The Last Cranes?

Yesterday (28th) gave us a clear blue sky all day and, prompted by a friend's report that he had seen two skeins of cranes pass over Fontenille on the 28th, I dutifully set off on my bike in the hope that some might have rested for the night in the Tardoire valley. I came across none that had but I was rewarded withe the sight of about 350 of them in five skeins during the course of a couple of hours. They were mainly at height and heading deteminedly south except for the smallest group of twenty or so which were circling low over the trees and may in fact have eventually settled somewhere in the valley.
This is of course remarkably late for cranes to be still migrating and is possibly the result of continued climate change as much as a response to the recent cold snap.
I saw my first redwings of this winter in the poplars in the Son-Sonette valley today. There is also a cold weather influx of song thrushes but no sign yet of fieldfares or bramblings.

Golden Plovers

Today's bitter north wind kept me indoors but I did have the reward of seeing a flock of about eighty golden plovers calling as they circled above the house for some minutes before settling in the field opposite. This is very likely evidence of the cold weather bird movement referred to in my last post. It's very likely that lapwings, fieldfares, redwings and bramblings will make their appearance soon.

Late December

The weather has remained mild with some rain but temperatures are forecast for a sharp drop tomorrow and that may bring some changes on the bird front. At present, though, there is little of note to report other than the usual large flocks of skylarks in the fields and what seems to be a seasonal invasion of jackdaws and rooks to farmland which is usually monopolised by crows.
I did hear a lesser spotted woodpecker close to the house on Boxing Day but failed to locate it, a very different situation to the one that I recently reported. That individual was just above my head in a small tree at the side of the Sources de Trouve.
Other location details that I omitted from that last post were that the black woodpecker was flying over and calling in the Braconne forest and that the siskins (my first of the year) were feeding at the top of silver birches in a garden at Saint Angeau. The goldcrest was in another garden nearby. The flock of fieldfares (my first of the year in Charente) were by the Bandiat as were the reed warblers, and the kingfisher and water pipit were on the Trouve at Magnac along with more than a hundred little grebes.
Incidentally, the Tardoire and Bandiat rivers are now flowing above ground after recent rains. Sadly, the Bonnieure is being stripped of many of the trees along its banks near to Saint Mary.

Fifty-plus Species

Today's continued sunshine encouraged me to go farther afield which meant the car rather than the bike. I visited the Braconne forest and the Trouve and Bandiat rivers in the hope of a few different species to add to yesterday's total. The result was a good one, pushing the total to the mid fifties over the two days. As always, a few common species eluded the trawl but the full list below shows that it is very feasible to come across over sixty winter species in Charente during a twenty four hour period.

The Winter List  Dec 21/22

Black woodpecker
Great spotted woodpecker
Lesser spotted woodpecker
Green woodpecker
Tawny owl
Hen harrier
Buzzard
Kestrel
Rook
Crow
Jackdaw
Magpie
Jay
Wood pigeon
Collared dove
Heron
Little egret
Mute swan
Mallard
Gadwall
Little grebe
Moorhen
Coot
Kingfisher
Cormorant
Lapwing
Blue tit
Great tit
Long tailed tit
Goldcrest
Firecrest
Short toed treecreeper
Nuthatch
Wren
Dunnock
Robin
Chiffchaff
White wagtail
Grey wagtail
Skylark
Meadow pipit
Water pipit
Stonechat
Siskin
Chaffinch
Linnet
Goldfinch
Hawfinch
Greenfinch
Blackbird
Song thrush
Mistle thrush
Field fare
Starling
House sparrow
Cirl bunting
Reed bunting

Tis the Year's Midnight.....

The shortest day of 2014 brought some welcome sunshine after several days of soggy gloom. Venturing out to look for birds became feasible again and my 15K cycle ride turned up 32 species. December's mild weather means that there is no sign of winter arrivals of field fares, redwings or bramblings but a solitary lapwing near La Tâche was perhaps a remnant of migration earlier in the month. Sadly this bird seemed to be injured as it was in the same part of the ploughed field in which I'd first seen it some days earlier. On that occasion it was accompanied by a few white wagtails but there was no sign of them anywhere today.
Linnets were flocking in their hundreds though and there were also large numbers of chaffinch and skylarks on the plains. Curiously I did not see or hear any goldfinch or greenfinch on my journey but a solitary hawfinch was in a tree near the bio farm.
The only other birds of note were a hen harrier, a chiffchaff  and a flock of starlings which were pleasantly carolling in a tree near the wind turbines.
Robins were far less common than say a month ago so perhaps some have dispersed

Late Cranes and Hawfinch

The three hundred or so cranes which passed over me in five skeins during yesterday's bike ride make the headline because of their lateness but there were several other birds of note among the three dozen species which made an appearance. The main part of my journey was within the still dry Tardoire valley (in fact I cycled along the stony river bed for a while) where I came across an interesting mixed flock of cirl and reed buntings. I have not seen the latter species since the spring. A little pishing encouraged the appearance of several goldcrests and firecrests from within the foliage of a conifer plantation and a red kite obligingly soared overhead but the most striking birds of day for me were two hawfinches which typically sat very still while I admired their plumage.