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.