Siskins

There seems to be no end to the unseasonal warm and clear weather but I'm not complaining.
 Today's bike ride surprisingly turned up some harbingers of colder times, though. While travelling along the Bonnieure river path I came across a flock of 20+ siskins feeding (as they always do) on alder seeds. Only a few of them were males with vestiges of bright yellow in their plumage. In a nearby tree were a handful of redwings, yet another species that often augers a cold snap so perhaps we should beware.
An unexpected sight in the same location was a single cormorant flying overhead and another slightly surprising bird was a reed bunting in the Tardoire valley.
The day's tally was 37 species in just over two hours which wasn't bad considering that familiar birds such as long tailed tits, linnets and mistle thrushes did not put in an appearance.
I've seen no more late cranes in the last few days but a flock of around 300 over Montignac was reported to me on Christmas Day.

Merlin and More Cranes

The unseasonal warm weather continues with the sunshine  temperature still breaking into the twenties but there was a strongish southerly blowing yesterday which allowed me to exactly count the slow moving skeins of cranes that were battling against it; there were sixty birds in all.
Later I unintentionally flushed a male merlin from one of the few trees which survive on the plains and he rapidly shot off towards one of the many restless skylark flocks.

Winter Chiffchaffs

Its close to Christmas but there's no sign of winter yet, in fact the temperature was over 22C in the sun this afternoon. The chiffchaffs that are around at the moment are probably going to overwinter with us as a few do every year but there seem to be far more than usual and they are usually encountered as singletons so I was surprised today to come across a small flock of about six of them mixed in with several tits.
Among the 35 species which I clocked up on my bike ride were a hawfinch, a pair of bramblings and a sparrowhawk.
Earlier in the week a little egret was near Luxé again and a great white egret was in a field near Chasseneuil, perhaps the same individual that I saw near Saint Mary.

Two Cranes

Stella called me to the door this morning two witness two lonely looking cranes flying south, the first I've seen since my last post. That post also mentioned a stock dove and this species turned up again last week but in greater numbers with several dozen feeding in a field alongside wood pigeons near Saint Amant. There was another great white egret too, this time in a field near Saint Mary.
Otherwise it's been a pretty uneventful period with just the occasional hen harrier and hawfinch putting in an appearance, plenty of goldcrests, mistletoe thrushes and great spotted woodpeckers though.

Lots More Cranes and a Stock Dove

Not long after publishing my last post which referred to a skein of late cranes I watched two other large ones consisting of 1500/2000 birds pass over close to the house. I suspect that there are still more to come.
I forgot to mention in that same post that a single stock dove put in an appearance near Luxé. I have seen this species on only a few occasions in Charente and this one was probably winter visitor or on passage from the north.
The cold weather of winter has not yet set in despite a few frosty mornings but a small flock of lapwings were moving south yesterday ; really cold weather will bring them down in their thousands.

GREAT WHITE EGRET AND LATE CRANES

It's been a rainy last few days and the watery theme took me again to the river near Luxé. The little egret which I saw there on a previous visit was replaced by a great white with a brilliant yellow bill. He spent a lot of his time slowly flapping from one flooded meadow to another. There was nothing else of note on the water except for two kingfishers, sometimes calling, sometimes hovering and sometimes perching on flimsy stems of vegetation.
The finch family was well represented among the trees near the new viaduct, five species in all including brambling.
Thrushes were scarcer except for numerous blackbirds. Mistletoe is plentiful in the poplars (although many have been recently felled) and I heard the rattle of mistle thrushes among them. There were no fieldfares despite the recent cold snap but a small flock of redwings put in an appearance.
The most surprising sighting of the visit was the large number of reed buntings, a species which can be very elusive during the breeding season.
Another bird which is far more common here in the winter is the tiny goldcrest. They were present in double figures and I watched two of them together with a brighter firecrest feeding on the mossy bole of a tree, a welcome change from the usual neck-cricking views that they offer when feeding in the canopy.
On Monday a skein of about seventy cranes headed south above the house. The low cloud cover forced them to fly at just a couple of hundred feet.

Garden sightings

The very hot weather is over and the first rains for some considerable times have arrived. I've seen few cranes since my last post but it's possible that the migration has been delayed this year.
The bird scene is generally quiet and my bike rides usually turn up around 30 familiar species but there are a few things of note especially around the house and garden.
At least one brambling joined the tits and chaffinches on the sunflower seed feeders and two firecrests were feeding in a flowering shrub outside the kitchen window. On one warmer morning a few days back I was taking my breakfast on the patio and watched a female hen harrier hunting the roadside verge.

Bramblings and. Hot Spell

Some technical problem has locked me out of my blog for the last few weeks but I've fought my work back into it now!
The last week or two has been remarkably hot with temperatures reaching 26C in the shade and 30 in the sun. Despite this, quite a few smart bramblings have mixed in with the flocking chaffinches and I have seen the occasional redwing and fieldfare. Mistle thrushes have been a daily sighting this week but always as solitary birds.
The empty fields are now full of skylark flocks together with a smattering of linnets and meadow pipits and a few hen harriers are still patrolling them. I've seen only one merlin though.
I took a trip this week to the Charente at Luxé, near to where the new viaduct crosses. I've mentioned this small flooded area in an earlier posting as a possible place for migrant waders. On this occasion there was a single snipe there along with a cormorant, a little egret, a kingfisher and a few water pipits.
Cranes have ben passing over for the last two weeks but in smaller size flocks than usual. I have seen over a thousand up to now but I expect there are many more to come.

Cranes

This is my first post for some time, partly because of several uk visitors and a trip to Poland but perhaps mainly because there has not been a great deal to report throughout September other than the expected whinchats, wheatears and pied flycatchers passing through long with a smattering of other common summer visitors.
October is return crane migration time of course and although I've yet to see any myself, my brother reports about 100 over Angouleme on Tuesday. He also reports an early redwing in his garden near Roumazieres.
I had a look back at last Octobers posts and noted that the crane passage began much later then. Curiously I also saw that I recorded 33 species on a bike ride which is the exact same figure which today's bike ride produced.... Although not quite the same 33!
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For me most interesting among them were the dunnocks; I can go several months without seeing one of these birds but today I came across four of them in different locations. It makes me think that they are more migratory than is usually though and perhaps have moved in recently along with the robins which seem to be the commonest species at the moment. Their delicate Autumn song is everywhere.

Tawny Pipit

I can recall having seen tawny pipit on just one previous occasion in Charente in the area now occupied by the eoliens. The two birds which I saw this afternoon were in an adjacent field and as with the previous ones were almost certainly passing through on migration.
Wheatears numbered four today and whinchats two. There were far fewer swallows than yesterday.

Hobby

The warm dry weather has broken and we seem to be in for wetter, cooler conditions over the next week at least but I managed to squeeze in 20K on the bike in the early afternoon and had a few interesting sightings among the 30+ species that I came across.

While crossing the Bonnieure near Saint Colombe I heard the alarm call of a small raptor and fortunately managed to locate its source within the canopy because the bird had chosen to sit at the top of a dead tree. Almost all the hobbies that I see are in flight so it was interesting to view this perched individual. The light wasn't good enough to see his red leggings but his white cheeks, moustache and heavily streaked breast showed up well. I presume the bird was on his return migration and perhaps was tired as it didn't change position during the ten minutes that I spent watching it. The possible source of its alarm was a crow which as sat elsewhere in the tree.

Earlier I'd watched another piece of interesting raptor action when a sparrowhawk was chased away by a kestrel.

Yesterday's wheatears seem to have moved on as only two birds were in the same area today and there were no whinchats to be seen.

The meadow pipit which was sat on a power line was the first I'd seen for a long time.

Other species:

Grey heron
Buzzard
Pheasant
Green woodpecker
Great spotted woodpecker
Wood pigeon
Collared dove
Moorhen
Crow
Magpie
Jay
Blue tit
Great tit
Long tailed tit
Wren
Robin
Pied flycatcher
Nuthatch
Blackbird
Black redstart
Cirl bunting
Chaffinch
Stonechat
White wagtail
House sparrow
Starling
Chiffchaff

Wheatears' Return Passage

I have spent the last few days down in Northern Spain catching up on a few non-charentaise birds such as roller, flamingo and spectacled warbler. The weather was hot there but I gather that it was so here too. It was still pretty hot this afternoon when I took a bike ride over the plains looking for autumn migrants. Swallows were present in abundance, feeding over the fields and a few whinchats were in the hedges near the bio farm accompanied by pied flycatchers and a common redstart. The main delight of the day though was derived from around thirty wheatears on both the ploughed fields and the pastures, their white rumps flicking away as they were disturbed by the passing of my bike.

Pied flycatchers and Whinchats

The weather has cooled significantly although it still reaches the upper 20's in the sunshine and the first signs of return migration are around. Two whinchats were with a family group of six stonechats near La Rochette on Friday and a couple of pied flycatchers have been flitting around the trees in my garden. A male common redstart that was in the garden yesterday was probably a passage bird.

Early September and Storms

Almost a month has gone by since my last post as I have been in th UK for a wedding, had a stream of visitors and have been off-line after mid August's storms. There was another big electrical storm last night with much needed rain but this time the modem survived.
Anyway---- the birds: I thought I'd found my first honey buzzard of the summer last week but when I braked on my bike I realised that it was a short- toed eagle that was soaring south of Saint Angeau. Shortly afterwards I watched a woodlark perched on a power line and then a male red-backed shrike near La Rochette. But apart from a spotted flycatcher near La Tâche there has been little of any note to report. The Swallows and house martins are flocking noisily around the villages and some seem to be purposely heading southward and it can't be long before other autumn passage birds turn up.

Black Woodpecker

It's been a while since I've done a post but the July heatwave drove me indoors for the afternoons at least and most of Charente's birds seemed to go into hiding also. We did have a cooler spell at the end of the month but now we are back into the mid thirties.
Nevertheless, there is a little to report:  I saw (as opposed to heard) my first quail of the summer a week or ago; I flushed it from a stubble field on the plains as I cycled past. I have seen various red backed shrikes in their usual locations but the family group on the plains yesterday was in a spot where I had seen only a solitary female earlier in the summer.
Even more remarkable for a bird in an unexpected place was today's black woodpecker. It flew across open fields not far from Chenet (about three kilometres from my house) and disappeared into a smallish oak wood with trees no higher than twenty feet whereupon it began to call and continued to do so for the next ten minutes. This species is usually associated with large forests and tall trees but several of my sightings suggest that it can occupy more open country and move from one area of woodland to another--- typical Charente landscape in fact.

Another good bird earlier on today's ride was a hawfinch. Even in flight these birds are easy to identify with their chunky, short-tailed profile and their broad wing bar. They make it even easier when they do their clicking sound.

Stone curlews have not been showing well and, as always, I fear for their survival and it seems not to have been a good summer for hen or montague's harriers either.

Quiet Times in a Very Hot Spell

One advantage of keeping a blog is the ability to check back to previous years to see if patterns are persisting. The very hot weather of the last fortnight or so has resulted in intense harvesting of barley and then wheat and I began to think that this was surely rather earlier than usual, but a quick flick back to 2014 tells me that this is not the case as exactly the same shearing of the fields was taking place in early July.
I still don't know how the ground nesters cope though and I wonder if the stone curlew which was calling close to my house at midnight was successful in breeding or not.
Black kites search the stubble as always and the occasional hen harrier makes an appearance as does the occasional hobby. Quail seem thin on the ground this year though and I have not heard one for some time.
At least three reed warblers and a couple of Cetti's warbler are still vocal on the Son-Sonette but the orioles are singing less and less.

Hovering Golden Oriole

It's  been rather hot this week and the afternoons have seen me in the shade with a book rather than out and about. Nevertheless....

Orioles are not easily observed as they are remarkably well camouflaged in the canopy so it was a great surprise to watch a male in his brilliant yellow and black finery catching flying insects above a field. He did this in an agile and erratic manner and on several occasions resorted to hovering like a kingfisher, a behaviour that I've never seen or even heard of before.

It's been another good year for local red back shrikes as I've now located seven pairs within cycling distance of the house, one trip this week turned up three males within a couple of kilometres of each other.

The grain harvest is well under way and, as with the earlier taking in of hay, black kites are exploiting the feeding opportunities and can often be seen following the machines. As always I fear for the ground-nesting birds.

Nightingales are now mainly silent but I have come across a couple of individuals quietly singing during the last few days.

The pair of black redstarts which nest at the house chose a niche by the rear door for the second nest of the season. As with the first which was partly concealed by my hanging overalls and prevented me from using them, this one lies partly behind an open shutter which cannot be closed for the duration. It lies at eye level so I often catch a glimpse of the patient female observing my passing with her beady eye.

A sad sight yesterday was that of a dead female cirl bunting outside the same door. She had presumably presumably flown into the glass which was not concealed by the shutter!

Nightjars

A chance mention of nightjars during a conversation yesterday afternoon reminded me that I had not made the effort to locate any this year so I set off late in the evening for my annual fix of this curious migrant.

The visit was to a spot in a nearby forest where I have seen and heard nightjars many times before. It was a little later in the evening than usual, 10.30 rather than 9.30 but the sky was clear and the moon full. As soon as I turned off the car engine I heard the distinctive sustained churring with its frequent changes of pitch but I had to walk a little down the track before a bird appeared. It glided and swooped low above my head so I assume I was close to a nest but it performed no wing clapping nor made any calls. This may be the result of it being so late in the evening or maybe a little later in the season than usual, the courtship routines now being over. As I drove back I heard several other individuals in the same forest but much closer to my home churring away.

Earlier in the day I was treated to the unusual sight of a nightingale out in the open. The familiar experience of this bird is of its musical throbbing emanating from deep within a bush but this one was perched on a telephone wire and made a few feeding sorties into the field below. It displayed the same bright chestnut plumage of the Cetti's warbler (another bird which is far more often heard than seen) which I came across by the Bonnieure about thirty minutes earlier.

On Monday I had a brief walk along the track by the Charente near Luxé. The damp meadows here look perfect for the elusive and increasingly rare corncrake but I heard no trace of their presence. A consolation was a little egret feeding in the flooded area under the new viaduct and my first willow warbler of the year in a bush beside the track.

Hobbies and Quail

The last week of May has seen a strange mix of weather. Low cloud and cool breezes have kept temperatures down so that early morning cycle rides have required a fleece but temperatures have soared whenever the sun has broken through and the water in the swimming pool reads a respectable 27C.
The last of the black redstart brood in the garage left the nest yesterday which was excellent timing as     the garage door is finally being installed this morning!
I had the fortune to see two different hobbies yesterday. The first was over the garden as it was harassed by a couple of noisy swallows and the second was hunting low over a recently cut hay field at the bio farm. The speed and agility of a hobby which allows them to catch dragonflies (and swallows) seems matched only by swifts and hirundines but, despite their rapid flight, their distinctive dark silhouette usually reveals flashes of their red thighs, dark moustache and striped underparts.
Another Summer visitor is the quail and a few of them have been calling from the wheat fields on the plains.
A male red backed shrike finally made an appearance in the usual hedge at the bio farm .

Hobby

Red backed Shrikes et al

We are into the last week in May and the weather is behaving pretty well with hot sunny spells between the cloudy bits ; it was over 30C if you ventured out of the shade yesterday but there has been a cool breeze from the north for the last few days.

I took a ride to the Braconne today and was pleased to find that two pairs of shrikes were back in last summer's locations, it's remarkable that individuals fly from Africa to find their way back to the same little strip of hedge. I've not yet managed to locate the regular pair at the bio farm yet though..
In the forest itself several Bonelli's were trilling away and I stopped to watch one in an oak tree for some minutes. At the same spot a tree pipit was singing from the very top of a conifer and a marsh tit made a brief appearance.

Yesterday a red kite crossed the sky above the house and at the start of the week a short toed eagle did the same but at a much greater altitude.

The stone curlews are still up on the plains despite all the recent hay making.

Today's 26 Garden Birds

Today I spent rather more time than usual observing the birds that were in and around my garden and the results were quite interesting.
Perhaps the most interesting and certainly the most colourful were a male common redstart and a great spotted woodpecker, the latter feeding acrobatically on the fat balls.
Not far behind in their brightness were the male black redstart (whose partner has only just finished incubating the eggs in her garage nest) and the goldfinches and male chaffinches.
 Greenfinches were very busy but the usually noisy serins which are nesting in one of the trees were rather retiring compared to yesterday. Two chunky hawfinches made a brief appearance as they flew from the top of the tallest oak to disappear over the fields.
The substantial colony of house sparrows which breed on the house itself divided their time between feeding, collecting even more nesting material and some energetic courtship.
The blackbirds were collecting food for their young as were the starlings which also nest in the walls.
Only one of the the two nest boxes is occupied and the great tits which are using it were back and forward with insects for their family. Blue tits were common of course but I don't know where they are nesting this year.
A robin and a cirl bunting played only brief parts in the drama but blackcaps, although furtive, were always present.
I purposely did not go searching for those species which revealed themselves only through their song and settled for merely listening to nightingale, chiffchaff,  cuckoo, song thrush, turtle and collared dove, golden oriole and wood pigeon.
I saw no raptors today, not even the nesting kestrels, and the only fly-overs were the numerous swallows and the occasional crow and magpie.
The pond which adjoins my garden held its usual moorhens but the mallard don't really count as I put them there.
And worthy of note was a mistle thrush which I disturbed  as I opened my gates this morning.
I reckon that makes 25 or so species which is a respectable tally for no outlay of physical effort.

Shrike

I think that I've waxed lyrical before about the beauty of the male red backed shrike and so it was a delight to see my first of this Spring sitting on top of a hedge near Goise today.

Shortly before this I came across my first reed warblers in the usual small reed patch on the Son-Sonette. Two birds were singing there although neither showed itself.

I came across a pair of stone curlew in a different location yesterday; they were in a field of emerging maize not far from Le Chatenet. The bike ride that took me there also turned up a Cetti's warbler on the Bonnieure and a singing yellowhammer.

Swifts are flying around  the church at Saint Front and there are a remarkable number of house martins in Saint Angeau.

We had the curious experience yesterday evening of an unidentified large bat flying around inside the house. It was perhaps three times the size of a pipistrelle and how it got indoors is a bit of a mystery. I eventually allowed it to make its escape by opening a bedroom window.

Late Wheatear and Five Raptors

I've  just noticed that my last post was numbered 333, half the number of the beast according to Revelation! --- so I'd better move on quickly.

I managed an early morning ride over the plains this morning before I resumed my wrestling with the garden. A single female wheatear was an unexpected sight so late in the Spring; she remained
completely stationary in a ploughed field throughout the five minutes or so that I watched her before I moved on to view an equally statuesque stone curlew in an adjacent field.

Four black kites were taking advantage of a recently mowed hay field to prospect for their breakfast and a male hen harrier made his familiar slow and stately progress in a different area for the same purpose. Our usual commonest raptors, buzzard and kestrel were strangely absent until later in the ride and not until I'd clocked a female sparrowhawk which was hunting near the bio farm.

Cacophony is not really an appropriate term for the throbbing notes of nightingales but so many were singing this morning, and often in close proximity to each other, that it was difficult at times to pick up other calls. Nevertheless, ' a slow and stopping' ( as Philip Larkin would have termed it) two hour ride around the plains turned up forty three species including tree pipit but still no sign of any shrikes.

Back From Iberia

The two week gap since my last post is the result of a drive down to Portugal and Spain.  The trip was not primarily a birding one but I took my bins nevertheless and had the pleasure of such delights as bee eater, wryneck, southern grey shrike, crag martin, spotless starling, calandra lark, griffon vulture, short toed eagle and iberian chiffchaff.

Anyway that's not much to do with Charente birds and I'm back here now. Since I've been away there has been a lot of rain and it's taken a good two days to get the garden back in order but while doing so  I listened to the sound of my first turtle doves of 2015 (there were none in Spain or Portugal).

 The black redstarts are nesting in my garage again and the kestrels are doing the same on the gable end. Starlings and house sparrows are occupying other parts of the building.  Serins, goldfinches, blackcaps, blackbirds and probably firecrest are nesting in the garden.

A break from gardening this morning took me over the plains on my bike where I came across a pair of stone curlews near the eoliens and later a third, probably different individual.

Melodious warblers were singing in several locations as were nightingales, whitethroats, cuckoos, orioles and a single tree pipit. Corn buntings were common but I saw no harriers or shrikes during the couple of hours that I was out and about.

The forecast is for very warm weather for the next few days so any birding will need to be done very early.

Golden Orioles

• The rich fluting call of a golden oriole is a familiar one throughout Charente summers and I heard my first of the year as I stepped outside this morning and then several more in other locations during the day. Some starlings have kept the song in mind with their mimicry earlier in the Spring but theirs is a pale version of the real thing.
• Temperatures reached the upper 20's today so I took two trips out, one on the bike and another in the car.  The latter was to the stretch of the Charente valley at Luxé below where the new LGV bridge crosses. Immediately below the bridge and possibly as a result of the construction of its supports is a stretch of shallow water where the river spreads out around the concrete columns. It probably disappears in the summer when the river level drops but although it has shrunk in size since the last time I visited, it still extends to an acre or two. The reason that I mention it is because it may be an interesting place to see passage water birds on migration.
• Today there were at least seven common sandpipers and one green sandpiper feeding around its edges. I was also honoured with the sight of a bright kingfisher hovering before diving to catch a fish. Whitethroats were very plentiful as I walked down the track which leads to this stretch of water.

Bonelli's Warbler

Bonnelli's warblers are Summer visitors and widespread in our forests but easily overlooked. They fall into the category of LBJ's or little brown jobs but this does them some mis-service as they are more distinctly plumaged than say chiffchaffs, perhaps the ultimate LBJ.
They are most easily located by their call, a short trill of a couple of seconds which is frequently repeated and quite far carrying.
I failed to find any in my trip to the Braconne earlier in the week but one was calling and showing himself well in the Forêt de Belaire  on Saturday and I expect that more will be arriving in the next few weeks.

Another LBJ, the corn bunting, is particularly vociferous in our fields at the moment.
House martins have been flying around he bridge over the Bonnieure at Saint Amant this week.

A Day in the Brenne

The weather forecast promised sunshine further north today so I drove up to The Brenne which I'd about two hours north of here. Sure enough, the sun shone all day and there was some good birding.
It's not an easy area to work as it's so extensive and the best lakes to view are rather scattered and poorly signposted but I managed to see many of its specialities although mainly in small numbers.
I've not come across a grasshopper warbler for a long time and wasn't really expecting one today but one was reeling away at my first roadside stop. He was very skulking as always and I didn't stay around long enough to get other than flitting views.
Purple herons were more common than greys and I had good views of a night heron sitting in a dead tree by a lakeside. Several cattle egret were around and a single great white.
Wildfowl were not plentiful except for coots but there was an interesting range including red crested pochard and common pochard. Black necked grebes are a Brenne speciality but I found them on only one lake. Great crested were everywhere though.
Garganey were mentioned on the recent sightings board but none showed up for me.
The water levels were too high to expect many waders but I did manage to see common sandpiper, little ringed plover, lapwing, snipe and greenshank.
Another breeding speciality is whiskered tern of which I saw just a single bird. Perhaps the other two hundred which make up the usual summer total had not yet arrived.
House martins were busily building their nests at the restaurant where I had lunch and several swifts were flying around too.
Other birds of note were my first singing reed warblers of the year, although I never actually saw them, and several black kites.

Owl with long ears and Eagle with short toes

Today was the third consecutive one when temperatures hit 30C although it's forecast to change from tomorrow. Spring continues to turn up its delights one of which was a short toed eagle at the Braconne yesterday. I watched it floating above me until it was seen off by a buzzard,

Long eared owls are not migrants but Spring could be the best place to locate them when they have young as they are early breeders. The appearance of a very fluffy fledgling accompanied by one of its parents was an unexpected occurrence near the eoliens and entirely the result of noisy disturbance by a troupe of over twenty quad bikes passing over the plains on Sunday morning. I saw the adult again yesterday in the same small stand of trees. This is the first time I've come across this elusive species since I found two roosting in my garden a few years back.

Speaking of the garden, a nightingale began to sing there this evening and a male hen harrier has passed very close to the boundary today and yesterday. The serins are still buzzing about and cuckoos call constantly.

Just after seeing the owls on Sunday I watched two stone curlews in an adjacent field and then three more about a kilometre away. I always scan the fields for the sight of a little bustard but it seem more and more to be a futile exercise nowadays. I'm tempted to investigate the large grain fields further north to discover if some are still hanging on there.

Nightingales

Yesterday saw a mainly cloudy interlude in the recent clear and very warm weather. I took to my bike nevertheless and was rewarded with several new migrants among the forty five species that came my way. The most notable were nightingales which were singing in over half a dozen locations, although not yet in a full throated way.
While watching my first tree pipit of the year which was typically singing from the very top of a tree, an early swift flew high up across my line of sight.
Other migrants, although not new ones, included hoopoe, cuckoo, yellow wagtail, green sandpiper, swallow ( including one group of fifteen which sat evenly spaced on a telephone line) and meadow pipit.

Redstart

Light rain is falling at the moment but the last few days have been delightfully sunny and warm despite a strong breeze at times. Work in the garden has restricted my birding but it's had the effect of focusing my attention on what's turning up around the house.
Yesterday a bright male common redstart graced the garden, joining with the pair of black redstarts which have been here for a couple of weeks now. It seems to be a good Spring for blackcaps and several of them been in the garden along with a few chiffchaffs. A pair of serins have taken up occupancy and sing noisily from the treetops when not chasing each other around. Speaking of treetops, a hoopoe was sitting in one of mine on Wednesday . Several cuckoos are calling from the nearby woods and I've seen them fly over the garden from time to time.
I've admitted before that I'm a compulsive bird lister and I can report that noting twenty something species around the garden is quite easy at this time of year and a local bike ride pushes this up to around forty. A black kite and few more wheatears were the highlights of a recent trip around the eoliens.
My last trip to the Bandiat turned up a few green sandpipers, one little ringed plover and a single yellow wagtail.

Stone Curlew and Hoopoe

The dull cool weather continues but I still took a ride around the plains this morning. I managed to relocate the stone curlew, in fact a pair of them, in a different ploughed field. As usual, both were crouched motionless close to the ground.

Hoopoes have been calling for a few days now but the the first one that I've seen this year was at Artenac.

Just one male wheatear was showing on the plains and a male hen harrier was cruising over the rape fields, probably the same individual which I saw from the house yesterday.

The rape fields are a popular location for corn buntings and several were singing away this morning.

There must have been a major arrival of blackcaps in the night as their numbers were in the dozens including one party of at least twenty which was involed in a squabble in a short stretch of hedge.

Charente Wheatears

I caught a glimpse of a wheatear in Charente Maritime a couple of weeks back but I had to wait until today to see any on my own doorstep - two males in fact, feeding busily on a ploughed field near the eoliens. More so than swallows, cuckoos or even snowdrops, the arrival of wheatears always creates for me the illusion that things are still alright with the world and that the cycle continues.
The most plentiful migrant today, though, was the swallow with dozens about in several locations including the Bandiat where they were accompanied by a single sand martin, six green sandpipers and three redshanks.
Closely following the swallow in terms of numbers was the meadow pipit; with dozens on the Lairiere plains alone. There are also far more blackcaps around than on previous days and chiffchaffs are plentiful.
The first bird that I heard this morning was a cuckoo and I heard another at the Bandiat which has slightly expanded it's flooded area after the recent rain.
A scan of all the bare earth fields on the plains failed to reveal last week's stone curlew.
A minor 'first' today was the sight of a buzzard landing briefly on my lawn!

Snipe

No one in their right mind would have described today's gloomy weather as spring-like but some birds seem to think so. Like the migrating six snipe and five green sandpipers which were happily paddling away in what's left of the Bandiat flood this morning. A few swallows were zigzagging around for insects but the only duck were mallard, no sign of any garganey this Spring.
Nearby in the Braconne nuthatches and treecreepers were very active with at least five of the latter on show within a hundred metres or so.

Cuckoos, Hoopoes and Stone Curlew

At least three cuckoos were calling close to the house this morning before I watched one being chased off by a crow.  I didn't catch sight of any hoopoes but one was calling close to La Poterie and another near to La Tâche .
There is little bare ground this Spring on the Lairiere plains as almost all the fields seem to be planted with either rape or winter wheat but one ploughed field held a solitary stone curlew, always one of the earliest migrants to show itself.
There was little activity at Les Vielles Vaures though; the Bandiat is still partly in flood there but a group of six green sandpipers, a few mallards and a single swallow were the only birds of note.
A small number of swallows and house martins were flitting around the Bonnieure bridge at St Amant and a single black kite seemed to be using the N10 as a migration corridor near Tourriers this afternoon.
Other migrants such as blackcap, chiffchaff and black redstart helped bring today's total to over forty species.

Dartford Warbler ?

Cagouille's garden bird still remains a mystery but this is a pic of an IOW dartford warbler taken this week. It might help clarify things.

I forgot to mention in my last post that a kingfisher was on the flooded Bandiat this week.

House Martin and Yellow Wagtail

Spring migrants are drifting in but mainly in small numbers. Flying above the Bandiat today was a single house martin along with about eight swallows. The only other migrant there was a solitary green sandpiper. Another of the latter was at Fougère where the flooding is now restricted to a few tiny pools, and my first yellow wagtail of the year was in one of them.
Serins have recently added their song to that of the early blackcaps.

I saw my first wheatear of the year on Oleron on Wednesday.

WHEATEAR

Swallows

One swallow doth not a summer make but the three which I saw at the Bandiat today might make fairer weather more likely.
Chiffchaffs are among the earliest spring arrivals are are usually seen flitting around in bushes and trees so I was rather surprised to see seven of them busily feeding on my lawn this morning. The bright male redstart that has been around recently was still with them.
Elsewhere there is little to report except that the great white egret is stil at Fougère along with what looked like three green sandpipers in the far distance.
Corn buntings are not migrants as such but the first ones that I have seen this year were singing near the eoliens this afternoon.
All this bird activity is overshadowed by the very sad news that our much loved cat, Yoda , was killed by a car outside the house today.

Green Sandpipers,Snipe and Rock Sparrow

It's still very warm but there are still a few wet fields for passage waders to take a migration stopover.   Some of them were near to the Bandiat today where nine green sandpipers and five snipe were paddling in the shallows.
But the only waders at Fougère seemed to be lapwings. The great white egret was still present though along with nine grey herons and a pair of mallard.
Perhaps the most interesting bird today was not a wader but a rock sparrow taking a bath in a puddle at Les Vielles Vaures.
A black redstart was singing in my garden today.

Great White Egret

Despite a few showers yesterday the warm weather has resulted in the water levels in the flooded fields to continue to fall. Nevertheless Fougère hosted a great white egret today along with a few hundred lapwing, two ruff, a redshank about a hundred black headed gulls and the injured white stork mentioned in previous posts. There was no sign of yesterday's golden plovers though. I had no time to check out the Bandiat.
The garden held a few species too; a fine male black redstart, a chiffchaff, a firecrest,a cirl bunting and a great spotted woodpecker all made appearances. About 70 cranes flew over in the early afternoon. The pair of kestrels which usually nest on the gable wall of the house seem already to have taken up residence.

Ruff and other Waders.

Not surprisingly with the warm, sunny weather the flooded fields are beginning to dry up but early migrants are still taking advantage of them.
Along with the hundreds of lapwings near the Tardoire at Fougere today were three ruff (one a male with striking white head and neck),  five redshank, a few dozen golden plover, a single white stork with an injured leg, a male teal, a male shoveler and over a hundred black headed gulls. In comparison The Bandiat at Les Vielles Vaures was very quiet.

Chiffchaffs were singing today as was a black redstart in a Saint Angeau garden. The small flocks of meadow pipits which are around are probably Spring migrants.

Yesterday was almost as warm with clear skies and at least two thousand cranes passed over in the afternoon as I toiled away clearing over a hundred large mole hills from my lawn.

One of today's ruff was very similar to this individual

Peregrine Falcons

Peregrines are very rare birds in Charente, in fact the literature refers to the last breeding being attempted in the 1970's and despite their name they are not great wanderers from elsewhere. It was a great surprise therefore to come across a breeding pair today. It would be irresponsible on an open site such as this to reveal the whereabouts as they are sadly highly prized by egg collectors and even more so by illegal falconers. Suffice to say they were in a quarry and became very agitated and noisy at my unexpected appearance. I'm very used to seeing these beautiful raptors as they nest on the cliffs near my old Isle of Wight home but this is the first time that I've seen them sitting in a tree which is what they both did after leaving the rock face. Quite apart from their bright plumage, the intense yellow of their legs in the sunshine was truly startling.

After a sharp overnight frost the day dawned bright and sunny and the gloves that I needed for an early morning start were abandoned by the warm afternoon as was my fleece. Lapwings were everywhere, probably numbering at least a thousand spread over various locations but I could not find a single golden plover among them unlike yesterday. Huge numbers of white wagtails were still mixed in with them though.

Two male blackcaps, seen at very different locations, were perhaps early arrivals rather than overwintering birds which had come out to enjoy the sunshine, but the only other warbler that I saw was a solitary chiffchaff.

The black kite and the 130 cranes which I saw in mid afternoon were genuine migrants but almost as interesting was the sight of a resident marsh warbler and my first two brimstone butterflies of this Spring.

Floods and Storks

Most of our rivers are over their banks and into surrounding fields thus providing a nice habitat for wetlands birds. Though it's still a little early for spring migration some birds are on the move and two white storks among the dozen or so herons were the highlight of this afternoon's visit to the Tardoire valley at Fougère There were other birds there as well though; several hundred black headed gulls and large flocks of lapwings often took to the air from the flooded fields. About sixty golden plovers and a few starlings were mixed in with them and flocks of white wagtails were everywhere.
The flooded Bandiat was a bit of a disappointment though with just a small flock of lapwings and golden plover but there were plenty of white wagtails there also.

Hawfinches and Red Admirals

The sun came out today, something of a relief after a rather dreary, damp week. I persuaded myself that it still a bit breezy for a bike ride and took myself of to the Braconne forest for a walk. Hunters' cars and their dogs and bugles seemed to be everywhere including at the Bandiat which I drove past on the way. Perhaps their presence made the birds stay out of sight and sound as there was not a great deal to be found. A small flock of confiding hawfinches showed up well in the sunshine,though, and I also came across firecrest and short-toed treecreeper. A pleasant surprise were my first red admirals of this year, a couple of which were basking in the warmth.
Back at the ranch the tits, sparrows and finches are devouring the sunflower seeds as fast as I put them out. Still nothing more exotic has made a visit but a dunnock feeding on the droppings from the table is an infrequent and welcome visitor.

More Cranes and Bird Feeders

I can add to Diane's comment on my last post that I also saw cranes, perhaps 2000 of them, passing north over my house during yesterday's sunny afternoon. They came in very large skeins which then carried out their familiar noisy circling as they waited for later groups to catch up or overtake them before continuing.
I do not know why cranes are so delightfully noisy when migrating but the constant bugle sounds seem more than simple contact calls between birds within any skein and possibly is the result of family groups or different generations (and levels of migration experience) needing to keep in touch. This might explain the catch-up behaviour between skeins.
Other birds are still very busy at the feeders in the garden, consuming an incredible quantity of sunflower seeds every day. Blue and great tits are the most regular visitors along with the flock of resident house sparrows. Goldfinches, chaffinches and greenfinches come in small flocks as do a few collared doves, and robins but I've seen nothing that is more exotic this winter. Cagouille has commented on hawfinch visiting his feeders and one of my friends in Fontenille also has regular visits from this delightful bird. Margaret in Montignac has very regular nuthatches and my brother in Laplaud reported a visiting marsh tit some time back.

Signs of Spring?

The return of the cranes always raises hopes that the worst of winter might be over but there are a few other signs that some other birds are also chancing their arm/wing about Spring being around the corner.
Bird song is an important part of attracting a mate and holding a territory and there's quite a lot of it about at the moment. Robins and great tits are very vociferous particularly in woodland and I heard a couple of dunnock singing and a snatch of chaffinch song today. The loudest offering though is coming from mistle thrushes which is not surprising as they begin their breeding in March.
Other birds are calling of course but for many such as skylarks, starlings and linnets it's seems still a time to be noisily hanging around in gangs rather than seeking out a partner.
A 20K cycle around the Bonnieure and Tardoire valleys turned up just over thirty species today. They came from among the usual suspects, except perhaps for a solitary lapwing near Fougère.

The Cranes Come Back

Cagouille reports large numbers of cranes moving today and I too saw well over a thousand passing north this afternoon. In the old days when I visited Charente during the school half terms it was usual that I witnessed the northward migration during the third week in February. Nothing very unusual today then, it's just that some of them were still moving south just a few days ago!

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

Lesser Spots are rare enough sightings to deserve a posting and I was treated to one of these sparrow-sized woodpeckers in a friend's garden in Montignac this week.
Elsewhere there isn't much to report although seeing not one but two kingfishers today at Les Sources de La Trouve perhaps deserves a mention.
The absence of any bramblings this winter is still bemusing and the usual influx of lapwings during a cold snap seems not to have taken place either.
Sadly I have to journey to the UK tomorrow for the funeral of my great friend and birding companion, Irvin Cane. He is already sadly missed.

Confused Cranes?

I've not posted for a couple of weeks as I took a break with my wife and friends to escape the cold and wet. I know from experience that there are few birds to be seen from a cruise ship but the days spent on land on a trip that went from Barcelona to the Canaries via Madeira allowed me to snatch some interesting birding including houbara bustard, Madeira firecrest and canaries chiffchaff  all of which were new to me. Other birds which I've not seen for some time included Audouin's gull, Spanish sparrow and Bertholot's pipit so I'm not complaining.
I've returned to a Charente which is distinctly more chilly with a north wind and a sprinkling of snow on the ground. Yesterday's (brief) cycle ride turned up barely more species than the Mediterranean Sea, the only sign of life on the plains being a lonely buzzard and a large flock of skylark.
Stella sensibly decided to go out in the car and while travelling to Chasseneuil saw a flock of fifty cranes still moving south. Strange times indeed but it's possible that these are migrating birds which stopped off further north and have now felt the urge to move southward with the cold snap.

The Lakes and Wildfowl

Having  lived for around thirty years in the West Wight I have to admit I miss the birds of the coastline and estuary which were within walking distance of my house and so a drive out to the lakes of the high Charente was a rather desperate attempt to see if anything was around in the wildfowl and wader line.

Predictably the answer was rather little but nevertheless these man-made habitats do give a glimpse of wetland species. The commonest birds are great crested grebes and cormorants with over sixty of each species dotted around the two largest lakes. La chasse is most certainly the cause of the paucity of wildfowl and waders but a stretch of Lac de Lavaud is protected and even has a bird hide at Foucherie. A pair of male teal were a delightful sight there but the only other ducks were a pair of rather distant wigeon. Half a dozen coots were bobbing about among the grebes.
I managed to find a small flock of wigeon and a single pochard on the other lake (Mas Chaban)  and by the side of a little stream which entered it, a common sandpiper was feeding. The only other waders were four lapwing in a nearby field.

Black Redstart and Yet More Cranes

An ornithological side show to today's huge gathering for national unity in Angoulème was the sight of a small skein of cranes flying above the Hôtel de Ville and a male black redstart flitting around the stonework of the facade of the cathedral (there was possibly a second one on the town hall itself but an absence of binoculars made identification uncertain). Although very common throughout a good deal of the year, black redstarts are difficult to find in the winter and presumably have moved further south.
A 20K cycle ride earlier on this warm and sunny day turned up another 32 species including a small flock of fieldfares and a few mistle thrushes.

January Cranes

As Cagouille pointed out in his recent comment, the cranes are still moving south and I saw one skein of 35 birds late this afternoon near La Poterie. It probably is no coincidence that 2014 was announced today as the warmest UK year on record. (But on looking back to last year's posts I see that cranes were moving reported as moving south in January 2014)
A few hawfinch were in the wood behind the chateau at La Rochefoucauld yesterday and a flock of fieldfare were near St Mary.
As for the 2015 list, I saw my first barn owl of the year on the way to Fontenille, and my first flock of greenfinches at Valence. I think that I have noted before that this last species is very localised and I have not seen one in my own garden for weeks.

Snipe and Hen Harrier

After a couple of wam and clear days things have turned more chilly and gloomy but a new year always provides the opportunity to start again with the recording of the local birds and there's a rather childish delight for me when I see/hear the first-for-the-year of each species.
Today I took a walk close to the Charente near Luxé. The damp meadows there provide a good habitat for some wetland species but they are sadly thin on the ground because of the chasse.
A single snipe, two reed buntings and a hen harrier were the highlights but there were small flocks of both water and meadow pipits. A few cormorants were flying around and a solitary black headed gull passed high overhead but the most beautiful bird was a grey wagtail whose lemon yellow plumage glowed in the dismal light.

New Year's Day 2015

2015 announced itself with clear skies, a heavy frosty morning followed by warm sunshine and not even a breeze, warm enough in fact to allow me to take my breakfast outdoors in shirt sleeves.

A walk around the garden turned up twenty species if I include the ones that I viewed from it as well as in it. The most interesting in the garden itself were a firecrest, two song thrushes and at least four robins. From a nearby wood came the loud drumming of a great spotted woodpecker.

The total number of species that I recorded on this first day, including redwings in the Son-Sonette valley, was a just-about-acceptable 34-- but then I didn't try very hard.

The VERY Last Cranes of 2014

This is an update to my last post as the cranes kept on  coming until the very end of the year with about 150 flying south over my house on the afternoon of Jan 31st.
This is return migration but not as we know it, Jim.