Later this week we are off to Ireland for a wedding (and perhaps a much needed holiday as we have been inundated with visitors this summer.) I've been making the most of the remaining days of August to check out signs of the return migration and it's been quite rewarding.
A few whinchats were moving through this week and I've seen several pied flycatchers in my garden and elsewhere. Also in the garden have been two bright willow warblers and several common and black redstarts.
I went further afield to the lakes of the high Charente today in an attempt to catch up on those migrants that need a stretch of water, a habitat that's in short supply closer to home, and watched eight marsh terns dipping in the lake at Chaban. Several of them were certainly black terns but others might have been whiskered; I hadn't taken my telescope with me and they never came closer than a hundred yards or so. I came across no waders other than common sandpiper but a good selection has been reported by Charente Nature mainly on the other lake at Lavaud. There were plenty of herons, a few cormorants and singles of little and great white egrets and great crested grebe.
The most interesting birds for me this week,though,were not migrants but some rather rare residents, tree sparrows. I came across at least three of them mixed in with several house sparrows and a few serins near La Rochette. These attractive birds are localised and possibly overlooked and the first I've seen in Charente for several years. Shortly before I saw them I had good views of a lesser spotted woodpecker, the second one for me this month.
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