Five corvids and four raptors on Remembrance Day

The mixture of showers and sun continued today but the rain held off all morning and I took my binoculars when I cycled over the plains to pay my respects at the La Tache cenotaph.
One gets so used to seeing flocks of just crows daily that it's a pleasant surprise to see their numbers augmented by rooks and jackdaws as they were around Artenac today. Put this together with the many jays that were flying about and the pair of magpies thatI I came across and it amounts to five members of the corvid family. This is about the maximum that is possible in Charente as ravens are very rare.
Raptors gave a good showing also; buzzards were everywhere as usual including the extremely dark and the almost white individuals which often frequent the area. A pair of female hen harriers were making use of a thermal and a single kestrel was hunting the fields. Later, an immature sparrowhawk decided to sit on the stable roof for some five minutes.
The finch family was represented almost entirely by goldfinch as the 500+ flock is still feeding on the unharvested sunflowers--although they seem to have eaten most of the seeds by now. Just a few greenfinches accompanied them. Elsewhere, chaffinches were around in good numbers with the odd brambling mxed in with them. No sign of any linnets today.
The other species that were flocking were the starlings around La Tache and the many hundreds of skylarks that are feeding on the plains. There is still no sign of any more cranes but the migration period seems to have stretched further and further into late November and early December in recent years so their is still a good possibility they will turn up.
Firecrests and a short-toed treecreeper were both in the garden bringing the day's species total to a satisfying 30+.