Sunday, 23 March 2014

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.

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