Wheatears and Swifts et al

Today Spring finally arrived for me because the wheatears turned up ! Two males and a female were in ploughed fields on the plains this afternoon and beautiful as ever they were. The males were in the same field of view as a solitary stone curlew.

The weather has been unsettled though and there was considerable but needed rain yesterday. But just before it arrived I saw my first swifts of 2014 above Pont d'Agris and a single bird was flying high over the plains this morning.

A golden oriole has been singing in the woods near my house for the last three days but I have yet to see it and the same goes for turtle doves which I've heard purring yesterday and the day before.
Two white storks were flying above the Tardoire yesterday and there were three little egrets by the Bandiat and one at Fougère with a cattle egret on Wednesday. Five greenshank there showed that my previous note about the last of the waders was premature.

A flock of about ten blue headed wagtails were with cattle at Agris and whitethroats have suddenly become quite common in various locations. The song of the nightingale is now just about as frequent as that of the blackcap.

A common sandpiper was at Touvre today but nothing else that was unusual.

Last waders?

There's just a little water left in the flooded fields and five greenshank were making the best of it near Fougère today. There were also two egrets there, one cattle and one little. No sign of the black stork and only a couple of grey herons.
Despite forecasts of much lower temperatures and showers, the weather has remained dry and pleasantly warm (20+ degrees) but with far more cloud cover and the wind has shifted from last week's cool northerly to a much pleasanter gentle south east breeze. Yet there was little visible sign of migration today and I still await the first wheatear, always the definitive bird of Spring for me.

Black Stork Update

The black stork is still happily feeding at Fougère but there was little else there today and the fields are drying rapidly. There was some sun today but the wind has shifted more to the east and it was nippy enough to prevent me taking a bike ride!

Golden Oriole

The warm sunshine continued today but temperatures were much lower because of a keen north wind yet a golden oriole was calling near to the house, the first that I've heard this year.
Near Fougère the black stork was still busily feeding alongside a dozen grey heron. There were also seven greenshank, two redshank and a green sandpiper there along with dozens of yellow wagtails and swallows.
In fact there were more migrating hirundines around today than at any time up to now this Spring ; at least a hundred swallows were at the Bandiat along with house and sand martins. Many of them took to perching in the treetops and on the ground in a ploughed field.

BLACK Stork !!

Not a white stork but a black one was the big event of today at Fougère.
 " Les Oiseaux de Charente" records just one previous individual back in 1970. This beautiful specimen was flying around in the late afternoon of a day which was curiously bereft of any other herons/storks/egrets. It is the first that I can remember seeing in France although I have seen them on several occasions in southern Spain and on one occasion on the Isle of Wight .
The bird should still be down in Spain or over to the east of Europe but I'm happy that this lost individual turned up on my patch and hope it manages to get to its destination.
The very warm weather continues to produce some other new migrants, today there was a male whinchat at Fougère  and several dozen blue headed wagtails. The only wader there was a green sandpiper.
Yesterday I saw my first tree pipit of the spring which was singing at La Poterie,  and two bright male common redstarts. There was also a whitethroat at La Tâche.
Away from migrating birds, I came across my first red legged partridge of the year yesterday (remarkably really) .
 Carrion crows  form large flocks hereabouts but the one I saw today of over a hundred birds was of rook proportions.

Sand martins

My first sand martins of the year were flying near Fougère today mixed in with some swallows. House martins are already flying around their breeding haunts at Saint Angeau.
The two great white egrets were still near the Tardoire and over twenty herons were with them. I presume that the two greenshanks were the same ones as yesterday but there were also seven little ringed plovers present.

27 grey herons and 2great white egrets

The wetland migrants seem to be drying up along with the flooded fields. Today at Fougére there were just two greenshank, two green sandpiper and two great white egret. The most remarkable sight was that of at least 27 grey herons standing together in a field-- I can't be more exact as they scattered in different directions.
The waders seemed rather tired and one green sandpiper stayed put as I cycled passed only a few feet away.
Yesterday at the Bandiat I came across my first whitethroat of the year. Six green sandpipers were also present.
Stone curlew was present near La Tâche today.
The walls of my house are at present being used as nesting areas by four species: kestrel, house sparrow, starling and black redstart. I've yet to find out what is nesting in the garden.

The Tardoire : a brief update

Most of the floodwater has now receded although the fields are still very muddy. Greenshanks were in double figures but the swan and great white egret population has shrunk to one of each. A few yellow wagtails and a black kite were nearby.

Black tailed Godwit

Waders are still making use of the flooded Tardoire and today's new arrival was a resplendent black tailed godwit in full summer plumage.

Other species were:
12 greenshank
4   little ringed plover
2   redshank
2   ruff
1   green sandpiper
5   white stork
12 grey heron
2   mute swan
dozens of yellow wagtails and meadow pipits.
Several nightingales were singing

Spotted redshank and Nightingale

Today's weather was again very warm and sunny so the temporary wetland continue to dry up. Migrants are still making use of them though hand at Fougere today there were fifteen or so greenshank, several redshank and green sandpiper, half a dozen little ringed plovers,one ruff,three great white egrets, one little egret, a male shoveler, several yellow wagtails and the inevitable mallards and grey herons. The visiting swans have dwindled to two.

The Bandiat continues to disappoint but an elegant spotted redshank was an unusual sight, and  I heard my first nightingale song of the year.

A pair of stone curlews were in the vicinity of the eoliens near La Tâche.

Shoveler and Gadwall

Today was warm and mainly sunny but the fields around the rivers are still pretty sodden an so worth visiting in search of migrants attracted to water.
At Fougère today the list was quite interesting:

One male shoveler
Three gadwall
A dozen mallard
One white stork
Three great white egret
Seven mute swans .
Fifteen redshank
One greenshank
Eight green plover
One little ringed plover
Nine black headed gulls
One merlin
One black kite
(But no partridge in a pear tree!)

None of these birds would usually be present in these fields other than during migration. This applies to a much lesser extent to the fifteen or so grey herons that were dotted about.

Other notable observations from the last few days include a black woodpecker seen briefly near La Tâche and a pair of marsh tits near La Poterie.

Saturday's tally of birds within a ten kilometre radius of La Poterie fell just short of fifty species.

Greenshank and Merlin

The pattern of at least one new arrival each day has continued for the last week or two, and I hope it may it continue for some time yet!
Today it was a migrating greenshank which made an appearance by the flooded Bandiat. It flew around calling for several minutes and I never saw it actually land. Green sandpipers have been present most days but today's flock of seventeen birds was the largest gathering that I have ever come across.
The seven swans are still there.
The passerines in the flooded fields were mainly pipits and linnets and their numbers attracted the attention of a female merlin but the sortie which I witnessed failed to find a victim.

House Martins and Stone Curlews

Today's incessant rain wasn't conducive to much birding but I took a drive out in the late afternoon. The Tardoire  seemed devoid of birds on the ground, except for the swans, but hundreds of swallows were busy feeding just a few feet from the ground and quite a few were resting on the tops of the sunflower stubble. Mixed in with them were my first house martins of this Spring, all looking very smart and tidy in their fresh black and white plumage.
I detoured over the plains on my way back and had good views of a pair of stone curlews ( or Eurasian thick knees if you prefer the new nomenclature). They were in a bare field close to Artenac.
Close to the house a cuckoo has been calling for most of the day.

Rock Sparrows

Rock sparrows are described in 'Les Oiseaux de Charente' as being quite rare and sedentary which may explain why I've never seen one here, until yesterday that is ----and not one but a flock of about a hundred!
They rose up from  field near the Tardoire, flew around me noisily for a while and then settled on nearby trees and a power cable, giving me good views for several minutes. I left them there and went on a short distance towards the river. There was no sign of them on the way back some forty minutes later. I've not heard of them occurring in such large numbers before but I assume this is a wintering flock prior to pairing up for breeding.
It was a bit ironic that this sighting of an unusual sedentary species happened when I was looking for Spring migrants., and of them there were not many yesterday. Six or seven green sandpipers were feeding in the muddy fields along with a few yellow wagtails and a solitary great white egret.
The half dozen mallards were all males as seems to be the case at this time of year. The seven mute swans were looking a little disconsolate as their 'lake' gradually shrinks and grey herons numbered fourteen.

Here's what the rock sparrows looked like, showing their crown stripe and white tipped tail well.

 It's not my pic. I don't know who owns the copyright.

Blue headed wagtails and ...............

Every day of the Spring migration yields a promise of what might have arrived during the hours of darkness when most birds prefer to be on the move. So it is with anticipation that promising sites are visited on a daily basis.
But of course it would be too good to be true if something of interest were turned up every single day,  and bird watching is often an exercise in patience and hope as much as anything else..
These philosophical musings are merely a preamble to saying that the only new migrants today were a couple of dozen blue headed wagtails near Fougere. They were in beautiful bright plumage which stood out among the muddy sunflower stubble even at a distance.
A few black headed gulls were still present as were the seven swans but there was nothing else of note except for a couple of green sandpipers and a lapwing.
The cuckoo which I heard at the house yesterday was showing himself this morning, and later in the day I saw two more migrating black kites above Montignac.

Whiskered Tern and Cuckoo

Today was the real last day of March despite my referring to yesterday as such----a slip which many retired folk will recognise.
And it was a good day, both weatherwise with a return to warm sunshine and there were lots of interesting birds around to boot.
I heard my first cuckoo of the year from the garden this afternoon and earlier I saw my second hoopoe.
I was shovelling gravel for much of the day but I managed to pop down to the Tardoire in the late afternoon. The first bird which caught my eye was a whiskered tern which was delicately dipping into the flooded field as it incessantly quarter up and down, sometimes surrounded by fifty or so black headed gulls.
A telescope was necessary to view the distant waders and they amounted to several ruff, six green sandpipers, three lapwing, two redshank and a little ringed plover.
As for wildfowl, the four mallards were accompanied by a pair of garganey and a male wigeon.
The mute swans still numbered seven and grey herons totaled about the same.
A few water pipits were feeding close to where I was standing.
A brief visit to the Bandiat where the floods are once again fast receding, revealed another beautifully plumaged male garganey but nothing else that was not there yesterday although the sight of a little grebe swimming around in the middle of a flooded road made me smile, and ten grey herons stood stock still in a field like a line of sentries.
During one of my morning gravel runs I saw three black kites together near the N10.
Corn buntings have become a common sight and sound over the last few days.