Aachen, our final day in Germany (14th August)

It was our final day in Germany and the opportunity to go birding didn't exist until we were on the ferry crossing the English Channel.  We stopped of at my aunts house in Aachen (also in Germany) for lunchtime and whilst kicking the football around outside with my cousins, a ♀ Brown Hairstreak came and perched on a bush next to the road.  Also whilst sat in the car traveling through Belgium and France, I saw 3 Hares and a flock of Lapwing in a stubble field.  They represented the first ones I had seen so far on my holiday abroad.  The crossing over the Channel was less productive than I had anticipated but it was only 20:40pm by the time we left the port and darkness did restrict the amount we could see.  All the same, a total of 3 Kittiwakes, 1 Gannet, 3 Swifts (migrating SE) and a butterfly or moth species (also flying across the channel) were all the species of note.  On the British side of the channel, only 1 Gannet was visible through the gloom.

sunset over the English Channel

the cliffs at Calais