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.
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