Waterside Birds

The figure of under 50 species by mid Jan which I mentioned in my previous post seemed rather paltry so I took a trip to the Touvre in order to up it slightly through the addition of a few birds which like a wet habitat. 
And so I quickly added eight to my total:

Mute swan
Coot
Little grebe
Gadwall
Kingfisher
Little egret
Great white egret
Cormorant

For those who don't know it, The Touvre is an interesting river; it makes a surprising emergence (the second largest in France)from its underground course during which it has collected waters from the Bandiat and the Tardoire and then flows to the Charente at Angouleme. Its steady water temperaure have made it useful to man over the centuries including for the National Foundry which takes advantage of its coolness for producing military grade metals.
The birds are best viewed from the banks at The Sources themselves or a little downstream at Merignac where there is a handy parking area near the bridge.

Grey wagtail and several chiffchaffs were also around during my visit but I'd seen both of these earlier in the month.

A bonus bird on the way back was a male hen harrier near Agris which pushed 2017's total to a slightly more respectable 58.

Slow January

There is still no sign of any winter influx of passerines which means that by mid January my species count for this year is still just short of 50. The finch flocks are made up of either chaffinch, goldfinch or linnet with few mixed ones; there is no sign of siskins and only occasional mistle or song thrushes supplement the many blackbirds.
An interesting absentee up to now is the firecrest. This species is usually easily found in any woodland in these parts but perhaps its tiny size is not coping well with the chilly conditions.
In the garden the sunflower seeds and fat balls which I put out are being devoured at a fast rate but almost entirely by blue and great tits, house sparrows and the common finches. A great spotted woodpecker comes reasonably regularly, though, and a robin, dunnock and several moorhen are usually foraging on the what falls from the feeders. I've taken to hanging some of the fatballs in the window recesses and this gives delightfully close views of the tits which soon found then.
It's a common species, I know, but the sight of a tight flock of about a thousand woodpigeon was an impressive one yesterday. They were were heading southwest at the height of a few hundred feet.

Bullfinches

For those who are not aware, the weather over the last week or so has turned rather cold but usually with blue skies and this has sometimes forced a change of mind about setting out on a bike. So today I took off in the car to the Braconne Forest and had a pleasant wander around on foot.
I've mentioned in previous posts that I am always stunned by the tropical brilliance of the male bullfinch so it warmed me up today to get good views of one together with his more subdued looking partner. A pair of hawfinches were in the same location and a marsh tit was not too far away. in fact the forest was yielding far more birds than usual; admittedly most of them were great and blue tits but nuthatches were plentiful and I came across one short toed treecreeper and three cranes still moving south overhead.
That little group brought this year's tally to a non too remarkable 40 or so species. Earlier in the week I watched a flock of about 350 golden plover settling on the plains near Lairiere but  even more interesting was a flock of 9 lesser black gulls which were following a plough. The freshly turned earth also attracted 9 herons and almost as many buzzards.