Whinchats move through here each year on migration but, as with wheatears, they are mainly seen on the return journey in Autumn. Nevertheless, I was happy to come across a female perched on a barbed wire fence at Galvert today. What made it more interesting was that I came across here only because I was tracking a pair of zitting cisticolas (aka fan tailed warblers) who were busily engaged in a courtship display.
This species seems to becoming more common in this area. I have now seen several in the Tardoire and Bandiat valleys but this is the first sighting away from nearby water. They seem to be attracted to uncultivated areas of low vegetation and their distinctive zigzagging flight seems to match their equally distinctive zitting song.
Goldfinches are nesting in my grapevine, hoopoes are on the lawn, nightingales are now rivalling blackbirds as the commonest singers but I’m still waiting for my first swifts and orioles.
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