April 28

Still sunny but rather cooler today. Five turtle doves were sat together in the middle of the La Poterie to La Tache road today.I assume they arrive in small groups overnight. Yesterday the nearby forest did not yield any wood warblers which have been singing there in late April during the last two years. An oriole was calling though as were plenty of cuckoos, tree pipits and turtle doves.

tree pipit La Poterie

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Turtle Doves

The warm clear weather has returned and turtle doves have finally turned up. On a walk from La Tache to La Poterie 4 separate birds were purring in the trees although I didn't see one of them.

White Stork

White Stork over Mansle

Stone Curlew at La Tache   

April 22

The warm weather is continuing though it seems to be wet and cool in Spain and the migrants continue to drift in from the south. I saw my first swifts and heard my first quail and oriole, all at Bourcelaine, a couple of days ago.
I watched a pair of cuckoos being chased off by a starling at La Tache this morning. There is a sizeable colony of the latter here because of the numerous nesting holes in the old chestnut groves. Walking around the village nearly always reveals plenty of other vocal migrants: tree pipit, melodious warbler, nightingale, cuckoo, hoopoe, common and black redstart, blackcap, chiffchaff and swallow but I've yet to hear the purring of turtle doves.
Other interesting sightings in the last week or so include a stone curlew flying across the Romfort road and lesser spotted woodpecker at La Tache.

April 15

No new migrants to report but another grasshopper warbler was reeling by the Son Sonnette on Wed.
Today's pleasant walk in the forest near La Tache revealed a singing common redstart---I can't remember hearing one before. There were several tree pipits, whitethroats and lots of blackcaps,firecrest  and chiffs but no sign of any orioles or wood warbler which should be turning up about now.
A male hen harrier has been regularly quartering the fields near la tache. Skylarks often fly up from the road- side verges giving the impression that it is these uncultivated edges that they use for nesting. The threat from mechanised farming is a huge one for ground-nesting birds and some mowing for hay was taking place this week. (not that the roadside verges are safe from mowing!)

siskin

One of the siskin that I saw a couple of week's back. Click on the image to enlarge.



APRIL 12

Last week's very hot weather has now settled back to something more seasonal but the migrants are still turning up. Nightingales are singing in lots of the woods, tree pipits seem to be common and I have already seen more redstarts than in the whole of last year. I heard my first melodious warbler near to La Poterie today.
A much rarer obsevation was of a grasshopper warbler  which was reeling in the rape field behind my house on Saturday. This is the first that I have seen for several years; the last one stayed around for a couple of days in my garden.
There's still plenty to look forward to though----like whinchat, swift, oriole, willow, reed and sedge warbler, turtle dove etc.............
I don't think I've mentioned it but I saw my first Scarce Swallowtail butterfly of this year a few days back.

April

April 4
2 nightingales were sing at The Bandiat as was a whitethroat. A few sand martins were flying across the small amount of water that was flooding. A new gouffre has appeared since last year with a consequent waterfall which drops a couple of metres.
Irv reports a male common redstart at Bourcelaine.
On the plains at Lairiere 2 female hen harriers were hunting.

April 5
2 stone curlews were on a ploughed field at La Tache. 3 corn buntings were singing---but no wheatears to be seen.
Around La Tache village were: a male common redstart, 2 tree pipits, 2 singing garden warblers, 3 hawfinch, a hoopoe, a serin and a small flock of linnets. A few meadow pipits are still around.

Spring Migration Update

I'm still trying to fill in some gaps now that I'm back on line.
March 22 saw me spend an hour at Comporte (St Saviol) while Stella had her hair cut nearby.
This is a very pleasant spot on the Charente with a large mill pond. I had only just arrived when an osprey appeared above me and circled around. By the time I'd popped back into the car to locate my camera he had a large fish in his talons and was shaking water from his feathers. he flew around with the wriggling fish for a minute or so and then moved off upsteam and out of sight, presumbly to eat his dinner. The only pic I got was of his disappearing profile.
I still had time to have a quick look around and was rewarded by a small flock of siskin which were feeding in some conifers.

March 24 I was at Bourcelaine where I saw my first hoopoe of the year--3 of them in fact. There were also 2 yellowhammer, 6 late fieldfare, a short toed treecreeper and singing woodlark.
The warm weather has also brought out some butterflies--- orange tip, wall brown, common blue, cabbage white, red admiral, peacock and of course brimstone. I saw my 1st humming bird hawk moth on the 25th.

March 26 My first cuckoos were calling in The Braconne Forest. There were also 2 marsh tits there.
A serin was singing at La Poterie.

March 27 Barn Owl at La Tache

Spring Migration

Saturday, 2 April 2011

Spring Migration

I'm still a bit busy sorting out things with the insurance people etc but I've managed to fit in some birding over the last few weeks and I'm pleased to see that others have too. I've not had much time to keep up the blog partly because I've only just been reconnected to the internet so here's an attempt at a summary of recent birding observations. The crane migration seems to have stuttered on till very recently with reports of skeins still moving north over Montignac up until last week. Black redstarts and blackcaps are singing everywhere, cuckoos are calling, swallows are flying around the villages, stone curlews are making their strange sounds at night and hoopoes are back in their traditional nesting places. Wheatears seem thin on the ground though, Irv had one sat on his wheelbarrow just over the border in Charente Maritime and I had a distant view of one yesterday even further east near Marenne but I've not had a sighting nearer home. There's no sign either of the rapidly declining little bustards which should have arrived by now. Chris and linda woke up to find a white stork resting in their garden near Fontenille and I saw four of them flying low over Mansle last week. A trip to the coast yesterday revealed that there are lots of them about including some which are already on their nests. It's a similar story with black kites; there were dozens of them close to the coast and quite a few have passed over locally. None of the river valleys are in flood after such a dry Spring and so it was no surprise to find nothing other than 2 migrating green sandpipers when I visited the Bandiat last week. There's still a lot of migration to take place, though, which is what makes this the most exciting time of the year. Yesterday's trip to the coast which I've already mentioned gave a little taster of the species which are just starting to arrive: a few whitethroats, were singing, some blue-headed wagtails were on the marshes, house martins were circling a church tower and a bonelli's warbler was doing its monotonous call in the coastal forest. I saw my first tree pipit of the year this morning. More details to follow.