Marsh Harrier and Martins

Spring migration is gaining pace although in a rather stuttering fashion. For instance, Monday was a good day at The Bandiat with house martins and a few sand martins joining the many swallows yet none of these species were present there yesterday. Nevertheless, everyday brings something of interest.

A marsh harrier was an unexpected bonus at The Bandiat on Monday and the place was full of chiffchaffs. Among the manny migrating white wagtails was my first yellow wagtail of the year and also a couple of black redstarts. The only wader there though was a green sandpiper.

A few blackcaps have now appeared and there were three black redstarts around the house yesterday.
The Tardoire at Fougere is rather quiet with nothing to report yesterday except for about six hundred lapwings. The gulls seem to have moved on.

The garden birds are still devouring the sunflower seeds and brambling, siskin and hawfinch continue to attend.

Today is another sunny one with a slight frosty start so let's see what turns up.

Osprey

A decision to have a look around the Charente valley near Luxé turned up trumps when a migrating osprey met my arrival. It spent around fifteen minutes gliding and hovering over the river close to he new railway line before it drifted upstream, never making an attempt to drop down for a fish but frequently extending its legs.

On the flooded overspill the only wader around was a green sandpiper but while I was watching it a kingfisher flew across. Water pipits were flitting about in numbers while chiffchaffs were in every bush and also feeding on the ground. The only other passerine migrants were three swallows and a singing blackcap.As I returned to the car a black kite passed overhead making me think that the Charente's valley like so many others acts as a flight path for migrating birds.

As planned yesterday, I visited the Tardoire but saw no sociable plover among the hundreds of lapwings. One great white egret was feeding with a dozen grey herons but little else was there of note except a single redshank and five shovelers.

The big bright hawfinch was again at the garden feeders and a few brambling and siskins accompanied the commoner finches.

Swallows and Black Kites

After the sunshine of Saturday it was a cool and damp start to Sunday so I took the car rather than the bike to see if anything had turned up at The Bandiat. There was only a male shoveler on the rapidly shrinking lake but over fifty swallows were chasing insects and sometimes settling in the trees. Chiffchaffs were plentiful.

I met a french birdwatcher there (an extremely rare event in Charente) who told me that a sociable plover had been seen at Fougère. This even rarer event is one that I need to investigate tomorrow. I had in fact been there earlier and seen nothing more than lapwings, shovelers, a great white egret and half a dozen golden plovers..... but you never know.

A drive over the Lairiere plains turned up my first black kite of the year and his presence upset a female hen harrier which tried to see him off. It was surprising to see how small she looked in comparison. I saw a second black kite in the afternoon near the lakes of high Charente.

On the sunny Saturday which I mentioned there were a couple of snipe at Fougère and two great white egrets, while at my feeders the brambling count had risen to five.

Mid March Update

Two consecutive sunny days and Migration has intensified a little but there has been no big influx of waders or wildfowl yet. At Fougére the shoveler numbers continue to vary with up to five males and three females and there are still between 500 and 1000 lapwings but the golden plovers seem to have moved on. No other waders were present over the last few days. Yesterday 36 cranes were resting/feeding in the flooded field there and another 50 circling above Saint Angeau had possible recently left the site. Black headed gulls still number over 50.

At The Bandiat there were also a couple of shovelers and a great white egret was flying overhead. The only wader present was a green sandpiper, the first of this migratory species to turn up this year.

I heard several blackcaps singing as I cycled homeward.

The garden feeders continue to be interesting as no fewer than six species of finch were together there yesterday, chaffinch, goldfinch, greenfinch, hawfinch(1), siskin (3), and brambling (3). Also present in the garden were firecrest, chiffchaff, blackbird, song thrush, blue tit, great tit, house sparrow, starling, kestrel and moorhen. The sparrows and starlings are busy collecting nesting material.

Meadow pipits and white wagtails are still common migrants in the fields and many buzzards are pairing up and soaring,

BIG Hawfinch

For a few moments when I looked out onto one of the bird feeders this morning I thought that a green woodpecker was hanging there but then I realised that I was watching quite the largest male hawfinch that I have ever come across. In fact his brilliant Spring plumage as well as his proportions brought to mind some of the parakeets that I saw in Sri Lanka a few weeks ago! Anyway, he was big.
Speaking of the garden, I had fleeting views of a black redstart yesterday, most likely a returning bird looking for his traditional nesting sites in one of the walls. The kestrels meanwhile have again taken up residence on the gable end.
The flooded fields continue to recede and the plovers numbers are declining although lapwings still are present in their hundreds. No waders have turned up for a while but other shovelers have arrived; there were five males and just one female at Fougère yesterday and six males and two females today. Gull numbers have dwindled to about seventy and at one point they all took to the air along with the plovers as a male hen harrier passed over.
Stonechats and corn buntings have joined in the birdsong and I heard a white wagtail singing (as opposed to calling) earlier this week.

Shovelers,Teal and Cranes

Today was sunny and warm in the sunshine (20C) but with a quite chilly easterly. In the endless springtime quest for early migrants I took myself off once again to the flooded Tardoir. The waders there were still restricted to lapwings and golden plovers which was a little disappointing but I was cheered by the sight of a group of eight ducks sailing on the water. They consisted of four brightly plumaged male shovelers with two dowdy females and a pair of teal. The two groups eventually separated before the shovelers flew off northwards with very noisy wingbeats as they passed over my head. The teal drifted downstream to mix in with a flock of about 170 black-headed gulls. The only other birds in the muddy fields which now resemble tidal mudflats were six grey herons and small groups of white wagtails.
Cranes are still moving; about 300 went over the house yesterday evening and smaller groups passed today. One of my French neighbours tells me he saw about fifty white storks near Coulgens last week.
Stella suggested that I repair one of the nest boxes today so I obligingly took it down but was then followed by a noisy blue tit who was apparently already taking up occupation and rather irate that I was walking off with its house. I quickly nailed it back on the tree trunk and its owner moved back in.

Goshawk

Despite their size goshawks are extremely difficult to find although the literature tells us that they are not particularly uncommon. Their elusiveness is almost certainly because they usually inhabit dense woodland and I last came across a pair of them deep in Le Forêt de Belaire a few seasons back. This week it was in the Braconne Forest that I saw one soaring above the canopy. Compared to the many similar sized buzzards which are soaring in a similar way at the moment, goshawks have much longer, narrower tails and this was the main distinguishing feature of this individual which didn't show itself for long.
The flooded fields are still full of lapwings, golden plovers and grey herons but very little else which is a bit surprising. The most interesting birds this week have been a few reed buntings near the Bandiat together with a couple of late bramblings, a pair of short-toed treecreepers in the Braconne and of course the resident garden firecrest.

Black Woodpecker et al

It's that time of the year when opportunities arrive to come across birds which would have been less likely only a week or two ago. Sunday was a sunny day and I had a look around the Braconne Forest as it was not a hunting day there. A black woodpecker was calling at Le Gros Fayant which seems to be their favoured area. It was too deep in the forest to locate though and I settled for watching several obliging hawfinches.
The flooded fields are producing a few migrating birds and there was a little ringed plover together with the second redshank of the spring at Fougère today. There were still plenty of lapwing and golden plover there also and some of the latter were in summer plumage. Black-headed gulls numbered twenty four.
The first serins of the spring turned up at my garden feeders yesterday, such tiny birds alongside the other finches, while a little taste of winter lingered with a solitary redwing sitting motionless in a tree  near Saint Colombe.
Today was sunny enough to mow the lawn and I witnessed the lucky survival of the regular lesser spotted woodpecker when it was chased by a sparrowhawk at the bird feeders; it twisted impressively in its escape flight to avoid its pursuer.
Rain is forecast for tomorrow so probably not too much birding, but there will be a topping up of the temporary wetlands for future days.

Redshank and Owls

My did it rain today! or at least around lunchtime as I drove back from  Angouleme. But at least the water has replenished the flooded fields which have partly begun to dry out. The farmers might not be too happy about it but some early migrating birds are taking advantage. A single redshank was paddling around near Fougère today sharing the floods with hundreds of lapwings, about sixty golden plovers and just short of a hundred black-headed gulls.
Away from the floods, a corn bunting gave a showing near Lairière and as I passed through Artenac a little owl watched me pass from his usual lookout. The tawny owl which was calling loudly near the house this evening did so under a sky that was completely clear of cloud and brightly starlit at 11pm.

I forgot to mention in a post earlier this week that a flock of about a hundred stock doves were in a field near the Tardoire

Chiffchaff Arrivals

Fontenille, as its name suggests, is quite a watery place with its springs and three lavoirs . La Lavoire Basse in particular is a good spot to look out for passerines at any time of year and yesterday its hedges and bushes were busy with feeding chiffchaffs. This rather nondescript warbler overwinters with us in small numbers but it is primarily a summer migrant and the twenty to thirty individuals that were down there were surely recent arrivals. Several of them were singing as was a blackcap (the first I've heard this year); he could have been a migrant also but was more likely an individual who has spent the winter in this sheltered spot.
Other interesting birds there were several reed buntings, a female hawfinch and a Cetti's warbler which was calling from a little further downstream.
Cowslips and celandine were in flower helping to give the place a Spring-like feel.