France – Paris and then Birds and Art in Provence

April 16-30, 2018

Last year Lennie and I decided to join the VENT tour to France. We would be staying in Arles for a week and would do birding and Art in the Provence area. We decided to go a week early to spend time in Paris visiting the sights. We found a Road Scholar tour the preceding week that would set us up with accommodations and some minimal plans so we could tour Paris at our own speed. That tour was canceled in December so Lennie and I decided to go anyway and make our own plans. We spent a lot of time making our plans with help from friends. One of Lennie’s friends recommended a hotel that turned out to be perfectly situated so that we could walk to most of the places we wanted to see. My neighbor who spends a lot of time in Paris gave us a lot of advice. She explained the layout of Paris along with places to particularly see. She also explained taxis and trains so that I could understand it. We made our airfare reservations with a direct flight to Paris from San Francisco. We then had to make arrangements from Paris to Arles. There is no airport in Arles and Lennie wanted to take the train from Paris to Arles. I did not relish the thought of a train ride in Europe but eventually we found a direct high-speed train from Paris to Arles. We bought first class tickets with an assigned seat and room for luggage, so I looked forward to challenging my fear of train travel. But it was not to be. Around the beginning of April, the French train workers declared a month’s long strike. The way they did it was each week declare a two day strike out of the next five days. Then Air France decided to join in the strike too. We ended up having to make train and plane changes between Paris and Arles several times. At least our flights to Paris and then home to San Francisco did not have to be changed but I had several very nervous days trying to make arrangements. It isn’t worth going into details now but I still have a dislike of train travel in Europe and I probably won’t be trying it again. So now onto some discussion of my trip. The days are rather lumped together so I may not be able to go into details as I have done in past trip journals but the photos of the trip may tell more of a story. But since I took close to a thousand photos it will be a while before I go through them.

Monday April 16 Lennie’s brother picked us each up and took us to the airport around noon. We had a little trouble checking in because the only line Air France had was for people who already had their boarding pass and luggage tags. While we had our boarding passes from our home printers we had to use the kiosk to print our luggage tags. It printed Lennie’s but not mine. When I found someone to help he told us to just get in line and they would print it – the kiosks only work half the time. So, we got checked in and spent some time in the airport. Our flight was about ten hours and was reasonably all right for being jammed into a small space and trying to sleep. The food was even edible. We arrived on time on Tuesday morning and with a quick phone call (in English) we had our prepaid G7taxi driver coming inside to pick us up. My neighbor had told me about them which was a good and easy arrangement.

Tuesday April 17 We arrived at the Hotel Pont Royal, our home for the next five days. This hotel was recommended by a friend of Lennie’s and it turned out to be a very good choice. It was in the 7^hth arrondissement, on the left bank in the Saint-Germain-des Pres quarter. We were within walking distance of many of the museums and places to visit. We were able to check in so we relaxed and unpacked a bit and then headed out. We walked around the area, through the Luxembourg Gardens, down to the Seine and back to the hotel. We were rather tired since it was a long time without sleep and I was feeling rather nauseated so as we walked by a café I said I knew what I needed and that was a coke. So we stopped in and I got a coke and Lennie a coffee and we sat on a sidewalk table and enjoyed a rest. It turned out the restaurant, Le Voltaire, was in the house where Voltaire had died. The coke was just what I needed to get back to the hotel and prepare for dinner. We asked our concierge for a suggestion and he headed us in the right direction. All of his suggestions were great. He called and made a reservation for us but said it would be 15 minutes or so. We got there at 7:00 and had to wait a bit but it was a good dinner, a small Bistro with mostly French people. I think its name was “Le Bistrot de l’Universite. We found most restaurants don’t start serving dinner until 7 if then. This place was very friendly and as I remember it was good food.

Wednesday April 18 Today we decided to walk along the Avenue des Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. We crossed the Seine and walked through the Jardin des Tuileries and stopped at the Musee de l’Orangerie. The garden was the royal garden of the Louvre and is a nice family park with cafes and ponds. The museum is the home of Monet’s Water Lilies, a circular room with the walls containing the large paintings in a continuous curve, showing the gardens at different times of days. Downstairs is a collection of works by Utrillo, Cezanne, Renoir, Matisse, Picasso, and others. This was a very pleasant visit and not too crowded at all. Then we continued walking up the Champs-Elysees, what a busy crowded street it was. You could not see the Arc de Triomphe ahead unless you stepped around a parked car into the street. Both the car and pedestrian traffic was very heavy. It seemed to be a main shopping district for very high-end stores along with lots of eating places with sidewalk tables. We eventually reached the Arc and walked around it looking at the various carvings and statues. It was interesting to see in person something that I have seen for so many years in photos and movies. Part of it was covered because they were working on it. Everywhere we went there was some major maintenance project going on. A city like Paris requires a lot of upkeep. After a while we decided to go back to our hotel for a break. We were going to walk but there was a taxi stand with a taxi waiting for us which was just too tempting so we took it back and it was well worth it. I don’t know how far it was but, on this day, we walked about ten miles, according to our iPhone calculations. So we earned a taxi ride and a rest. After this we went to the Louvre. We had heard about the back, underground entrance as being less crowded and also that Wednesday afternoon was also less crowded and so it was. We first stopped at a food court and had something for lunch and then we entered the Louvre – no line at all. Lennie used my Rick Steves book to take us on a route that covered a few highlights, Venus de Milo, Parthenon Friezes, Winged Victory, Mona Lisa, The Coronation of the Emperor and a few other things along the way. This was a very satisfactory way to “survive” the Louvre. It was well worthwhile but I felt more like I was just ticking off things that I “should” see while in Paris. Yes the Mona Lisa was smaller than expected and was seen while being crushed by the masses but I can say I have seen it. After this we walked back to the hotel and cleaned up for dinner. Our concierge recommended another restaurant. Les Antiquaires, that was also very good. I think this was the place where we had asparagus that was so good I could have had just it for dinner. Several places served asparagus as it was in season and it was always good. The staff was very friendly. In fact, contrary to rumor all of our waiters in Paris were very pleasant and very helpful with our most limited French. It may have helped that we had reservations for most places from the hotel but these places we went to were not just tourist places and we enjoyed our dinner.

Thursday April 19 Today we took a van tour of Paris. A guide picked us up along with two other ladies and drove us around Paris stopping for photos at some places and giving us some history information. It gave us a chance to see the areas of Paris we would not have otherwise had time to see. She drove us to Montmartre, Paris’ highest hill topped by Sacre-Coeur Basilica. We went to the center of Paris, drove down the Champs Elysees to the Arch of Triumph and over to the Eiffel Tower. There we got out and took photos. To me the Tower looked smaller than I expected, it is such a symbol of Paris. We drove on the islands that house much of the old city and stopped at the Notre Dame Cathedral. We drove through many different areas of Paris that are like small neighborhoods apart from Paris. We went back to our hotel and rested a bit and then walked to the Musee d’Orsay and had lunch there. Then we toured the museum. It is housed in an old train station and is a very pleasant museum to visit. It houses “Europe’s greatest collection of Impressionist works”. From here we went to the Palais De La Legion d’Honneur. The Legion of Honor in San Francisco was modeled after this building so it was fun to see the original and how much the one in San Francisco looks the same. For dinner we walked to another recommended place, Café Varenne, which again was very good. Again we had asparagus that was absolutely delicious and I had lamb which I usually don’t eat but this too was very good.

Friday April 20 We walked to the Ile de La Cite, the bigger island with Notre Dame on it. First we visited Sainte-Chapelle, a Gothic church from the 13^th century, with marvelous and detailed stained-glass windows. We walked around this island and visited the interior of the 850-year-old Notre Dame Cathedral with its beautiful windows. We ate lunch somewhere at a restaurant called “Marguerite”, I think I had pizza here and I remember it as being good. Then we walked to the Pompidou Center. This was a most interesting building and very modern. It had an outside escalator which we rode down part of the way and had great views of the city. The top floors have exhibits of very modern and contemporary art, we saw some of them and found them very interesting. Another day with lots of walking and we decided to have a simpler and earlier dinner. We had seen a place on one of our many walks along Rue du Bac that was open all day so we went there before 7 and had hamburgers. It was called Cocorico. Even here the waiters were friendly and helpful. Just a note – all through Paris you see these fun looking places with tables on the sidewalks but we couldn’t eat at any of them because smoking is allowed at the outside tables. The one time we did sit outside we ended up having to move because of the smoke.

Saturday April 21 Lennie wanted to see the Bibliotheque nationale de France and a Frank Gehry building. We took a taxi to the library and walked around there and sat on the balcony for a while. Lennie had a connection to some people here when she worked as a librarian. Then we walked through a park, Parc de Bercy, and watched the kids skateboarding, playing soccer, running up and down the stairs and just having fun. We walked to the Frank Gehry building that houses the Cinematheque Francaise, holder of one of the largest archives of film documents and film-related objects in the world. Interesting building and they had a café so we ate lunch there. We decided to get a taxi which isn’t easy. They are not supposed to stop when you hail them so we had to look for a taxi stand. We found one with a taxi parked there with a green light but no driver. We waited a while and then walked to somewhere else and finally found a stand and got a cab. We had him take us to the Rodin Museum. The Rodin museum wasn’t high on our list because we have the Cantor Museum here at Stanford which has an amazing collection of Rodin’s works. Also the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco has a large collection of Rodins, I grew up with The Thinker imbedded in my memories. But since we had the time I was delighted to see some of Rodin’s work in the very home where Rodin lived and worked. Several pieces were in the garden plus much of his work in the museum inside, including the studies he made showing the changes from the first to the final product. They even had a Hall of Iris and B.Gerald Cantor. While we were commenting on that connection a couple asked us if we were Americans. They had a set of ear phones with the story of the museum that they offered to us to use for the museum tour. It turned out they were from Walnut Creek so we chatted for a while and then used the recording to learn a bit about the museum. We walked back to the hotel stopping on the way to visit the Deyrolle store, a taxidermist place since 1831. It was across the street from our hotel. The dead animals, birds, butterflies in the store were absolutely amazing. A whole museum full on the second floor. Then we went back to our hotel, cleaned up for dinner and went to the Brasserie Lipp for the best dinner from all week. We had to wait a bit past 7:00 to sit upstairs but it was well worth the wait. The upstairs was quiet, nice view, white table cloths. We had a delicious steak with green beans. For dessert we had profiteroles because we wanted to know what they were. They were ice cream enclosed in a sweet pastry – like cream puffs, with lots and lots of chocolate poured over all. I have to say it was the best chocolate I have ever had. Anyway it was a nice way to spend our last night in Paris.

Sunday April 22 We had to leave Paris a day early because both the trains and Air France were on strike on April 23, so instead of a first class nonstop to Arles we took a flight to Marseille and then a train to Arles. The flight was ok but everything involved with the train ride was awful – one of my top worst travel experiences. I’m afraid I still have no desire to try trains in Europe again. But we arrived in Arles and met one of our travel companions and the three of us shared a taxi to the hotel, checked in, cleaned up and went out to dinner across from the hotel at La Malarte. I had pizza and it was so good. So now starts our time in Arles.

Monday April 23 Since we were in Arles a day early we had time to discover Arles on our own. Sally, who we met at the train station, joined us for the morning. Arles had a map with a Van Gogh walk. Each of the ten stops had an easel with a print of one of Van Gogh’s paintings made of the scene at that stop. It was a fun challenge to follow the map to each of the stops. We did find 8 that morning, one we never did find and one we saw another day when we were inside a park where we had to pay admission. The tour gave us a nice overview of Arles which is a rather pleasant Provence town. Van Gogh painted some 300 paintings during his approximately 2 years in the Arles area. The central part of town is filled with lots of shops, restaurants, and old buildings. We covered a lot of the area on our quest. I sat in the Café Van Gogh which he painted. We went to the hospital where he was taken after he cut off a portion of his ear and saw the courtyard he painted. We walked along the water front where he had done several paintings. After this walk we were ready for lunch and found a pleasant café, La Wilson (named after Woodrow Wilson.) We had hamburgers! Then back to the hotel for a rest. In the afternoon we went to see another Frank Gehry building. It is in the process of being finished and is a most interesting building. This tower is part of an effort to revitalize Arles which has had a high unemployment rate. The Luma Foundation is an effort to support activities of independent artists in all forms. This tower is a part of the new cultural center much of which is built on a former railway yard. It will be a very interesting place to visit when it is done. I love being the recipient of Lennie’s architectural interests as it leads to very interesting sites and discoveries – rather like an interest in birds! After this visit we went back to our hotel and cleaned up and went to meet our birding group and leaders.

There are 12 of us, eleven from the U.S. and one from Australia. Our VENT leaders Rich and Alison live in New Jersey. We turned out to be a very friendly group and of all different stages of being birders. We were of various ages and for once I wasn’t the oldest. Our leaders were very good both in birding, history, and logistics. And they spoke French which helped a lot. After brief introductions we went out for a very good dinner at La Plaza ((Le Paillotte). Seating and serving 14 people at once turned out to be quite a challenge which some places handled better than others. The most common menu consisted of three groups, appetizer, main course, dessert. Each category usually had 3 or 4 choices, the main course usually had one beef, one fish, one duck, one something else. Some places had a vegetarian dish but it was not a main choice most of the time. In general the food was very good, too plentiful but I didn’t gain weight – we did a lot of walking. Even though we went to dinner as early as possible – usually 7 - it took 2-3 hours for dinner and we seldom got back to the hotel before ten. The restaurants all were very small. Very interesting places and buildings, some on the main street, others in small residential side streets.

Tuesday April 24 We had a nice buffet breakfast in the hotel with a wide variety of choices but it was a step down from the hotel in Paris. Then we left in two vans with seven people in each. We went to the Pont du Gard, a Roman bridge and aqueduct built early in the first century AD. It is near the town of Vers-Pont-du-Gard and is the highest of all elevated Roman aqueducts and one of the best preserved. The bridge has a very interesting history and in addition it is a nesting site for Alpine Swifts and Crag Martins. These were two new bird species for me. We spent some time birding here – both around the park and parking area and along the bridge and the river. We ate lunch here at a restaurant in the area, Les Terrasses.. It was very good and I enjoyed a Caesar Chicken salad. The servers spoke enough English to make ordering easy and we spent a pleasant time eating and birding. After a brief stop at the hotel we went on a walking tour of Arles. A lot of the architecture is from the Roman times. Julius Caesar established Arles around 123 BC as a reward to the veterans of the Roman legion who fought to defeat Pompey. It has an amphitheatre, triumphal arch, Roman circus, and theatre. It still has the southernmost bridge on the Rhone which replaced the Roman bridge. After this we went out to dinner at a local restaurant, La Boheme. The food was very good here but the young waitress had a terrible time taking our order, she finally had to get someone else who just started over with “How many fish? How many beef?” And so forth. A large group was sometimes a challenge even though we usually only had a few choices to choose from.

Wednesday April 25 Today we drove to the Eastern Camargue including La Capelliere, Fangassier for a great birding experience. The Camargue is a natural region located south of Arles, between the Mediterranean Sea and the two arms of the Rhone River. This marshy area is western Europe’s largest river delta and as such is a haven for wild birds and a host to many migrating birds. It was only in 2008 that the area was incorporated into the larger Parc naturel regional de Camargue. It is one of the few European habitats for the Greater Flamingo and we certainly enjoyed the beautiful site of large groups of Flamingoes flying overhead. The area is also host to the Camargue horse, an ancient breed indigenous to this area. It is considered one of the oldest breeds of horses in the world. We spent a busy morning walking along the roads and discovering many species of birds, several of which were new to me. One of the more fun new birds was the Sardinian Warbler. He was hiding in the bushes making enough noise that we knew he was there but he would flit from bush to bush not allowing any real looks. He eventually settled into a group of bushes and moved enough that we could see the leaves moving around. I was tired so I sat down on the platform edge and propped my elbows on my knees holding my binoculars steady at the spot where he was last seen. After about five minutes up he popped right in my binocular view for a good look for a new species. Birding does have its exciting moments! We had lunch at Restaurant La Camargue, and then we walked at Le Verdier at Sambuc for more birding. We had a good dinner in Arles at La Malarte, the same place where Lennie and I ate our first night in Arles. I had vegetarian pizza which was so good.

Thursday April 26 Today we drove to north of Arles to Les Baux, a medieval fortress high on the cliff above the valley. This Chateau of Les Baux dates from the Middle Ages and was used by the “Lords of Les Baux” to terrorized the countryside well into the seventeen century. Richelieu turned the cannons of France onto them leaving much of the fortress in ruins. We enjoyed walking around this large area both birding and examining the ruins. We also enjoyed a catapult demonstrations with a very large instrument. We ate lunch in an outdoor setting in a small restaurant, Au Porte Mages in the town of Les Baux. Only 22 people live in the old town with some 400 people living in the surrounding area of the town. The whole town is given over to the tourist trade and has the reputation as one of the most picturesque villages in France. After lunch we drove to Glanum to see a well preserved Roman cenotaph (mausoleum) and triumphal arch, they are about 2000 years old. Then we walked across the road to St-Paul de Mausole. This is where Vincent van Gogh stayed for a period of time and painted many scenes of the garden. His room, one of his paintings, is open for visiting and I took a photo of the view from his room. We then drove back to Arles and had a pleasant dinner at La Malarte again. They handled our group so well and the food was good with a lot of variety too.

Friday April 27 Today we drove to the western branch of the Rhone River to spend the morning in the Petite (Little) Camargue at Pont des Tourradons. The habitat was similar to the eastern part of the Camargue but this area had more trails and biking paths. We walked and birded, seeing a wide variety of species. We had lunch in St. Gilles at Café de la Gare and then drove to St-Gilles-du-Gard and visited their twelfth-century abbey church; crypt and upper church. This was one of the most important stops on the pilgrimage route to Compostela so the abbots of St. Gilles were able to control much of the trade coming from the Mediterranean into mainland France. This was a thriving commercial town some eight hundred years ago. The surviving sculptures and massive choir are among the best-known Romanesque monuments in Europe. This was an interesting church to see – both inside and out. We also walked along the boardwalks at the Camargue Discovery Center at Scamandre. Back to Arles for another long and good dinner, at Au Brin de Thym. I took some photos of our meals to help remember what the food looked like.

Saturday April 28 We walked to the Alyscamps, near our hotel and also the subject of one of Van Gogh’s paintings, “Les Alyscamps”. During Roman times this cemetery was very large but now consists of one sarcophagus bordered avenue. At the end of the avenue is the ruin of a large Romanesque church. Inside are chapels added over the centuries from early middle ages to the Baroque. Then we walked back to Arles and the city market. Every Saturday morning venders, farmers, cheese makers, fish mongers, and shop keepers of all sorts gather and turn the mile-long street fronting the town of Arles into a very crowded market place. It was very crowded and rather overwhelming. I bought some apples and some cheese for my lunch and took it back to my hotel room to eat. I found Lennie had done something similar so we enjoyed a quiet lunch in our hotel. I did buy my only souvenirs of the trip – several bars of lavender soap. Provence has many fields of lavender so that is something very traditional of the area. In the afternoon we went out to the Western Camargue to bird a different area of the Rhone delta on the Cacherel Road. Tonight we had dinner at my favorite restaurant of all in Arles, Le Jardin de Manon. It was a few blocks from our hotel and not in the commercial district, just the bottom floor of a building of residences. We were seated in a small room in the front with just our tables set up for us. Our meal started with champagne and then everything after that was very French and very elegant. Each course was a work of art and was so good.

Sunday April 29 Some of the group left this morning at 5 AM to bird on La Crau. I debated going, especially because I might see a new species and I do love dawn birding. But I decided to sleep in so that I would enjoy the rest of the day. So Alison came around 8:00 and picked up the rest of the group and we went out to the area, Peau de Meau. The landscape here is a very rocky plain with almost no trees or bushes. It has been used for grazing sheep for at least 150 years, in fact we did see a shepherd with his dog walking his sheep. Near the large barn is a well that has a rebuilt well house to keep nesting spaces for a colony of Lesser Kestrels. I was lucky enough to see these Kestrels as they were a new species for me. I also enjoyed a good look at the Stone Curlew out in the rocky field, another new species for me. Many of the rocks are still stacked up in small pyramids from WW II. This pyramids were built in the 1940s to prevent the landing of Allied airplanes. So I got to sleep late and still saw the birds, only missed the special experience of dawn birding. I think we next stopped at McDonald’s to use the restroom, and the early morning birders got something to eat. We then went to a city park in San Martin, Baisse des Railles and saw a few good birds before it started raining hard enough that we left and went to lunch at the Restaurant-Hotel de la Crau. This was served buffet and had a large variety of food – all very good although I couldn’t tell you what some of the food was. The place was very crowded with locals for Sunday lunch. After this we went back to our hotel and both Lennie and I stayed back during the afternoon to rest and also pack for the next day. Some toured another church in Arles. Then we went for our last dinner together in Arles at La Gueule Du Loup, “the hardest restaurant in town to get a reservation.” The restaurant is in the middle of old Arles in a small stone building with narrow stairways and small rooms. The kitchen is very small and so is the dining area. We were given the menu the day before so we each chose our three different courses. The helped the service a lot except that they had already translated the menu into English so several of us who thought we were getting beef got fish! Since our leaders understand French it works much better to have them do the translation. But the food was very good, especially the asparagus and the dessert. I’m not sure about why I didn’t like any of the fish in France. Maybe it is because I am used to eating fish only a day from the ocean. Their fish all was very strong – a very “fishy” taste. Fish that strong here is often old so I’m not sure if that was the reason or if it was just the kind of fish that I haven’t had before. Anyway we had a very pleasant final 3-hour dinner.

Monday April 30 Time to go home. Alison and Rick offered to drive us to the Marseille airport if we wanted to leave with them at 6 AM. I was delighted to avoid the awful train ride from Arles to Marseille along with the uncertainty of how to get from the train station to the Airport. So even though we were unable to get our train tickets refunded it was well worth it. They dropped us off at the car return place in the airport and it was a short walk to the airport. It turned out to be a good thing because while we were having breakfast at Starbucks I got a text saying that our flight to Paris was delayed. This was a concern because we only had an hour connection time in Paris so we started trying to change to an earlier flight. The staff certainly was not at all helpful and kept trying to send us off to someone else or to a kiosk (which also refused to help us) but four of us were so persistent we finally got our flight changed so we got to the Paris airport in plenty of time to have lunch and get on our homebound flight. It was a long ten hours in flight home but was very good to be home.

Just as a summary – yes I did enjoy my trip to France, I enjoyed Arles more than Paris. But I am finding travel to be more exhausting than I used to, one of the disadvantages of being old. France and especially Paris have many “stereotypes” and it was interesting to experience the culture myself. Hearing that Paris was the “pickpocket capital of the world” I was a little nervous but glad we had no trouble. We avoided very crowded areas and carried very little of value with us. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice, friendly, and helpful the waiters were. They all did their best to explain to us what the menu offered and were not at all unkind with our lack of French. The food was all prepared very well and was what I would expect of French cuisine, but not really to my liking. I got very tired of heavy, rich sauces on everything and I got tired of beef because the other choices were usually duck, veal, or pork, sometimes lamb, and only occasionally chicken. It was great to see in person so many places in Paris that I have seen in pictures and movies. I also was pleasantly surprised that French drivers stop for pedestrians! Being used to California laws requiring a driver to stop for pedestrians I seldom find the same law applies in other countries, but it did here in France!

I saw 101 species of birds and 13 of them were new so I now have 2908 world species. It would be fun to reach 3000 species but close to 3000 is good enough.

List of all of my trips

Birds I saw:

Common Name

Mute Swan

Common Shelduck

Gadwall

Mallard

Garganey

Red-crested Pochard

Common Pochard

Ring-necked Pheasant

Little Grebe

Great Crested Grebe

Greater Flamingo

White Stork

Great Cormorant

Gray Heron

Purple Heron

Great Egret

Little Egret

Cattle Egret

Squacco Heron

Black-crowned Night-Heron

Glossy Ibis

Eurasian Spoonbill

Short-toed Snake-Eagle

Eurasian Marsh-Harrier

Black Kite

Common Buzzard

Western Swamphen

Eurasian Moorhen

Eurasian Coot

Black-winged Stilt

Pied Avocet

Eurasian Oystercatcher

Black-bellied Plover

Kentish Plover

Common Ringed Plover

Little Ringed Plover

Dunlin

Common Snipe

Common Sandpiper

Common Greenshank

Wood Sandpiper

Collared Pratincole

Slender-billed Gull

Black-headed Gull

Mediterranean Gull

Yellow-legged Gull

Little Tern

Gull-billed Tern

Whiskered Tern

Common Tern

Sandwich Tern

Eurasian Thick-knee

Rock Pigeon

Common Wood-Pigeon

European Turtle-Dove

Common Cuckoo

Alpine Swift

Common Swift

Eurasian Hoopoe

European Bee-eater

European Roller

Lesser Kestrel

Eurasian Kestrel

Eurasian Hobby

Eurasian Golden Oriole

Eurasian Magpie

Eurasian Jackdaw

Rook

Carrion Crow

Common Raven

Eurasian Skylark

Crested Lark

Bank Swallow

Eurasian Crag-Martin

Barn Swallow

Common House-Martin

Eurasian Blue Tit

Great Tit

Cetti's Warbler

Willow Warbler

Eurasian Blackcap

Sardinian Warbler

Spectacled Warbler

Wood Warbler

Bearded Reedling

Common Nightingale

Common Redstart

Black Redstart

Blue Rock-Thrush

Eurasian Blackbird

European Starling

Western Yellow Wagtail

White Wagtail

Corn Bunting

Common Chaffinch

European Greenfinch

European Goldfinch

European Serin

House Sparrow

Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Eurasian Collared-Dove