Sunday 27 January 2013

kingfisher and bird-feeders

With the weather now wet and mild, the local bird scene is a quiet one. Winter visitors are restricted to the occasional redwing (grive mauvis) and brambling (pinson du nord) including a male of the latter which is a regular visitor at my bird feeder. It's always fascinating to see which species are drawn to feeders and how they behave when they are there.
Mine is dominated by great tits (mésange charbonnière) which are usually present in double figures. They are aggressive towards each other but are surprisingly often dislodged by the smaller and inoffensive looking blue tits (mésange bleue). The two robins (rougegorge) which are frequent visitors are of course very intolerant of each other and seem to expend much of the energy they are getting from the food in stopping the other individual having a feed.
A few species forage underneath the hanging feeders, picking up the droppings from the more acrobatic tits. These include a few chaffinches (pinson des arbres), house sparrows (moineau domestique), the aforementioned brambling (pinson du nord) and a dunnock (accenteur mouchet) 
A wren (troglodyte mignon) occasionally flits around but I have seen nothing of greenfinches (verdier) or goldfinches (chardonneret élégant) this year nor of the more exotic hawfinch (grosbec) or nuthatch (sittelle torchepot) which have visited in the past.
Speaking of exotic, a kingfisher (martin pêcheur) flew by in all his halcyon splendour when I visited the Bonnieure yesterday. (In the days when La Poterie's pond was full of fish, I once had a kingfisher perched in the garden!) .
Like all the other local rivers, La Bonnieure is in flood at present and spreading over the surrounding fields. If they stay like this until the spring we shall be in for a treat of migrating waders and wildfowl.

Monday 21 January 2013

cold weather movements

A belated happy New Year to anyone who reads this blog. You might spot my resolution in how I have recorded what follows.
We are nearing the end of January and I'm only just getting round to my first post. I've been in Charente for only about a fortnight of 2013 as I had to take a 10 day trip to the UK so I've not had a great deal to report until recently.The recent cold snap has resulted in some interesting birding, however.

Yesterday I took a walk over the Lairiere plains, an area which has a little feel of the uplands with its wide open spaces and distant views. The snow cover intensified this effect but even moreso did the flocks of lapwings (vanneau huppé) and golden plovers (pluvier doré) which were moving southwards ahead of the cold weather.

Lapwings numbered several hundred including one sizeable flock which occasionally settled. But most of them simply drifted by in that silent, ghostly style which is very much in contrast to the purposeful dashing of the golden plover. They usually were in flocks of around 30 birds; some of them were calling as they flew by and one group alerted me to their imminent arrival above my head by the noise of their rushing wings.

A single flock of abot 50 fieldfare (grive litorne) was the only evidence of thrush movement although I have seen a few redwing (grive mauvis), song thrush (grive musicienne) and mistle thrush (grive draine) on other days.  Skylarks (alouette des champs) were about in vast numbers and a flock of over 20 woodlark (alouette lulu) made an appearance as did an individual bird at La Poterie as I was beginning my walk. The large finch flocks still seem to be almost entirely chaffinches (pinson des arbres) with just the occasional brambling. (pinson du nord)

I was enjoying watching a female hen harrier (busard saint-martin) gracefully making its way towards me when my attention was drawn to another large bird which revealed itself as a short eared owl, (hibou des marais) the first that I have seen hereabouts for a couple of years.
A group of cirl bunting (bruant zizi) in one f the few hedges that remain in this area was accompanied by a male reed bunting (bruant des roseaux) This species seems to wander away from its usually watery habitat during cold weather.

In all, 31 species put in an appearance and this included the local very pale buzzard (buse variable) which looks for all the world like a cross between a harrier and an osprey.