Over the last decade or so Charente has often delivered a few days of warmish, sunny weather during February. This year it's been mainly wet and cloudy until yesterday which gave us a welcome glimpse of blue skies and sunshine and so I popped down to the flooded Tardoire hoping to see the white storks which I came across on Thursday. Sadly they seemed to have moved on and the only birds on the temporary lakes were the lapwings and golden plovers.
On the previous day ten storks in gleaming fresh plumage had been standing together while presumably taking a breather during their migration northwards. The same flooded field held no fewer an fifteen grey herons.
I ventured further to see if the Bandiat floods had attracted any migrants. There were no storks there and only four herons but a male shoveler and a pair of pintails were a pleasant surprise. Pintails are probably the most elegant of ducks and I can't remember seeing them in Charente before.
Other birds of note on Thursday were a brambling near Agris and a black redstart together with two chiffchaffs in the little garden by Angouleme cathedral and I heard cranes flying over the house at about 9pm yesterday evening.
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