Today's birding deserves this second post. The cuckoo (coucous gris) which I mentioned earlier flew over the house as I set off on my bike but that was after I flushed my first hoopoe (huppe fasciée) of the year from the field opposite my gate. Other cuckoos were calling around the Lairiere plains but at first I could find no signs of any stone curlews (oedicneme criard) as I cycled around the huge craters that are soon to house the turbines. Quite apart from this building disturbance, the farming regime this year doesn't seem too conducive to their nesting as most of the land is already greened up with winter wheat. However, a scan of one of the few bare earth fields that remain produced a pair of these fascinating migrants. One of them flew off and landed in a wheat field while the other remained and called plaintively. Let's hope they stick around in the face of adversity.While cycling back to La Poterie I came across several corn buntings (bruant proyer) singing and then my first swallow (hirondelle rustique)of the year appeared at Puyclavaud.
Not satisfied with the morning's haul, I took a drive out to the Bandiat but drew a blank except for one swallow and then went on to the Braconne forest. Towards the southern end of it and in what must be its highest part I explored an area of very tall trees which looked promising for the elusive black woodpecker (pic noir). I was delighted when after about twenty minutes one flew across and landed on a nearby trunk. For some five minutes I was able to admire his red crown and his large ivory bill and then, making a call which was a cross between that of a green woodpecker and a monkey, he flew off with a deeply undulating flight towards the sound of another black woodpecker in the distance.
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