Great White Egret

There have been some pleasant warm spells over the last few days but showers have helped the flooded fields to retain an attraction for a few early Spring migrants.
There is still not a great deal to report from my part of Charente but a great while egret and around a hundred black headed gulls were present in the Tardoire valley this week.
Because of the very wet winter and early Spring this is probably the best March for Charente birding for several years but unfortunately I am going to miss the next three weeks as I’m visiting my family in Texas.
Anybody who is reading this blog might wish to make their own comments about what is happening.

Flooded Fields

Showers seem to be the order of virtually everyday for the next week or more and this offers hope of sightings of waders and wildfowl in the fields which are still partly under water. The Tardoire revealed only 21 black headed gulls and about 100 lapwings today but there are reports from further west of redshanks, ringed plover and even little gull (which remarkably is not classed as a rarity in Charente).
Green woodpeckers seem to be calling everywhere and early evenings now feature the songs of several competing blackbirds.

Gulls

There’s not a great deal to report at present but the last couple of days of warm sunshine have been welcome and have raised expectations. We all know that spring migration doesn’t really get underway until later in March but there is always the chance that something might turn up. A brief visit to the Tardoire today revealed that most of the lapwings have moved on and there is not a single goldenplover remaining. The most interesting sight was of three black headed gulls floating in the middle of a flooded field, not a great deal to get excited about but indicating that some birds are moving.
I have visited the Bandiat river at Vielles Vaure but sadly the site has been degraded from a birding point of view because of scrub clearance. More of the flooded area has been revealed but migrating water birds have less concealment. Not surprisingly, nothing was there other than four mallards.
There have been reports of shoveler and garganey from other Charente sites and the blackbird’s song is brightening up the early evenings so we’ll see what the next few days bring (other than showers that is).

Golden Plovers

Although the flooded valleys are drying up they are still providing feeding sites for large numbers of lapwing and golden plover. The latter seem to be concentrated on the Tardoire between Fougère and Coulgens where several hundred have been feeding over the last week.
I missed out on the white storks which Cagouille reported and on the shelduck which were mentioned on the Charente Nature site but I did see a single snipe among the plovers.
Water and meadow pipits are also moving through at present along with lots of cranes. There were over 200 of the latter feeding next to the Tardoire near Fougère on Tuesday.
A pair of little owls were taking the opportunity to sunbathe at the top of the tower of Saint Colombe’s logis as I drove by this week. Several brambling were with a very large flock of chaffinches near La Rochette.
Siskins and nuthatches are still missing from my bird feeders this winter but a dunnock and a collared dove have recently joined the party. I can’t remember ever having a coal tit, it’s strange how localised   many species are.