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.