nightingale et al

There was an interesting melange of birds on the outskirts of La Tache this morning. A nightingale sitting on a barbed wire fence was an unusual site as they become very secretive after all their noisy singing earlier in the year. On the fence post next to him was a short-toed treecreeper. Not only was he out in the open but he actually walked down the post rather than up it---a first for me. Also nearby was a firecrest, a lesser spotted woodpecker, a male common redstart and a noisy family of nuthatches. The stone curlew count on the plains was five and a female hen harrier was hunting there.
Once again I watched two red deer at very close quarters as they ran around me, seemingly unsure of quite where to go for at least 5 minutes.

bustard feather

This is the feather referred to recently. Little bustards moult their first 5 primaries around June/July. This looks like primary 1. It's the second one I've come across on the Lairiere plains in the last couple of years and the nearest I've got to seeing a bird! I was on the plains at sunrise yesterday (a bit nippy) but the only birds visible in the mainly cropped fields were stone curlews and skylarks.

harvest time

The local farmers are making the most of the warm,dry spell to get in the grain, often working their combines well into the night. Inevitably birds and animals are being displaced as the appearance of the landscape rapidly alters. I counted three hares yesterday and two this morning and several deer are often out in the open. The stone curlews are flying around from one recently cropped field to another but ther is still no sign of any little bustards. I did find a moulted primary feather a few days back which indicates that at least one individual is still around.
An unusual sight yesterday was of a solitary lapwing in the same field as the stone curlews. Lapwings do not breed around here to my knowledge and the autumn migration is still some way off.
Near to the bio farm a superb male red backed shrike made a brief appearance, quails were calling yesterday and today and two black kites joined the buzzards who were making the most of the feeding oportunities that the cropped fields provide.
Other birds yesterday morning included nuthatch, yellowhammer, whitethroat, stonechat and melodious warbler.

SHRIKES

After noting in my last blog that the red backed shrikes did not seem to be around the bio farm this year, I came across a family party there this morning. At least five birds were sitting on branches and fence posts. I've obviously spent too much time carrelaging and not enough birding this summer.
It was a misty start to what looks to be a very warm day and the stone curlews which numbered six today were flying quite high through the greyness. A hoopoe was feeding by the sunflowers which were giving off a very strong scent this morning and by 9am , after the sun had broken through, flights of swallows began to appear.

stone curlews

The recent comment by Cagouille about the missing stone curlews near his house has prompted me to look more carefully at their usual haunts close to La Tache.  I cycled around the plains at 7am yesterday and several of the birds were calling loudly. I could not locate them until I got to the highest point and then came across a flock of 10 birds in a recently harvested and lightly ploughed field; I presume that some of them were this years offspring so it seems that some birds are still managing to breed.
Quails were also calling but as usual were not revealing themselves despite being seemingly under my feet.
A woodchat shrike was an interesting sight near the Bio farm; this area had breeding red backed shrike lat summer but their is no sign of them this year. Melodious warblers were common in the hedges ans I saw just one whitethroat.
Another interesting sight was a golden oriole being chased by a swallow----for fun presumably.