Monday 11 October 2010

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.