Cranes

Well my last post was nearly my last for a while but I have to add that as we were driving north from Charente on Friday our first skein of autumn cranes passed overhead. About 200 birds were flying south in their distinctive drawn out and wavering lines.
Not in Charente, but while waiting for the ferry at Caen, I watched several arctic skuas chasing sandwich terns while several razorbills were sat on the sea or flying to and fro. Two new species for the year for me.

lapwings and linnets

This will be the last blog for a couple of weeks as we are off to the UK. The clear nights are becoming coolish---only 5C at 8am today--- but the days are beautifully clear and very warm in the sunshine. A flock of about 20 lapwings were on the plains and hopefully evading the hunters whose gunfire I could hear earlier. It's such a pity that this beautiful species is still classed as chasse in Charente.
Speaking of chasse, two red legged partridge were waddling down the road in front of the car and we had virtually to shoo them away, hardly difficult targets!
Large numbers of linnets were flocking on the recently harrowed fields; small flocks of skylark were everywhere and blackbirds were very common.
A welcome sight in the garden was a dunnock, my second in just a few days!

late stone curlew and early lapwings

The hot weather seems to be coming to an end and maybe the last stone curlews will finally fly south. I've spent some time on the western edge of Charente in Bourcelaine over the last few weeks and the cries of the stone curlews could still be heard most evenings. Coming the other way as it were, I saw my first autumn flock of lapwings on Friday.
The song of the woodlark seems to be everywhere at the moment but I'm not sure why they sing at this time of the year. Meadow pipits and chiffchaffs are still plentiful and barn, tawny and little owl can all be heard at night.
It can't be long before the first autumn skeins of cranes appear.

lesser spotted woodpecker

Of the 33 species of bird which I saw around La Tache today three of them were woodpeckers. Green and great spotted are common of course but the lesser spotted is always more difficuly to find. This one was feeding noisily in the ancient sweet chestnuts. Also there were several nuthatches. The only birds other than the usual suspects were a mistle thrush, a red legged partridge, a blackcap and the La Poterie green sandpiper which did not take kindly to the disturbance of my brother and me who were moving some very heavy beams from inside the burnt house. If he decided not to return, I hope he avoids the many hunters who were around this overcast Sunday.

dunnock

The highlight of yesterdays walk around La Tache was probably the sighting of a hedge sparrow. Surprising, one might think but this species seems to be curiously scarce in these parts and this is the first that I have seen for many weeks.
The only sign of migration at present is the number of chiffchaffs that are in the hedges and fields. There are also many white wagtails on the ploughed land;  this is certainly seasonal but I don't know whether it is a feeding concentration or some kind of southerly movement.
Woodlarks were singing and I watched a sparrowhawk chase some skylarks and linnets across the plain.
The green sandpiper is still at La Poterie.

green sandpiper

Another green sandpiper was happily pottering around La Poterie's pond on Oct 6. It's good to know that this tiny habitat provides a regular feeding station fot these migrants.
A pair of hen harriers were gracing the fields around La Tache in the afternoon.

Spanish trip

The annual October trip to northern Spain took place a little earlier than usual this year. A very dry summer meant that the water levels on the Costa Brava were very low but a few flamingos were gracing what was left of the pools at Aigumolles. Most of the shallow water seemed to be being hogged by the white storks and wader numbers were vey low with just a few ruff, wood and green sandpipers, lapwings and little ringed plovers.
A single great white egret and two purple herons were flying around and large numbers of cattle egret were in many fields.The only wildfowl beside mallards were a few teal, gadwall and shoveler.
There was little sign of any passerine migration except for the occasional wheater and yellow wagtail, but swallows, house martins and swifts were still plentiful.
I failed to see a hobby in Charente this year but, very pleasingly, one of these graceful falcons gave us a display of dragonfly chasing.
The very hot weather that we have been experiencing in Charente persisted on the Costa Brava and it was still very hot in the central Pyrenees when we moved to the Hecho valley later in the week. Crag martins were plentiful at Los Riglos as were griffon vultures and we saw one or two blue rock thrush.
This was the first time that I have failed to see bearded vultures in the Hecho valley but the absence of the elusive wallcreeper was less surprising. Still, the place was as stunningly beautiful as ever with the high rock peaks startlingly bright against the blue sky  and the beech woods beginning to turn golden.
The ridges were thick with griffon vultures and in the conifers crested tits were common. There was some evidence of passerine migration taking place with plenty of chiffs, blackcaps, pied flycatchers and redstarts about. We saw just a couple of rock buntings and a single dipper but then we were in the valley for little over a day. Not a single black kite was seen on the whole trip, perhaps they have already migrated further south but red kites were a common sight even as we drove back through south west France.

whinchats

My first whinchats of the year turned up at last. Six of them very obligingly appeared in the rape field next to my house on Sept 24th. Other migrants in my garden on that day included pied flycatcher, common redstart and chiffchaff. A grey wagtail was on the pond and I watched a great spotted woodpecker carrying a walnut and trying to wedge it low down in the trunk of one of my trees. I presume he was then going to try to break into it but I have never seen this behaviour before.
Nor have I ever previously seen a partial albino chiffchaff but one has been in the vicinity of the bio farm at La Tache over the last few days.When perched it appears to have white primaries and when it flies the whole wing seems pure white.
Also around La Tache were a wheatear, a few meadow pipits and a yellow wagtail. In all,34 species made an appearence.