Rain, Guns and Migrants

I've been wittering on about signs of the ending of the summer for a while now but this week's persistent rain and the sound of hunters' guns  indicate that we are slipping into autumn proper. Conditions obviously haven't been conducive to extended birding but I have made a few sorties, mainly to the plains.

The stone curlews are still there with four flying around at the weekend, probably a family group. A few wheatears and whinchats can also be seen and the swallows are either feeding low over the fields or making their way determinedly southward, a few house martins mixed in with them.

I've seen two male hen harriers this week and a female sparrowhawk  which sat in the middle of a ploughed field was perhaps eyeing up the wheatears.

Migrating passerines are feeding long the hedgerows and include willow warblers, blackcaps, common redstarts and pied flycatchers. Small groups of black redstarts and white wagtails are in the harvested fields. Turtle doves which were still around up to about a week ago have now probably moved south.

In the evenings tawny and little owls are calling but I've not seen or heard a barn owl for a while.

Gordon tells me that migrating white storks have been seen at Chasseneuil recently.

Tawny Pipits

Migration is intensifying with large numbers of pied flycatchers monotonously 'chipping' away from what seems like every bush or tree and even spotted flycatchers are appearing in some numbers; there were at least 4 around La Poterie on Friday. It's the same with whinchats which are particularly benefiting from any land which has been left uncultivated and contains lots of wild seeds; wheatears are less common though, I saw only one yesterday in the field just opposite the house.
The most interesting birds have been tawny pipits of which I saw a pair on Friday in a ploughed  field near La Rochette and another pair yesterday near the eolien site on the plains. The latter ones gave excellent close views and I regretted not having taken my camera. I have seen them only once before in Charente and the location and timing was very similar to Friday's birds. They were accompanied by a few white wagtails but in a field closer to Lairiere a few migrating yellow wagtails were also present. According to the most recent data I can find, only a handful of birds breed in Charente with a slightly healthier population of around 30-60 pairs in Vienne (1994/5).
Skylarks seem to be strangely absent at the moment and  I saw only one on my bike ride yesterday. One wonders where all the breeding birds go to before they return form the huge winter flocks.