River Deep, Mountain High - Ike and Tina Turner

NOTICE BOARD

1. With 'Christmas' rapidly approaching, it was though appropriate to publish a new Blog Header with a 'Seasonal' flavour. This brilliant bird was seen almost immediately The Three Fat Lads (Jim the Medic, Billy Crumble and myself) had crossed the border between Belize and Guatemala on our journey through all 7 countries of Central America back in 2004. A fantastic addition to the World Life List!

2. November Reader Statistics have reached an all time, incredible 'HIGH' of 10,500 for the month (average 350 per day) and I cannot pretend that this doesn't put me on something of a 'high' myself. If indeed you enjoy reading our humble production, maybe you would like to take just 2 minutes and share it with others. All it would need is for you to send the Blog Link The Bagsy Blog to all your E-Mail addressees, Facebook Friends, Twitter Followers, LinkedIn Contacts etc. Just a 'moment in time' and Thanks in anticipation.
3. I would also like to share something with you, that is this link to Gascon Holidays where we are staying at the moment. Peace on Earth, Glorious Countryside, Excellent 'Local' Food and Drink and a great chance to get away from it all!
Maybe surprisingly the weather here is 3-5 degrees cooler than on the south coast of England  and today, to make matters worse, the rain seemed to be set in. Never mind, we were destined for a day in the Pyrenees Mountains just a 90 minutes drive from the house.

 As we neared the rain bearing cloud slowly but surely rolled away

 leaving clear blue skies for the rest of the day.

 Although the higher peaks held good amounts of snow

 all the ski resort villages remained closed down

 maybe needing just that extra depth

 that may drag the tourist in?

 While we had formulated an 'Imaginary Bird List'

 including both Rock Bunting and Sparrow

 along with perhaps a far too ambitious

 Wall Creeper there was little bird life at altitude.

 Descending, we did find these rather interesting monuments

which we had not a clue about

 except maybe for this one dedicated to those of the 

Father Land who lost their lives in the Great War.

 Entering the tiny village of ARRENS-MARSOUS coincided with

 Lunch Time

so we took a punt on this local way-side restaurant.

 The fixed menu at €12 started with a Salsa style Salad with 

bread and a decent size carafe of local Red Wine.

Perhaps the photograph doesn't make the main dish look that appetising but believe you me the perfectly seasoned beans complimented with Lamb, Sausage and Duck made for a hearty and warming Cassoulet for such a day. The people here, both staff and clientele, were most welcoming and we completed out repast with a lovely egg custard. 

 

Before reaching the car we caught a brief sighting of a lone and

quickly passing RED KITE surely the forerunner of more to come?

but before that a 'must' visit to the Canard/Foie Gras Factory.

To see all this fabulous fare made it hard to put the wallet back into
the pocket. It was thought €60 would be enough spend for one day!
Returning to the village, high above and at some distance

were what could only be

GRIFFON VULTURES

We made as fast a progress towards them as we would dare,

and soon they were directly above us.
Thought this little 'montage' worked quite well?

Driving back to
L’ANCIEN PRESBYTÈRE
( The House)

we encountered another

RED KITE

News from Hugh's Gardener cum Handyman told of much larger numbers of migrating Common Cranes that he had ever witnessed here before. They all managed to stay out of our way - mores the pity!

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La Marseillaise - French National Anthem

After the unexpectedly busy start to yesterday the rest of the day continued at a steady pace. The Moth Traps had caused something of a delay but more than worth it now we have confirmation of identities. Our mentor reports that this is not in fact Mottled Umber as stated but the much more uncommon

 SCARCE UMBER*
Status of 'Scarce Umber' in Dorset Link 

 while this is in fact as thought the

WINTER MOTH*

Both of these creatures are additions to the Parley

Moth List which now puts us just a single species

short of the 200 of this first and shortened year.

 The Micro is Crocidosema plebejana,

thought to have no connection to any member of the 

Police Force in Downing Street.

 and what do you make of this?

All will be revealed at the end of the Post.

The drive to Heathrow Airport was without incident and having 'checked in' online it was directly to the

BRITISH AIRWAYS HOSPITALITY LOUNGE

 for a snack and glass of wine.

 The design of TERMINAL 5 is quite remarkable with huge

support beams an

 Panoramic Widows across the Tarmac.

In 1 hour and 20 minutes we were in

 picking up the hire car for the 2 hours drive to

LEMBEYE
and one of Hugh's favourite restaurants the
LE TOUR

Settling down to a glass of local wine produced just down the road.

Pâté de Foie de Canard
came next and staying with the Duck theme

Confit de Canard
both one of my real favourites.

 Eventually, and under cover of dark, we arrived at our destination village of

to be greeted by our first bird, a distant and vocal

TAWNY OWL.

This morning VESTAL was on the doormat and

 what again looks like 

WINTER MOTH

high on one of the external walls.

 We spent most of the rest of the day cruising around the countryside

simply seeing what we could see. At the local reservoir we found

c2 GREAT WHITE EGRET and half a dozen CORMORANT.

 During the day we sighted c7

BLACK REDSTART

with this adult male being the best.

 A LIZARD on a roadside wall was in company with c4 of the

 BLACK REDSTART

 We were surprised to see 'thousands' of hectare of

MAIZE

still not harvested so late in the year.

 While work is most definitely in progress there is still

 much to be done and nearly everywhere we went

there were signs of harvesting.

The Post may seem a little on the short side but our day was full

and we are both very much looking forward to another wander

around this excellent part of the world DEMAIN - OUI!

Almost a Frenchman.

The mystery picture is a cloud formation through which the setting sun is shining and was taken through the starboard window about half way to Toulouse.

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