs.
Vanneau huppé
Courlis cendré
The sheldrake nests in burrows, often a long way from the water.
The oystercatcher feeds on molluscs, which it stabs or hammers open.
In Brittany the sparrowhawk population is in slow decline, though there seems to be no shortage of sparrows!
The barn owl preys mainly on field mice, voles and other small rodents.
Fou de Bassan
The grey heron steps slowly along the channels at low tide, searching for small fish and crustaceans.
The little owl is small and squat, with a flat head and round, yellow eyes. Sightings are becoming rare.
Grêbes huppés (winter, left, summer, right)
Guépier d'Europe
The little grebe, or dabchick, is an energetic diver.
The redshank is a wader seen frequently on mud flats and marshes.
The Dartford warbler can be seen on the Breton heathland.
The collared turtle-dove first settled in Rennes in 1958, but has now spread to towns all over Brittany.
Gravelot

Montagu's harrier is a fine bird of prey, quite similar to a kestrel. Its wings are more narrow and have a central wing bar of
black.

Brittany is one area where swallows still nest in chimneys.
Buse variable
  
Bergeronnette printanière