The resort of St Jean de Luz is in the French Basque Country, not many kilometres from the Spanish border. There’s a long sandy beach. At one end of the prom is a river flowing off the Pyrenees, and at the other end a network of footpaths through rough ground overlooking a rocky shoreline.
It was while we were walking along one of these footpaths that we spotted a large flock of sparrows, busy (and noisily) hunting among the feathery heads of a clump of pampas grass, presumably for insects.