apres le grand feu

I've been back in France for a few weeks now but I'm based in La Tache at the moment. The house at La Poterie won't be re-built for some time yet.

Despite the devastation, bird life goes on and the kestrels which nested on the gable of the house last year have already returned, The cranes have started their migration and some flocks have passed over in the last few days. The recent warm weather has caused a number of birds to burst into song including, blackbird, song thrush and woodlark but it's still a bit early for other Spring migrants to appear.

I've sent the last few days around Fontenille and corn buntings have been common with flocks of up to 20. I've also seen a couple of yellow hammers there and a cettis warbler has been calling from the wet meadows. My first lesser spotted woodpecker of the year showed himself well as he drummed noisily in the sunshine.

On a negative note, chiffchaffs seem to have disappeared since the cold snap earlier in the year.

I'll be back in the UK for the next couple of weeks but I expect that a few spring migrants may have turned up by the time I return.

I'm stuck on a snow-bound Isle of Wight at the moment but I gather that Charente has had some snow as well.

Stella has been keeping an eye on the Charente birds and she tells me that hundreds of cranes have passed over in the last few days, all moving ahead of the cold weather by the sound of it. Similarly, Irv reports flocks of lapwings near Cognac. Weather permitting, I should catch up with things after the weekend.

When back in the UK it's always interesting to note the differences from Charente in both the bird life and in the culture as it relates to birds. I cleared the snow off the bird table this morning and put out some bread and the remains of a cooked chicken carcase. The food was shifted in a minute by a flock of mainly black headed and herring gulls with some rooks and jackdaws. I don't seem to get any of these on my bird feeders in Charente. (though there were flocks of both jackdaws and rooks around La Poterie in mid November)

As for the culture, it's great to see lapwings, golden plover and curlews feeding in the fields unmolested by hunters and a walk to the River Yar reveals teal, wigeon and black-tailed godwits feeding within a few yards of the footpath. On the other hand, pheasants wander around everywhere simply because so many of them are bred and released for the English 'hunters' to shoot.

mid november

Friends from the UK were with us last week but we managed to dodge most of the showers again and get in a few walks around La Poterie.
Hawfinches were showing particularly well and a few brambling were mixed in with the chaffinch flocks. We came across several flurries of redwing and just one flock of about 30 fieldfare.
A group of half a dozen cranes was perhaps the tail end of the migration but there were one or two false alarms with small flights of cormorants that passed over.
Firecrests were not showing at all but goldcrests were surprisingly common. Skylarks were numerous especially on the plains but only one small group of woodlark revealed itself near the Bonnieure.
The woods held plenty of tit flocks; long tailed were particularly common but there was a single marsh tit in a large bird wave that also contained short toed treecreeper and nuthatch.
There was no sign of any lapwings but Irv and sandy reported large flocks of them north of the Loire so perhaps the colder weather will bring them down.
Hen harriers were very sparse

cranes

The showery weather relented by late afternoon and a long single skein of over a hundred cranes seemed to be taking advantage of the situation and passed over the house at about 4pm on November 10.
As usual, I was alerted to their presence by their call. They were flying quite high and had they remained silent they would probably have gone undetected. Some of the higher crane migration may possibly pass by un-noticed.

Bramblings--what bramblings?

The brambling flocks that were around just a few days ago seem to have moved on. In fact there are few finches around except for chaffinches. It's been raining most days for the last week and today was no exception. I managed an hour or so between showers this afternoon and struggled to find just over 20 species--not even a starling ! The liveliest things around were perhaps the two small flocks of long-tailed tits which I came across.

Back in Charente---again!

Another two week absence, this time to Germany, Poland and Italy, has meant that Charente birding has passd me by. We've returned to quite mild weather but with light rain. My gauge tells me that there has been over 25cm while we have been away. This is much appreciated by the mallards who now find that they can swim around in the pond and eat a bitof duckweed. Nine of the original twelve ducklings have survived and they are now almost the size of the adults.
I've heard nothing about the crane migration except for a report of a skein going over Lairiere on Sunday.
Three grey wagtails were at La Poterie pond on Sunday, tawny owls are calling at night including from in the garden; a flock of bramblings visited the garden today, the first this winter . About 40 skylarks were in the field opposite the house this afternon along with a few woodlark. The latter have been singing occasionallyover the last couple of days.

cranes et al

This is my first blog for a while simply because I've hardly been in Charente during the last three weeks.

Last week was spent staying in a villa on the banks of the Gironde near Blaye. There was little in the way of waders and wildfowl despite the habitat and this was probably the result of the intensive hunting in this area. The 'traditional' method seems to be to hide in large camouflaged shelters called tonnes, lure the birds down with decoys and then blast them. Doesn't sound very sporting!

What was impressive, though, (besides the hot weather) was the constant stream of migrating swallows and finches which were following the eastern bank southwards. Each day they hurled over the garden at tree-top height like so many meteorite showers and at the rate of perhaps a hundred a minute. This is the first time that I have seen finches migrating in this way. They were mainly chaffinch, goldfinch and linnet but I have no idea how far south they were heading.

They are protected species of course and thankfully seemed to be completely ignored by the chasseurs.

Other birds of interest included:

Several red kites passing southward towards the end of the week; a merlin and a sparrowhawk hunting those passerines which chose to settle in the fields. At least one whiskered tern which was feeding on one of the many ponds in this area and a purple heron standing by a roadside ditch. Grey herons, little and cattle egret and kingfishers were plentiful as were cettis warblers.

A new species for the year for me was stock dove. Two small flocks were migrating south and were a legal target for the hunters. I hope they made it through.

Since arriving home, the weather has remained warm with very little rain and the village pond is still dry. I've placed a bath full of water in there and managed to barricade the commune's ducks and ducklings in as they have killed all but two of my goldfish while bathing in the small fish pool!

A noisy flock of 35 cranes flew over the house this afternoon, the first of the return migration that I have seen. Woodlarks are singing and a few wheatears are still passing through.