Eclipse birding trip
to N France August 1999
John van der Woude - www.jvanderw.nl
Convinced that a 100% sun eclipse
is much and much more than the 97% that would be
possible in our home country Holland, we made a trip of a
few days to Northern France for the total eclipse. We
were curious not only to see this outstanding physical
phenomenon on that 11th of August, but also to watch the
reactions of the birds.
We first set off, on Monday 9 August, for the SW corner
of Holland, in order to do some birding in that estuarine
region, and to visit friends there. The first site where
we stopped was at Ooltgensplaat, 20 km S of Rotterdam.
This is a new marsh area, created by damming part of this
estuary. The first bird we saw was a Peregrine flying
towards a nearby electricity pole. Another striking
species was the Barnacle, about 300 of them, this bird
has become a breeding bird in Holland. Among the other
species were Marsh Harrier, Black-tailed Godwit, Curlew,
Gadwall. We also noted a Swift, probably one of the last
ones to migrate to Africa. On the second site, the
Grevelingendam (another barrier in this complicated
estuarine system) we were surprised by an early Rock
Pipit. Branching off from this dam is the Philipsdam,
which is attracting more and more birders, as a new marsh
area has been created on one side and a good tidal flat
is still present at the other side. Again we had some
luck - a Caspian Tern flew around us for a while. A group
of 20 Spoonbills stood motionless in the water while a
light rain came down from the all-clouded sky.
This was not very promising weather for our eclipse
watching, but that was two days ahead we said to
ourselves. We were happy to see two Skylarks, which are
so rapidly declining now in Holland. Futher down along
the Grevelingendam, towards Zierikzee, there is a good
tidal mudflat close to the road, where we observed
several groups of Greenshank. Behind the ferry from
Vlissingen (Flushing) to Breskens, across the most
Southern branch of the estuary, a large group of Common
Tern (30 or 40) was feeding. At the Zwin nature reserve,
a tidal inlet on the border with Belgium, we added some
more waders like Knot, Kentish Plover and Bar-tailed
Godwit to our trip list, totalling now 75. But there were
still many clouds.
On Tuesday 10 August we drove towards our eclipse
destination area in N France, NW of Reims, W of Laon, in
only 2.5 hours. This is a region of forests and extensive
arable fields. In this undulating landscape we went first
looking for a suitable spot to watch the eclipse the next
day. That should preferably be on top of a hill with a
farm and/or trees East of us, to see as well the moon
shadow rolling towards us from the West, as watch the
reactions of the birds on the other side. Driving around,
we added Yellow Wagtail, Yellow Bunting and Spotted
Flycatcher to the list, and were delighted to see and
hear so many Skylarks, and to find Green Woodpecker to be
common. We choose our eclipse watching spot at about 20
km NW of Soissons, along the quiet D56, near the large
farm Ferme de Loire, which is a wooded oasis between the
enormous arable fields.
After a rainy night of camping in the wild - all hotels
being fully booked - , we came back to this elevated spot
and saw a continuous cloud cover all around us. Up to the
far horizon we saw cars parked here and there in this
otherwise empty landscape. More and more people also came
to 'our' spot, and as it became apparent that the clouds
would not permit a view of the approaching moon shadow,
we moved a bit down towards that big farm. There we
enjoyed the birdlife, still active now well before the
start of the eclipse: a family of Spotted Flycatcher,
busily feeding, a similar family of great Tit (seemingly
following the shifting flycatcher family all the time),
Yellow Wagtail and Skylark in the arable field, Green
Woodpecker and Chiffchaff in the orchard, House Sparrows
audible all the time, Stock Dove and Wood Pigeon calling
now and then from the high acacias, and a budgerigar
chatting at one of the three small houses outside the
main farm.
By 11.30 a.m. we knew that the eclipse show should have
started gradually, but only ten minutes later we got a
first glimpse of the 'sun with a bite'. Now and then we
got another chance, but from about 10 minutes before the
total eclipse we had more and more small openings in the
cloud cover, and we could not believe our luck that,
right where we were, a large gap in the clouds shifted
gradually towards us. It became colder and darker around
us, while the sun diminished to a narrow sickle, which
was projected manyfold on the ground beneath a nearby
tree. A group of Barn Swallow flew in a straight line
across the fields nearby, in stead of their normal criss-cross
flight when feeding, so probably they were heading for
their night roost. A cat saw its chance and disturbed a
couple of Grey Partridge, that probably still had young
around because they did not fly away. In these last
percentages of sun, the light became a strange sort of
bluish dark, with very dark shadows, like when a full
moon shines through a very clear sky. All the birds - the
flycatchers, the sparrows, the tits, the pigeons - became
silent now, and a dog started barking.
Then the great moment was there, or actually two moments.
First we saw the 'pearls of Bailey', the last sunrays
piercing between the elevations of the moon surface. Then
'the light was switched off' and the corona, the ring of
light around the moon, stood watching us in the dark and
cold sky. Emotional shouts sounded from far around us,
and we were deeply moved ourselves too. Through the 60x
scope we clearly saw the protuberances, the eruptions
from the sun's surface, one of them detached. Also did
we, unexpectedly, see the magnetic lines in the corona.
The silence around us was complete, apart from that dog.
But alas this ecstacy lasted only very short, two
minutes, but it seemed much shorter because of all the
things to see and feel, and then it was over. Light and
life came back soon, the sparrows hesitatingly started
chatting again, the flycatchers and swallows looking for
their feeding places again, and two Great Spotted
Woodpeckers were chasing each other as if in early
morning. Also did we hear now for the first time a
Nuthatch, another early bird. Soon the clouds covered the
sky again and more and more we realised how extremely
lucky we had been on this spot. We left, and after
shopping for typical French products (guess what .) in a
huge supermarket near Chauny, we drove home along the
French toll roads amidst a vast majority of British,
Belgian and Dutch cars.
Future eclipses: see map.
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