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.