28 july

The weather remains very hot so birding is best early or late in the day. A walk over the plains this morning turned up the male red backed shrike again. He was hunting a couple of hundred yards from where I've seen him previously. I'd not bothered to bring my camera which was a pity as his plumage was very bright in the morning sunshine. At one time he was sat on top of a bush which also contained two melodious warblers.

 Other birds that were around included a stonechat, 2 young nightingales, a calling quail, a calling nuthatch, several calling common redstarts and a calling stone curlew, a flying grey heron--the 1st I've seen for a while, lots of blackcaps, greenfinches and blackbirds (but only one chaffinch) and a family of long-tailed tits. Jays and buzzards are common but I saw only one kestrel and no harriers.

In the evening a flock of about 100 starlings were wheeling around La Tache.

female and juvenile red backed shrike sharing a post at La Tache.  (CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE)

6 shrikes; 3 stone curlew;1 montague

The weather's abysmal today with persistent drizzle. It was cool yesterday but there was some some sunshine and a walk around the plains revealed the whole family of red backed shrikes. There were at least 4 juveniles and possibly 5; some were with mum and some with dad but all were flying around the bushes and fence posts at the bio farm
I could here the stone curlews calling before I got onto the plain and then saw them flying off and poking their heads up out of the grass. The recently harvested fields probably suit them for feeding now as they look a bit like the stoney semi desert which they are fond of.
On the way back to La Tache I watched a male montague's harrier hunting over the fields. This is the first of this summer visitor which I have seen this year.
Other birds of note include a quail calling on the plains and a male common redstart still in bright summer plumage. Many swifts were feeding high above the plains; it won't be long before they head south.

July 22

Last week's visit to the UK for a cataract op will improve my birding enjoyment I hope.

One of the first birds which I saw with my new eye was the male red backed shrike at La Tache. He was very noisy and accompanied by a young bird. Close by there was a nightingale. This species is very common in Spring but once the birds stop singing they seem to disappear entirely and give the impression that they have already cleared off to the south. This one was popping in and out of a bush accompanied by house sparrows.

I'm still thinking about the possible identity of the bird which Cagouille described in a comment in mid month.

pair of shrikes

a pair of red back shrikes at La Tache this evening

another shrike

A second red back shrike, again a superbly plumaged male, was near to the bio farm at La Tache yesterday evening. He was busy feeding and using both the tops of the hedges and the posts of the electric fences as perches.
The moorhens at La Poterie have a second brood but without rain it can't be long before the pond dries up. The mallards have been down to 3 for some time now. Where the other 8 went is a mystery.

spotted flycatcher

My first spotted flycatcher of the year was perched at the top of an ancient sweet chestnut at La Tache.
A serin is still singing very noisily around the village, often perching on tv aerials.  Curiously, this bird which is a scarce migrant to the UK is the emblem of the Isle of Wight Ornithology Group (IWOG) on the rather flimsy grounds that an occasional bird has been seen to arrive from the sea at St Catherine's Point.
The many swallows are also making a din but except for the occasional high flying ones, swifts are absent from the village.
The hoopoes which seem to be nesting around the back of the village are no longer calling but I see them flying around occasionally. Young black redstarts seem to be cheeping away everywhere.

back again---and a shrike

I've been back in Charente for a week or so. The weather has been mainly very hot and dry and remarkably the grain harvest is virtually complete. This must have had an impact on ground-nesting birds and I saw one rather forlorn looking stone curlew this week standing by a recently-cut field--but then stone curlews always look forlorn so I might be reading too much into it.
I've not had much time for birding because of other obligations but I've seen quite a few black kites around and a few hen harriers but no montagues as yet.
I saw my first red backed shrike (male) sat on a wire near Chavignac today. This species has become very uncommon in recent years.
Black redstarts continue to sing everywhere as do a few other species such as orioles but I don't know why some birds such as nightingales and cuckoos become quiet by this time of year. Irv suggests that  species such as the latter ones may already have returned south.