But that’s the bad news, the good is that the birds don’t seem to be much troubled by such things except perhaps those who are trying to fledge and feed their young.
I came across one such when I risked a brief gap in the showers to visit the nearby plains. It was a skylark which appeared on the track in front of me and proceeded to run ahead with its right wing hanging down. Concerned, I tried to keep up with its pace while thinking I might have to rescue it. It took me a good three minutes and then the bird dying off to realise that it had been feigning the injury to lead me away from its nest.
Before I returned home I once again saw the blue headed wagtails which also seem to be nesting nearby and presumably the same whitethroats, corn buntings and linnets which I saw on the rape crop a couple of days back. Some of the latter seem to be paired up but there is also a flock of about 45 of them which hang around together. The most unexpected birds of my short trip, though, were a pair of rock sparrows which were feeding on the ground close to eolien number 7.
Other news is that my wait for a hoopoe sighting ended yesterday and I also had the pleasure of watching several swifts screaming through Saint Angeau, while last night I listened to the rather more melodious sound of a nightingale in my garden.
A wagtail on the rape
A grey partridge makes a change from the usual red-legged
