Tree Pipits and Corn Bunting

With the lockdown restricting our scope for travelling around looking for birds, we have to rely more on birds coming to us. Yesterday, three tree pipits obligingly turned up in a tree outside my bedroom window, one of them seemed to be the child of the others as he kept opening his bill to be fed. This species is a summer migrant and this family obviously arrived early and have already had their first
brood.
The corn bunting is a common enough species on farmland throughout the summer but today is the first time I can recall having one singing in the garden..... perhaps he’d become tired of no one listening to his efforts elsewhere.

I cut my lawn today but despite its new fresh look, no hoopoe has yet come to grace it this spring.

I’ve been curious about the occupant of a nest which sits in one of the many recesses in the outbuilding’s sone wall. I have seen no bird approach it during the last week or so so I decided to investigate. As soon as I touched it, a loud buzzing and vibrating started up so I quickly withdrew especially when the appearance of several small bumble bees indicated that they had taken up residence. I’ll leave them to get on with their pollinating.

Some Charente folk are obviously finding ways to get further about than me as there are reports this week of ring ouzel, grasshopper warbler, spotted crake and pied flycatchers in the department. I’ll keep an eye out in my garden for the last of these, I’ve not much chance of the first three.