six green sandpipers (chevalier culblanc)

We are still in March but one is ever hopeful of new spring arrivals everyday. That's never quite so of course but new individuals if not species are turning up and the green sandpiper count at Les Vielles Vaures rose to six yesterday. They are easily spooked and that may explain why I saw none in a brief visit this morning as a fisherman was there before me at this usually deserted site. Plenty of swallows were flying around and there were a few at Pont d'Agris but no martins as yet. Chiffchaffs (pouillot velocé) were present in well into double figures and just one blue-headed wagtail.
Curiously, although all the birds seem to be pairing up for the breeding season, there was a large flock of several hundred chaffinches (pinson du nord) on what are increasingly becoming the desecrated Plains of Lairiere.

blue headed wagtails

Despite the warmth in the sun this week, migration is not moving on apace. A few swallows (hirondelle rustique) are flying around but I've seen no new arrivals except for two blue-headed wagtails (bergeronnette printaniere) which were feeding around the feet of cattle near Agris. These are the most common race of the yellow wagtail which migrate through Charente.
A few winter visitors are still hanging around--perhaps they know something of the freezing conditions further north; during the last few days I have come across a handful of redwing (grive mauvis) and a single female brambling (pinson du nord).

Spring migrants ---and black woodpecker (pic noir) !

Today's birding deserves this second post. The cuckoo (coucous gris) which I mentioned earlier flew over the house as I set off on my bike but that was after I flushed my first hoopoe (huppe fasciée) of the year from the field opposite my gate. Other cuckoos were calling around the Lairiere plains but at first I could find no signs of any stone curlews (oedicneme criard) as I cycled around the huge craters that are soon to house the turbines. Quite apart from this building disturbance, the farming regime this year doesn't seem too conducive to their nesting as most of the land is already greened up with winter wheat. However, a scan of one of the few bare earth fields that remain produced a pair of these fascinating migrants. One of them flew off and landed in a wheat field while the other remained and called plaintively. Let's hope they stick around in the face of adversity.While cycling back to La Poterie I came across several corn buntings (bruant proyer) singing and then my first swallow (hirondelle rustique)of the year appeared at Puyclavaud.
Not satisfied with the morning's haul, I took a drive out to the Bandiat but drew a blank except for one swallow and then went on to the Braconne forest.  Towards the southern end of it and in what must be its highest part I explored an area of very tall trees which looked promising for the elusive black woodpecker (pic noir). I was delighted when after about twenty minutes one flew across and landed on a nearby trunk. For some five minutes I was able to admire his red crown and his large ivory bill and then, making a call which was a cross between that of a green woodpecker and a monkey, he flew off with a deeply undulating flight towards the sound of another black woodpecker in the distance.

Cuckoo

I've been to and fro a rather chilly UK over the last few weeks so it's good to be back in what is beginning to feel loike a real Spring in Charente. Cagouille reports swallows (hirondelle rustique) but I've yet to see one and they are a week or so late compared to last year---perhaps today?
A cuckoo (coucous gris) was calling as I let the cat out at 7 this morning and there are plenty of other signs of return migration: blackcaps (fauvette a tete noir) and chiffchaffs (pouillot velocé) are singing everywhere; a pair of black redstarts (rougequeue noir) visited the house yesterday (sadly they cannot use their old nest site which was inside the house as we now have windows!) and a green sandpiper (chevalier culblanc) was on the Bandiat at Vielles Vaures on Friday ---but nothing else at that migration site.
The stone curlews (oedicneme criard) should be back on the plains and I am going to cycle up there in a minute but the place is very much disturbed and obstructed by the erection of the new wind turbines so I am a bit concerned.
Friday was a particularly good day for raptors: buzzards (buse variable) were well into double figures and enjoying the thermals for their courtship; kestrels (faucon crécerelle) were plentiful; a sparrowhawk (épervier d'europe) was at the Bandiat; a red kite (milan royal) appeared briefly on the plains and I saw there the fascinating sight of a tiny,dashing male merlin (faucon émerillon) harassing a lumbering buzzard.

Red Kite (milan royal)

A stroke of luck this morning revealed my first red kite of the year magnificently sailing over the house as I walked out of the door. It was heading northward and probably returning to breeding quarters.

Even More Cranes

Today was warm and sunny and a good one for cranes (gru cendré) although, given the numbers that have already passed through, you would think there were no more to come. About 450 passed over Fontenille in mid afternoon and another skein of 85 birds came low over my house at 5pm. Whether either of these were the flocks which Diane mentions in her comment on the previous post I do not know. There is a french site which collects and provides data on the crane migration and I have been feeding my info into it. It's accessible by just googling 'gru migration' .
The warm weather has also brought in some chiffchaffs (pouillot véloce) These inconspicuous warblers are always the first of the migrant warblers to arrive. None of the ten or so which I have come across in the last few days were singing though. Several were in the wet meadows at Fontenille as were reed buntings (bruyant des roseaux) and both species were near the Bandiat river yesterday.
Also at Fontenille today were sparrowhawk (épervier), female hen harrier (busard st martin), a single redwing (grive mauvis) and my first yellowhammer (bruant jaune) of the year. Large flocks of lapwings (vanneau huppé) are still around, some feeding in the fields and others passing north.

lapwings

Large flocks of lapwings (vanneau huppé), containing several thousand birds, were resting/feeding in fields along the Mansle-Valence road today. They are making their annual movement back to their northern breeding grounds. Their migration does not attract as much public attention as that of the cranes (gru cendré) but in a different way the phenomenon is just as beautiful and remarkable.

Around the garden there are the first signs of birds pairing up for breeding; tits (mésange) and blackbirds (merle noir) were (respectively) chasing each other today and a pair of moorhens (poule d'eau) have been active around the pond for a week or so now.

The crane migration continued yesterday with almost 1000 birds passing over the house in the afternoon.