ducklings

Just in case you didn't believe me about the ducklings. (The elephant is always there)

flycatchers et al

A few flycatcher pics from the garden. The first is a spotted and the other two (clearer) ones are pied.

It's been a busy last few days for me and the only birding that I have done has been around the garden and nearby fields.

There is still plenty of evidence of migration taking place.: The pied flycatchers are incessantly cheeping away and the occasional, silent, spotted flycatcher joins them. There have also been quite a few willow warblers and common redstarts in the garden.

In the nearby fields wheatears have been in evidence and I saw a flock of around a dozen whinchats at La Tache.

A lesser spotted woodpecker was in the garden yesterday as was a tree pipit.

Even closer to home are the recently hatched ducklings which took to walking into the conservatory yesterday!

migration

There are increasing signs that the return migration is well under way now. Of the 42 species which I recorded yesterday, about a quarter fell into the category of birds which are probably just passing through.

The most obvious ones are: wheatears which have just appeared in the stubble fields. I saw about a dozen. Whinchat--just one yesterday, with some wheatears. Yellow wagtails, pied and spotted flycatchers, common redstarts and willow warblers.

Other species such as the hoopoe which was in my garden yesterday and the chiffchaffs, black redstarts, turtle doves and swallows of course breed around here but most of the individuals which we now see are likely to be ones which bred further north ans are on their way south.

Also of not yesterday were two firecrests and a serin near the Son-Sonnette. The first that I have seen for a while.

the same half

half a nightjar

Sadly, this is all that remains of the femail nightjar which I found outside the house.

bathing birds

All the action was around the water fountain and fishpond at 9am this morning. Birds must be pretty desperate for a bath and a drink after this long dry spell and there were no less than a dozen species competing for the pleasure. They seemed to waste most of their energy driving each other away rather than sharing, with the blue tits seemingly the most aggressive. Few birds were able to settle for long.

There were two male common redstarts, still showing some of their bright summer plumage, a pair of black redstarts, a willow warbler which is the first that I have seen for some time, at least two pied flycatchers, chiffchaffs, two robins, a blackcap, blackbirds, blue and great tits, two goldfinches and a chaffinch.

The mallard which is nesting by the front door finally hatched her chicks today--all 12 of them it seems. They have yet to leave this nest but are already eating the moist bread which we placed next to it.

migrants and bits of a nightjar

My morning bike ride was delayed today as there was quite a bit of migration activity around the house/pond.The purple heron wasn't to be seen so I think I can safely say that he's moved on but there were several pied flycatchers about and at least two spotted flycatchers. A pair of common redstarts was an unusual sight and there were several black ones as well. Other species feeding around the pond included: cirl bunting, dunnock, robin, blackcap, chiffchaff, green and great spotted woodpecker, turtle dove, as well as the usual tits and finches and, of course, the moorhens.

All told, and including the bike ride to St Front, I came across over thirty species before 11am.

A flock of jackdaws were mixed in with the feeding crows at Bois Bernadant. This species is not common locally and i think the nearest colony may be on the chateau at La Rochefoucauld . I have occasionally seen large and noisy flocks flying over though.

Ad now for the nightjar... I was just about to leave the pond when a neighbour pointed out the remains of a freshly killed bird on the road. Curiously, all that was left of it were the wings, tail and legs ie no carcase or head. The plumage and size seemed to be that of a female nightjar. This was puzzling as I assumed that this summer visitor had migrated by now, and I had no idea what might have killed it or what it was doing in the middle of the village. Perhaps it had been hunting for moths around the street light as I have seen one doing such a few years ago. Perhaps it had been sat on the warm road surface as they sometimes do and had been hit by a car--but that still didn't explain where the rest of its remains had gone. Quite a whodunnit really.

I took another brief bike ride at dusk, this time over the fields, and just to confirm things, flying up from the track and silhouetted above the trees was the familiar shape of a nightjar.

dunnock

Another heronless day but I was cheered by the sight of a dunnock feeding on the mud. This is the first of this delicately plumaged species that I have seen for months. I was thinking during this morning's cycle ride about why there are so few ( ie no) hedge sparrows about.