It's been a very warm week and a busy one for me about the property but I've managed to squeeze in some birding.
Cagouille reports his first nightingale and there are certainly plenty about now. It's the same with whitethroats which seem to have turned up in numbers. I came across my first bonellis warbler of the year in the Braconne a few days back and I heard my first cettis warbler yesterday at Valence. This species is a resident but I have not heard their call throughout the winter so they appear to have arrived from somewhere.
I've seen three black kites as I have been driving about and quails were calling on the plains yesterday where a pair of stone curlews were still in a field.
The Bandiat has been disappointing though; it is still partly in flood but has attracted fewer migrants than it did a week ago.
My brother reports common redstart from near Roumazieres but I have yet to cast eyes on one here. Not so for melodious warbler which was singing in the garden yesterday and a grasshopper warbler was reeling by the Bandiat a few days ago.
Everything is making its way northward but there is still stuff to arrive, orioles, swifts, whinchats turtle doves and montagues harrier to name a few.
Common redstart in and around our veg plot for about a week now.
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