Sunday, 30 June 2019

Hobby, Quail and Dartford Warblers

It’s the end of June and an extremely hot week. The crops are coming in and stubble fields are beginning to appear. As always, I wonder how ground-nesting birds survive this devastation of their habitat but they seem to hang on in there.
There were plenty of skylarks on the plains today and a blue headed wagtail was carrying food for her young. She was doing this in a sunflower field but for the past few weeks I have seen at least two pairs of adults in an adjacent grain field where I assume they nested.
Another ground nesting migrant, the quail, was calling  within a few feet of me but typically refused to reveal itself. But a single stone curlew and a male hen harrier did put in appearances.
The hobby is a spectacular visitor and one provided another close encounter as I watched him chase a skylark.  He came at great speed and I could hear the beat of his wings as he passed me...but the lark escaped!
A highlight of this month was to see my first dartford warblers in Charente. They were in their favourite habitat, an extensive area of gorse, which I checked out near Soyaux . More than one singing male was present.

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