More Cranes (cendré gru)

My surmise that the main Crane migration must be over was rather premature as over a thousand birds flew directly over the house this afternoon in the space of a couple of hours !

wood larks (allouette lulu)

The sun is still shining although there is a distinct nip in the wind. The birds are still feeding incessantly at the feeders incuding the bramblings (pinson du nord). Thease are winter visitors of course but I remember coming across one in mid summer in the Braconne forest some years back.
A flock of eight wood lark (allouette lulu) was in the field opposite the house yesterday. I always stop to look when i come across this bird maybe because it is so scarce in the UK--but it's also daintily pretty, has a pleasant, fluting song and an impressive french name.
Speaking of impressive birds, I have not seen any hen harriers (busard st martin) for the last few days but over the last few weeks I have come across several including some beautiful males.

Cranes on The Tardoire

Around 400 cranes (gru cendré) were feeding on the fields along the flooded Tardoire near Fougere today. There were also many hundreds of lapwings (vanneau huppé), a few fieldfare (grive litorne)
numbers of white wagtails (bergeronnette grise) and about twenty black-headed gulls (mouette rieuse).

Bright Bird-table Visitors

The weather has turned bitterly cold over the last few days and the garden feeders have been very busy as the birds try to take in the vital calories.
 House sparrows (moineau domestique) are the most numerous at the moment with a flock of about 20 present virtually all of the time but this morning among the tits (mesanges) and the chaffinches (pinson des arbres)  was a very bright brambling (pinson du nord) and then an even brighter male hawfinch (gros bec casse-noyeau) bossed everything else off the main bird table. This species can be very secretive but they occupy all the woodlands around here. When seen up close as this individual was this morning, they are very striking in appearance, almost parrot-like in fact. They are also very chunky having around twice the bulk of a sparrow. A song thrush (grive musicienne) appeared briefly in a nearby tree but seemed too cautious to approach the feeding flocks.

Male Brambling at Feeder

As a footnote, an unusual site by the feeders last week was a short-toed tree creeper (grimperau des jardins) but he was more interested in the cut tree trunk that supports a feedin tray rather than in the food itself.

Crane Stragglers

The main migration of the cranes (gru cendré) seems to be almost complete. I saw none today but about 300 flew over the house yesterday and a similar number the day before.
The female brambling (pinson du nord) is still visiting the feeders.
At least one crested lark (cochevis huppé) was feeding on fields near Bresdon on the western edge of Charente  yesterday.

Crane Chasing

I've always admired those nutters in Kansas or wherever who chase tornados and the like in order to get a closer look; well chasing cranes is not quite so dangerous but on several occasions over the last few days I've found myself jumping into my car to get closer to the big skeins which are not quite passing over the house. One such case was at about 5 o'clock this evening when two huge groups of cranes straggled there way across northwards but more over Romfort than La Poterie. I caught up with them---they travel deceptively quickly at times--- and their numbers totalled over 3000. There can't be too many left to come!

The other species of note today was woodlark (allouette lulu); two separate flocks totalling about twenty birds were in the vicinity of La Chatenet this morning.

It's good to hear the thrushes singing during our recent warm evenings.

The Day of The Cranes (gru cendré)

The gloom of this long, grey,wet winter has lifted over the last couple of days and my! did the cranes take advantage of it!
I was cheered yesterday afternoon to see about 300 pass over the house but that was nothing to today's spectacle; I have marvelled at the February migration in Charente for over twenty years but never have I witnessesed a spectacle like today's.
 Between 3pm and 6 pm around 15,000 (thousand) birds flew over the house. On several occasions it was fascinating to watch skeins turn back on themselves as they noisily circled while waiting for the following skein to catch up and mingle with them. Most of the groups of skeins held around a thousand birds and the above figure of 15,000  may well be a conservative estimate. Quite amazing!

Marsh Tits and February

February is something of a doldrums month if you are away from the wetlands or coast. Waders, wildfowl and seabirds might brighten a birder's day in Charente Maritime but there is little chance of those species making their way into Charente. But never mind,; we chose to live here and so we must make do with what we can find until the spring migration brings us some new arrivals.
The first of these is likely to be the cranes (gru cendré) which traditionally make an appearance in the last week of this month.
As for what's about now....this week  I came across my first marsh tits (mésange nonnette) of the year. This is a resident species but far less common than the familiar blue (bleue), great (charbonnière) and long-tailed (a longue queue) tits (mésanges). In some ways it is similar to the coal tit (mésange noir) in that you can go for quite long periods without catching up with one and yet you know they are about. A 'localised species' is probably the best way of describing these birds. Coal tits tend to prefer conifers but marsh tits are usually in mixed woodland. Their distinctive nasal calls usually draws attention to their presence and once located they are often quite confiding and give good views.
Other interesting birds of late include a grey wagtail (bergeronnette des ruisseaux) feeding with two white wagtails (bergeronnette grise) on the Son-Sonette at Valence, at least two siskin (tarin des aulnes) near St Front, a couple of wintering chiffchaffs (pouillot véloce) in the same area, goldcrests (roitelet huppé) which still seem to be more common than firecrests (roitelet triple-bandeau) at the moment and reed buntings (bruant des roseaux) accompanying cirl buntings (bruant zizi) in the fields.
Our garden visitors have included a green woodpecker (pic vert) on the lawn and a female sparrowhawk (épervier d'europe) sat on the bird table! The pair of bramblings (pinson du nord) are still coming there for food.