As I’m sure I’ve said in several previous posts, the arrival of wheatears always confirms (for me at least) that Spring has definitely arrived. This is most likely a hangover from my years on the Isle of Wight when the sight of these elegant birds pertly standing on the short turf of the downs was a much anticipated sight.
They don’t turn up in the same numbers her (and, rather strangely, do so later than 400 miles further north) but I was pleased to see a single male on the nearby plains on Saturday and then another one the following day. Also up there were several blue-headed wagtails, a couple of whinchats, a pair of cisticolas, a grey partridge and a black kite.
Around the garden the song of the golden oriole has now joined that of the cuckoo, the turtle dove and the nightingale....but the resident blackbird’s song is still the most beautiful.
Tuesday 28 April 2020
Friday 24 April 2020
More Migration
Birds are not exactly piling in but I’ve come across several new arrivals in the last couple of days. These include turtle doves which I heard purring yesterday and today, a golden oriole in my garden, several whitethroat near the wind turbines and a pair of whinchats perched high on the flowering rape in the same area. While I was watching the latter a quail began to call from the wheat behind me.
House martins have probably been around for a while but I didn’t see my first one until this morning when I went to Saint Angeau for bread. They nest at several locations in that village.
House martins have probably been around for a while but I didn’t see my first one until this morning when I went to Saint Angeau for bread. They nest at several locations in that village.
Wednesday 22 April 2020
Nightingales et al
Trying to get an idea of what’s happening in the bird world during the one hour that’s allowed for exercise outside the house is a bit like the ornithological version of speed dating...a quick look at what’s interesting and then move on. (I’ve never done speed dating so I can’t be sure about this).
Anyway, over the last couple of days I’ve ventured out and made some discoveries: I’ve heard several nightingales singing and also the chatter of a melodious warbler. I’m still on the lookout for my first wheatears of 2020 but in a likely habitat today I came across a pair of my first blue headed wagtails of this spring and close by was a squatting stone curlew.
A red kite was circling above the nearby wind turbines as I set out and while watching it I was alerted to the presence of a pair of hen harriers behind me by the surprising loud calls that the male was making as he did a tumbling courtship flight. This species is usually very silent....unlike the two tawny owls which I could hear from my house tonight.
In all, I managed to clock up nearly thirty species today showing that some birding is possible even during lockdown as long as you move fast enough.
Anyway, over the last couple of days I’ve ventured out and made some discoveries: I’ve heard several nightingales singing and also the chatter of a melodious warbler. I’m still on the lookout for my first wheatears of 2020 but in a likely habitat today I came across a pair of my first blue headed wagtails of this spring and close by was a squatting stone curlew.
A red kite was circling above the nearby wind turbines as I set out and while watching it I was alerted to the presence of a pair of hen harriers behind me by the surprising loud calls that the male was making as he did a tumbling courtship flight. This species is usually very silent....unlike the two tawny owls which I could hear from my house tonight.
In all, I managed to clock up nearly thirty species today showing that some birding is possible even during lockdown as long as you move fast enough.
Thursday 16 April 2020
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.
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.
Wednesday 15 April 2020
Mid April in the Garden
The lockdown goes on and is scheduled to continue for a long time. One consequence of this is that everything is generally quieter as there is less traffic and no planes in the sky....or con trails. Everything seems stiller so that we can hear the birds more, the loudest of which at least in my garden, are the squabbling house sparrows and the frequent song of a male chaffinch which ends with his cry of ‘pleased to see ya!’.
Each day I hear the beautiful song of the blackbird mainly during the dawn chorus and in the late afternoon but he delivers a few phrases at other intervals to defend his territory against nearby rivals. A pair of robins have already brought up a brood in the potting shed and the male’s delicate song and warning tics are to be heard throughout the day. Sadly, he lost his partner a few days back and had to work very hard to feed the nestlings on his own.
A serin and a firecrest are both singing from the garden’s trees and the crackling song of the black redstart is always in the background. One pair of these birds has been trying to build a nest on top of the apex beam inside the covered terrace but almost all of the material which they take up there falls down within a few minutes as the beam is too narrow. They seem not to realise this fact and have persisted with their enterprise for at least two weeks ...and continue to make a mess.
I hear a cuckoo, green woodpecker and a buzzard calling most days but the blue and great tits along with the goldfinch and greenfinch which flit through the garden remain generally quiet.
I am still awaiting the first hoopoe and nightingale but swallows are becoming more commonplace and some are now feed around the village rather than flying through.
Each day I hear the beautiful song of the blackbird mainly during the dawn chorus and in the late afternoon but he delivers a few phrases at other intervals to defend his territory against nearby rivals. A pair of robins have already brought up a brood in the potting shed and the male’s delicate song and warning tics are to be heard throughout the day. Sadly, he lost his partner a few days back and had to work very hard to feed the nestlings on his own.
A serin and a firecrest are both singing from the garden’s trees and the crackling song of the black redstart is always in the background. One pair of these birds has been trying to build a nest on top of the apex beam inside the covered terrace but almost all of the material which they take up there falls down within a few minutes as the beam is too narrow. They seem not to realise this fact and have persisted with their enterprise for at least two weeks ...and continue to make a mess.
I hear a cuckoo, green woodpecker and a buzzard calling most days but the blue and great tits along with the goldfinch and greenfinch which flit through the garden remain generally quiet.
I am still awaiting the first hoopoe and nightingale but swallows are becoming more commonplace and some are now feed around the village rather than flying through.
Monday 6 April 2020
Lockdown Birding Day 2....and Rock Sparrows
It’s not day two of the lockdown of course as that began some weeks back but this has been my second day of restricted birding since I managed to get back into France.
It’s been much cooler than yesterday with some welcome rain during the morning but the garden birds were much the same as yesterday with the addition of a firecrest and two goldfinches. The field opposite my house is planted with peas this year and a flock of around a hundred meadow pipits occasionally arose from the crop and then settled again.
Today I had to venture out in the car for some groceries and that took me further afield than my permitted one hour daily walk. In the course of the journey I came across a delightful group of ten rock sparrows feeding in a ploughed field, followed by two pairs of stone curlews a little further on. I was also able to add hen harrier and corn bunting to the lockdown count.
It’s been much cooler than yesterday with some welcome rain during the morning but the garden birds were much the same as yesterday with the addition of a firecrest and two goldfinches. The field opposite my house is planted with peas this year and a flock of around a hundred meadow pipits occasionally arose from the crop and then settled again.
Today I had to venture out in the car for some groceries and that took me further afield than my permitted one hour daily walk. In the course of the journey I came across a delightful group of ten rock sparrows feeding in a ploughed field, followed by two pairs of stone curlews a little further on. I was also able to add hen harrier and corn bunting to the lockdown count.
Sunday 5 April 2020
Back to the Blog
It’s with some guilt that I realise that I haven’t posted since last autumn but Covid 19 has made me realise the value of very local birding as I, along with everyone else in Charente, am now essentially restricted to observing birds within 1 km of my house.
So, partly because I have more time on my hands (despite all the garden and diy jobs that have suddenly turned up) and partly to provide some info for anyone who still reads this blog, I will try my hand at Birding Charente During Lockdown.
The garden’s a good place to start and I’ve spent some time walking around it since I hurriedly scrambled back from a trip to Texas just a few days back. The weather’s been warm and sunny and there are plenty of signs of bird activity including some migration and this resulted in a tally of 26 species in or from the garden this weekend.
I saw and heard my first cuckoo of the year on Saturday and three swallows flew northward over my head this afternoon. Blackcaps are singing and probably nesting in the garden while blackbirds, and black redstarts definitely are. A pair of the former sadly deserted a nest leaving four eggs behind but I think they have already relocated close by. A chaffinch has been singing very noisily all week and he and his partner are always busy on the lawn as is a robin. A serin, a cirl bunting and a mistle thrush joined the choir today and I’ve heard the sounds of green and great spotted woodpecker close by.
Other species that have put in appearances include dunnock, house sparrow, starling, blue and great tit, greenfinch, chiffchaff, woodpigeon (but strangely no collared dove) crow, jay, magpie and of course moorhen on the adjacent pond. Overhead, along with the swallows, have been buzzards but no other raptors as yet.
I’ve done a couple of the limited walks that are allowed from the house but they added only a few birds to the garden list viz. linnet, skylark, meadow pipit, long tailed tit and nuthatch.
Let’s see what the next few days bring.
So, partly because I have more time on my hands (despite all the garden and diy jobs that have suddenly turned up) and partly to provide some info for anyone who still reads this blog, I will try my hand at Birding Charente During Lockdown.
The garden’s a good place to start and I’ve spent some time walking around it since I hurriedly scrambled back from a trip to Texas just a few days back. The weather’s been warm and sunny and there are plenty of signs of bird activity including some migration and this resulted in a tally of 26 species in or from the garden this weekend.
I saw and heard my first cuckoo of the year on Saturday and three swallows flew northward over my head this afternoon. Blackcaps are singing and probably nesting in the garden while blackbirds, and black redstarts definitely are. A pair of the former sadly deserted a nest leaving four eggs behind but I think they have already relocated close by. A chaffinch has been singing very noisily all week and he and his partner are always busy on the lawn as is a robin. A serin, a cirl bunting and a mistle thrush joined the choir today and I’ve heard the sounds of green and great spotted woodpecker close by.
Other species that have put in appearances include dunnock, house sparrow, starling, blue and great tit, greenfinch, chiffchaff, woodpigeon (but strangely no collared dove) crow, jay, magpie and of course moorhen on the adjacent pond. Overhead, along with the swallows, have been buzzards but no other raptors as yet.
I’ve done a couple of the limited walks that are allowed from the house but they added only a few birds to the garden list viz. linnet, skylark, meadow pipit, long tailed tit and nuthatch.
Let’s see what the next few days bring.
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