More Nightjars

Another late evening trip to the forest on Friday, 29th gave us the pleasure of listening to several close nightjars calling and churring. Despite their proximity and the clear sky, we saw only one as it flew close to us, responding perhaps to some handclaps that we made to simulate the noise that that they occasionally make with their wings.

As with the last visit, a distant tawny owl was heard. and on the way there we caught a glimpse of a brown owl sat on a road sign at Puyclavaud. It was probably a little owl but that was difficult to tell for certain at 90kph.

We failed to locate the stone curlews in their usual field on a short trip to the plains early on Sat.

The weather has been pretty miserable ever since then so birding is on hold. The kestrels are still on the gable end though.

7am in the forest

Among the the more interesting birds on an early morning visit to the forest on the 25th were three tree pipits, three or four golden orioles, including one male chasing another out of his territory, a short-toed treecreeper and a calling nuthatch.

nightjars

The nightjars referred to in the last post were again in the St Mary/Cellefrouin Forest.

At 10pm five or six birds were churring within a small area and I watched two of them doing their wing clapping display. The sky was completely clear and it was almost a full moon. Even at this late hour, a cuckoo was calling and a tawny owl hooted in the distance.

How many species in a day?

No black woodpecker on the Son-Sonnette this morning (May 24th) but quite a few other birds:-

chaffinch, blue tit, great tit , long tailed tit, golden oriole, cuckoo, blackbird, crow, goldfinch, turtle dove, nightingale, wood pigeon, blackcap, song thrush, collared dove, heron, firecrest, stonechat, swallow, mallard, yellowhammer, reed warbler, great spotted woodpecker, green woodpecker, jay, magpie, white wagtail, robin, skylark, wren, cetti's warbler, melodious warbler, chiffchaff, whitethroat, cirl bunting and greenfinch. Later in the day were black redstart, moorhen, mistle thrush, buzzard, kestrel, house sparrow, starling, stone curlew, tawny owl, corn bunting and nightjar.

I make that almost 50 species, which shows what Charente can produce in a typical day (in May at least) despite its seemingly limited range of habitat. And there were quite a few common species missing today such as dunnock, swift, linnet, house martin, short toed tree creeper, nuthatch, any of the pipits, woodlark, grey wagtail, serin, hen and montagues harrier, sparrowhawk, hoopoe, kingfisher, common sandpiper, red legged partridge, pheasant, quail, crested lark, coot, reed bunting, barn owl, little owl, goldcrest, hawfinch, bullfinch, coal tit, marsh tit, rook and bonnelli's warbler.

So 75-80 species should be achievable in a day if some varied habitats are visited and you have a bit of luck---and I have not mentioned raptors such as black and red kite, short-toed eagle, hobby, honey buzzard and goshawk all of which are seen at this time of year from time to time.

In fact, a hard day's endeavour could pass the 100 species mark; perhaps I'll try it next year.

Good Bird Day

Decided to forgo the mid afternoon birding today so i got up with the larks --and there were a lot of them on the plains. The pair of stone curlews were feeding in the same sunflower field but no sign of little bustards alas.

I then went down to the Son-Sonnette near Ventouse . A big surprise was a black woodpecker flying through the poplars. I did not see it land but briefly saw it again some 20 minutes later, again flying through the trees so it is possibly that it has a territory there. I'll look again tomorrow.

This is only the third time that I have seen this elusive bird in Charente; the other two occasions were in the Braconne Forest and in a small area of woodland not far from Les Pins.

It's status in Charente is not too clear. The data from Charente Nature has it down as a possible breeder in the Braconne and a general spread westward from it's eastern strongholds in Europe has long been anticipated. It's obviously around though, if in small numbers, and is probably overlooked because of the scant birding coverage.

Also down at the Son-Sonnette were at least two cetti's warbler, several stonechat, a great spotted woodpecker, several golden orioles, a few mallard and lots of nightingales and blackcaps.

The glorious weather continues although it's forecast to break down in a couple of days. Mid afternoon is never the best time to go birding especially in hot sunshine but a walk near the Charente Maritime border around Bourcelaine yesterday produced a honey buzzard and a black kite. We saw another three of the latter in the course of the day.

Well the warm weather seems to have arrived--for a while at least. The downside of that is the number of outdoor jobs that I've had to catch up on. Birding, therefore, has been mainly around the house.

The kestrels are still very noisy on the gable end but I don't know exactly where they are nesting. I heard them screaming yesterday as I was working in the garden and I watched them see off a passing black kite. I saw another black kite on the way to Angouleme later in the day.

Yesterday evening I heard a quail calling from the uncut verge just outside the house and this evening at about 10pm, stone curlews were calling out there.

I went up to the Lairiere plains at about 7.30 on Wed and two stone curlews were openly walking about in a maize field. The crop was only a few inches high. A single male hen harrier was hunting and I saw at least ten hares including one group of seven.

Orioles and cuckoos are singing daily and I watched a young nightingale being fed in the garden today.

The moorhen on the village pond seem to have only two young this year. The water level seems low and I suspect it may dry up again this summer as it did last year. That was the first time that it had done so since 1976 according to my French neighbour.

Other nesting birds around the house are black redstart and blackbird. Greenfinch are around daily, feeding on what's left of the fat balls. They are noisy but I do not know if they are nesting. Great tit are perhaps nesting in a hole in the stable wall.

Cirl bunitng do not appear to be common at present but pair of firecrest were singing in the garden this afternoon.

A very interesting observation from a follower of this site was of a flock of about six bee-eaters near St Angeau this week. This is a species which I have yet to see in Charente.

Cool May

The weather still remains cool and unsettled for May. There's not much to report on the bird front. On Tuesday, the 11th we visited friends just over the border in Charente Maritime, near Bresdon. The landscape/habitat is very different there with extensive vineyards and very large arable fields with little forestry compared to much of Charente. Because of this, stone curlew ( or european thicknee as they are now re-named) and little bustard should be common and they probably are. The last little little bustard I saw was in this area last summer. Their decline in Charente seems to have been very rapid over recent years. Some ten years ago small flocks were not an uncommon sight on the Lairiere plains but the best that I could manage last year was a primary feather which I found up there. This indicates that at least one bird was still about but I suspect that more intensive farming and the disappearance of set-aside has made it very difficult for this large and spectacular bird to breed successfully. Stone curlews are still holding on but I have found only one pair this year (and last year for that matter.)

But back to the Charente Maritime. We saw one black kite on the way, near La Terne and a short toed eagle was flying near Bourcelaine. Large numbers of swifts and some swallows seemed to be passing through, suggesting that this year's rather slow migration still has some way to go.

Back at chez nous, the nightingale seems to have bred in the garden and is still singing from time to time and the kestrel family are noisy on the gable end. Cuckoos and orioles are still calling and I heard a scops owl near the house on Tuesday evening.

Pinail and Brenne

We took a trip up to the Pinail reserve north of Poitiers and then went east to have a look at The Brenne.

The weather is still unsettled but the afternoon was fine and warm. We went through a heavy thunder storm on the way back.

Pinail is an unusual area of heath bog which was formerly used for quarrying mill stones. It looks as though it should hold lots of dartford warblers but we didn't see any. There were at least three hobbies flying around catching the dragonflies. We also saw a pair of montagues harrier and two short-toed eagles, one of which soared very slowly over our heads giving the best views that I have had of this bird.

The Brenne had far more human visitors (there was nobody at Pinail) a good number of whom seemed to be English.

There were lots of whiskered terns and a few black ones, pochard , shoveler, tufted duck, gadwall, black necked grebe, little grebe, great crested grebe, great white egret, purple heron, cattle egret, great red warbler and black kite but virtually no waders on the lakes we looked at--just singles of wood sandpiper, common sandpiper and redshank plus a few lapwing.

nightjars

It's been pretty wet and cool today but it improved by late afternoon. While returning from Montignac at about 9 in the evening, we stopped to try to find a red-legged partridge which had flown into the windscreen. We didn't find it but a scops owl was calling from a nearby tree. This was the first I had heard in Charente for a long time. The call is often compared to that of a midwife toad which is quite common here but in fact it is much louder.

A little later we took a drive to St Mary's forest to see/hear if any nightjars had returned. There were two sitting in the road, caught in our headlights and we heard two more churring close to the road from St Mary.

Migrating cranes are a familiar sight in Charente. The usual pattern is a southward migration from late October and the return journey from Spain around mid February. The pattern has been rather erratic over recent years, however, and the main migration seems to have drifted a few weeks later at either end of the year.

Back to Charente birds.
This nuthatch was a regular visitor to the bird food which we put out last year

rock thrush in Pyrenees

This is still not the best of pics but it does give an idea of what a superb bird the male rock thrush is. They do occur in France but sadly not in Charente (yet)

May 7th

Rain and sun today but bonellis warbler were around in the Braconne forest in the afternoon and we watched one stone curlew, one crested lark and one male montagues harrier on the Lairiere plains. A quail was also calling there.

May 7th

Just a few extra bits on the Spanish trip. The weather was rather bizarre for early May with rain, high winds and even snow virtually everywhere in Spain--in fact it was the main national news item on TV throughout the time we were there.

The birding was ok though.:

Birds in NE Spain included bee-eater, roller, oriole, woodchat shrike, lesser kestrel, sardinian warbler, pallid swift, garganey, gadwall, little bittern, night heron, squacco heron, purple heron, whiskered tern, spotted sandpiper, glossy ibis, spotless starling, great reed warbler, red-rumped swallow, and wood sandpiper. Nightingales were particularly numerous and often out in the open; sometimes several could be viewed feeding on the ground at the same time.

Most of the The Hecho valley area has been outlined in a previous post but there were also several sightings of rock bunting and one calling scops owl.

May 7th

I'm still putting together the Spanish trip list which seems to amount to 117 species.but it's back to a rather damp Charente.

A trip to St Mary's forest yesterday produced a calling wood warbler and singing tree pipit and firecrest. Cuckoo and golden oriole were also singing/calling.

missing wallcreeper pic

Another pic of the wallcreeper

spain may 2010

Not the best of pics but you can make out that this is a male rock thrush

Spain May 2010

Patience was rewarded by thiswallcreeper at the Bocco d'Infernio in the Hecho valley, Aragon, Spain . The next day we had good views a pair of bearded vultures further up the valley. They eventually settled on a ledge and proceeded to preen each other.
It was stll snowing slightly at the top of the valley and very cold. A few passerines were feeding on any exposed grass and on the road itself. they included northern wheatear, whinchat,water pipit,black redstart, thekla lark and two superbly plumaged rock thrush. Griffon vulture were everywhere of course and up to three egyptian vultures were visible at a time including one sat close to the road in a meadow. Both kites were plentiful and there were several booted eagle an honey buzzard. Flocks of yellow billed choughs numbered hundreds and they seetled in the fields to feed and then wheeled around like a crowd of mosquitos. Red billed choughs occurred in much smaller groups. We saw only one citril finch and no alpine accentors.

May 1st

Back from Ile d'Oleron late yesterday. Birds there were not so plentiful as they might have been considering the available habitat, especially marsh. We managed almost 100 species though. The highlights were: an osprey, washing itself on the shoreline, a single tawny pipit, a wood sandpiper, 20 or so avocets, plenty of marsh harrier and black winged stilts and scops owl calling each night near the villa we had rented.

Off to northern Spain later today. The weather forecast is not too good but birds should be plentiful.