Hi there. I visited the Loire Valley in August 2008 and saw species such as Short-toed Eagle, Wryneck, Golden Oriole, Montagu's Harrier, Serin, Black Kite, Cirl Bunting and Melodious Warbler, Spotted Flycatcher, Firecrest and Turtle Dove easily in the countryside surrounding the cottage I was staying in.
I visited La Brenne National Park, where attention was focussed around La Maison de la Nature where Black Stork, Night-heron, Whiskered Terns, Purple Herons, Great White Egrets and Cattle Egrets were seen. Apparently Little Bittern and Squacco Heron can be found at this site, too.
The Lac de Rille area provided the only Hoopoe of the trip, and a Zitting Cisticola (this was seen at several other sites).
I tried for and got Honey-buzzards at La Reserve Naturelle de Pinail.
Foret de Mouliere is reputedly good for Black, Grey-headed and Middle Spotted Woodpeckers so I gave it a go but had no success at all with anything. It may just have been one of those days.
Even though the trip was less than three years ago, at my age (16) that is a significant amount of time, and I would be more efficient/do things differently there were I going on this holiday this summer.
