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.
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