France: Brittany in Fall - October 2026
Dates: October 1 – 9, 2026
Leaders: Rick Wright & Marco Valtriani
E-bird
Total Species: 96 birds
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Overall Summary
Still a bit of a regional secret, autumn birding in Brittany can be hard to match just about anywhere else in the Northern Hemisphere. Among the many migrants our congenial group discovered this year was a Temminck’s Stint, quite scarce anywhere in France. This one was consorting with Spotted and Common Redshanks, Common Greenshanks, Eurasian Curlews, Bar-tailed Godwits, Dunlin, and Curlew Sandpipers on the rich tidal flats of the Bay of Goulven, twenty minutes from our fine hotel at the northwestern tip of Brittany.
Waterfowl were pouring in, too, and we enjoyed an abundance of Eurasian Wigeon in their strikingly coppery-red summer plumage, the first Northern Pintails of the winter, and weird Common Shelducks working their way systematically through the mud at low tide. Out in the marshes and reedbeds, Cetti’s Warblers, Water Rails, and Common Snipe chanted, croaked, and buzzed—a few of them even allowing themselves to be watched at leisure by an appreciative audience.
Right at our elegant beach hotel, afternoons spent on the seawall before a drink and dinner revealed an impressively steady stream of coastal nesters and pelagics moving west into the open Atlantic. Northern Gannets were with us always, and some patient watching produced Razorbills, Manx Shearwaters, a single Balearic Shearwater, a Black-legged Kittiwake, and hordes of Sanderlings, Black-bellied Plovers, and Ruddy Turnstones driven up onto the sand and rocks by the rising tide. It was here, too, that we added a mammal species to the tour’s cumulative list: a Gray Seal visited on our last beautifully sunny afternoon, bobbing in the purple-blue water among the Black-headed and Mediterranean Gulls.
As richly rewarding as our birding excursions were, we took time, too, to remind ourselves of the cultural wealth Brittany has accumulated over the centuries. We visited two of the most famous medieval enclos, ornate suites of granite sculptures protected by elaborate Gothic gates and fences, at the churches of Trémouézant and Le Folguët. We learned about more recent history during a fascinating hour at the Musée Mémoires 1939–1945, which occupies a command bunker built by the Germans during the Second World War and illustrates the day-to-day lives of the occupiers and the occupied alike. Just down the road, we admired the startling conjunction of a modern lighthouse and signal station with the ruins of the grand Gothic abbey church of St-Mathieu.
As always, our experiences played out against a background of lovely landscapes, wonderful food and wine, and the excellent company that only a VENT tour can ensure. Thanks to all for their good nature and enthusiasm.
Day-by-Day Summary
October 1 – International flights to Brest.
October 2 – Arrival and private transfers to our four-star city hotel. Welcome orientation and dinner in Brest.
October 3 – 8:30 am departure for the peat fields and woodlands of Langazel, followed by a visit to the enclos of Notre-Dame de Trémaouézan. Lunch in Brest. Late afternoon tour of Océanopolis, Brest's national center for maritime ecology and conservation. Break in hotel. Dinner in Brest.
October 4 – 8:15 am departure for birding the National Botanical Conservatory and strolling through the weekend's colorful and lavish plant and tree sale. Lunch in Brest. Visit to the sixteenth-century basilica of Le Folgoët, with arrival at our Brignonan hotel at 4:00 pm. Break and optional seawall birding, followed by our daily checklist session and dinner in the hotel.
October 5 – Optional post-breakfast seawatching at hotel, with departure at 8:45 am for the eastern dunes of the Baie de Goulven. Short stroll through the village of Guissény before lunch. Return to hotel 4:45 pm for a break and more optional seawatching. Checklist session and dinner in our hotel.
October 6 – 8:45 am departure for the beach and Etang du Curnic. Lunch at the famous seafood restaurant of Plouguerneau. Grocery store stop, then at hotel at 3:35 pm. Short break, with an optional walk from our hotel to the lighthouse of Pontusval. Checklist session and dinner in our hotel.
October 7 – 8:45 am departure for Le Conquet and tidal estuary; light rain at first. Musée Mémoires 1939–1945 followed by lunch at Pointe St-Mathieu. Lighthouse trail and abbey church. Free time in Le Conquet and arrival at hotel at 5:10 pm. Some exciting seawatching from inside the hotel, then the usual checklist session and dinner.
October 8 – 8:45 am departure for Dunes of Keremma and western Bay of Goulven. Lunch in Landivisiau. Visit to sixteenth-century church of St-Goulven. At hotel 3:50 pm; breakf and very good optional seawatch at hotel, then the usual checklist session and dinner.
October 9 – 9:40 departure for Brest Airport, where tour ends.
Wildlife Seen:
MAMMALS:
Gray seal
Roe deer