Late May

It's been a pretty wet May with some storms and hail thrown in so the birding highlights have been rather intermittent but here's a brief round-up.
A reed warbler has been singing on the Son-sonette in the same patch of reeds as the last few years so there is probably a breeding pair. I have also heard Cetti's down there but have seen nothing of the black woodpecker since my last report.
The Fôret de Belaire has been reasonably productive with plenty of singing species including garden warbler, golden oriole, cuckoo, bullfinch, treecreeper, melodious warbler, Bonelli's warbler, nightjar and firecrest but there have been no wood warblers to date.
I have seen a pair of stonecurlew on the plains on several occasions but their regular field was being fertilised yesterday so they were absent.
Red backed shrikes have settled into several of the breeding sites in which I located them last year and black kites have appeared regularly but I've yet to come across honey buzzard, hobby or Montague's harrier (or quail for that matter).
A trip to the lakes of the high Charente turned up several common sandpipers and great crested grebes but I did not see any of the terns which have been reported there.
Nesting birds have been busy around the garden and house: kestrel, black redstart, blackbird, mistle thrush, firecrest, house sparrow, starling, wood pigeon, goldfinch, greenfinch, chaffinch, and tits though none of the latter have used the nest boxes. ( And curiously a pair of hares have been dashing around the lawn.)
The cherries are late ripening but the birds are stealing them already.