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.
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