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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