Raptors and Waders .... and a hoopoe

The last day of March delivered several interesting birds. The floods around Fougere held eight ruff and six green sandpipers, all giving rather better views than was available in the murk a few days ago. Seven mute swans were still floating around with a single black headed gull., A black kite was hunting over the fields along with a dozen or so swallows and a male garganey looked resplendent on the water.

There were no waders or hirundines showing on the Bandiat floods but a great white egret was stood in the nearby field along with seven grey herons.While I was watching these, my first hoopoe of the year flapped its way by, In another flooded field were a pair of garganey while close to the river itself were a pair of  little grebes, a coot and several male mallards.

I crossed the Lairiere plains on the way home and heard stone curlew calling but could not locate them. A hen harrier demonstrated why the fighter plane was named after him by hanging motionless just above the ground for several minutes. A much less common species, though, was a male marsh harrier hunting low over the rape fields.

Mute Swans

The wetter weather has restored some water to the flooded riverside fields and the Tardoire near Fougere has been hosts to eight mute swans for the last two days. From where? is the question.
There seem to be a few nesting pairs on the Charente such as at Mansle  and a very large flock is at Touvre but I have never seen them in numbers in this part of the department. Why any of out nearby birds should leave their usual haunts to swim around in a flooded field is a bit of a mystery. Perhaps it is part of local pre-breeding dispersal or maybe they have come in as more distant migrants. A French gentleman who I met at The Bandiat told me that three swans had been there recently.
The Bandiat is generally pretty quiet at the moment though. A single black headed gull and a snipe were yesterday's highlights and today there was a solitary cattle egret there. The only other birds of note are a few swallows, little grebes, coots and moorhens.
The Tardoire has see a little more activity. Today a single white stork accompanied  the swans and yesterday there was a smattering of waders. Views were distant as it is not usually possible to get close to the birds. A small flock of lapwings and four redshank were straightforward enough but two small waders were probably little ringed plovers , and even through a telescope I could only just make out a couple of ruff still in winter plumage.
Grey herons numbered a remarkable eighteen.

Swallows and Garganey

The hot spell is over, at least for now, and today was wet and chilly,  yet bizarrely the swallows chose to start arriving and a couple of dozen of them were harvesting the insects that were still around the flooded Bandiat.
There was also considerable activity on the water; at least four little grebes were engaged in noisy and aggressive courtship as were the same number of moorhens, but the stars of the show were a pair of beautiful garganey. These summer visitors used to be regular in some numbers at this location but I have not seen them for a while. Let's hope more are to follow.
As for the waders, the redshank count had increased to four birds and a pair of little ringed plovers were feeding at the edge of a muddy field.
There was no bird activity at the Tardoire where the flood waters have now almost receded.
Stella reports about fifty cranes flying north yesterday afternoon.

White Storks

The very warm spell continues and the flooded fields are quickly drying out but migrating birds are taking advantage of these temporary wetlands. Yesterday the Tardoire valley near Fougere held 18 white storks, about a hundred black headed gulls, 13 grey herons, three little egret, a few mallards and a single green sandpiper.
The latest addition to the garden's summer visitors is a blackcap which was singing loudly yesterday afternoon.

Black Woodpecker and Redshank

Visits to what remains of the flooded Bandiat and Tardoire rivers produced no migrants other than a solitary redshank---and perhaps the coot at the Bandiat was also migrating--, but a quick visit to the Braconne on the way back yielded the delightful sight of a black woodpecker which very thoughtfully flew to the trunk of a tree close to where I was standing.

Egrets

I mentioned the 5 little egrets on the flooded fields near Fougere last week and they have now reappeared but the great whites are no longer there. Meanwhile a pair of cattle egrets were on the flooded fields near the Bandiat on Friday . There was no other sign of migration there except maybe for double figures of reed buntings, not long distant migrants of course but a flock of this size was obviously on the move.

Cranes in the Dark

Cranes often migrate in the darkness and on Sunday evening a skein of about 400 birds few low over the house at dusk There was just enough light to see them silhouetted against the sky.
Spring days come  no better than yesterday's and I had another look at the flooded Bandiat near Fougeres. It was a little more promising with four little egrets and six grey herons feeding there. It is usually only during migration that gulls are seen in this part of Charente and a noisy flock of about 40 black headed gulls were on the mud about half way towards Biagne. They were unfortunately on the south side of the flood and viewing is only possible from the north so the views were a little distant and I did not have my scope but I am almost certain that at least on mediterranean gull was among them. I will try to check again today.
Other interesting birds yesterday were a female brambling in a flock of mixed finches near St Colombe, a little owl sunning itself on the tower of the fortified farm there and a female hen harrier near Coulgens.

March Cranes----and a Very Hot Spell

A quick dash over to the UK has kept me away from the blog but as was pointed out in a comment to my last post, the main migration of cranes took place some two weeks ago when thousands passed over in the space of 48 hours. There were a few stragglers today with a noisy group of about 80 birds flying quite low over the house at around 5pm.
The remarkably hot weather (23C today in the shade and 38C in the sun!!!) coupled with the flooded fields lured me to the Tardoire and Bandiat yesterday in the hope of some early wetland migrants. It's too early of course and  I saw little except for two great white egrets and a smattering of lapwings but as long as the fields don't completely dry out the conditions are very promising for when the migrants really start to arrive over the next few weeks.
Meanwhile the songbirds are in full voice, most noticeably blackbirds, robins, song thrushes and skylarks but I've heard the occasional stonechat and yellowhammer joining the chorus.