Thursday 6 October 2016

Late Wheatears and Merlins

Summer has slid into autumn in a gentle,warm manner and the bird migration has been steady if not spectacular over the last week or two. After a hiatus of several days a few more wheatears turned up yesterday, five or six of them in fact. The first was in a ploughed field opposite my house but the others were scattered over familiar territory on the plains between Artenac and La Tâche. I've not seen any whinchats for several days though (but resident stonechats are very common). Other passerines were gathering on the plains too, most notably meadow pipits (about 70), skylarks and goldfinches. The tiny falcon, the merlin, usually moves in at this time of year to take advantage of this food supply and I've seen two individuals in the area.
Everywhere is of course far too dry for waders at the moment (one needs to visit the lakes of the Haute Charente for those) and there has no passage down here of note except for a few lapwing and golden plover.
Up to about a week ago swallows were still numerous and then they all seemed to disappear literally overnight... and then there were none for several days. The occasional straggler has in fact turned up since but the last one I saw was here at La Poterie three days ago.
Black redstarts and robins are very plentiful at the moment and many are singing, quite why they do so at this time of year is a bit of a mystery.
A few interesting non-migratory birds have recently shown themselves: a lesser spotted woodpecker at La Rochefoucauld, a marsh tit in the Braconne and a singing woodlark near Artenac. My hen harrier sightings have been limited to a couple of males and one female in the last week or so.