Monday 25 May 2015

Red backed Shrikes et al

We are into the last week in May and the weather is behaving pretty well with hot sunny spells between the cloudy bits ; it was over 30C if you ventured out of the shade yesterday but there has been a cool breeze from the north for the last few days.

I took a ride to the Braconne today and was pleased to find that two pairs of shrikes were back in last summer's locations, it's remarkable that individuals fly from Africa to find their way back to the same little strip of hedge. I've not yet managed to locate the regular pair at the bio farm yet though..
In the forest itself several Bonelli's were trilling away and I stopped to watch one in an oak tree for some minutes. At the same spot a tree pipit was singing from the very top of a conifer and a marsh tit made a brief appearance.

Yesterday a red kite crossed the sky above the house and at the start of the week a short toed eagle did the same but at a much greater altitude.

The stone curlews are still up on the plains despite all the recent hay making.

Tuesday 19 May 2015

Today's 26 Garden Birds

Today I spent rather more time than usual observing the birds that were in and around my garden and the results were quite interesting.
Perhaps the most interesting and certainly the most colourful were a male common redstart and a great spotted woodpecker, the latter feeding acrobatically on the fat balls.
Not far behind in their brightness were the male black redstart (whose partner has only just finished incubating the eggs in her garage nest) and the goldfinches and male chaffinches.
 Greenfinches were very busy but the usually noisy serins which are nesting in one of the trees were rather retiring compared to yesterday. Two chunky hawfinches made a brief appearance as they flew from the top of the tallest oak to disappear over the fields.
The substantial colony of house sparrows which breed on the house itself divided their time between feeding, collecting even more nesting material and some energetic courtship.
The blackbirds were collecting food for their young as were the starlings which also nest in the walls.
Only one of the the two nest boxes is occupied and the great tits which are using it were back and forward with insects for their family. Blue tits were common of course but I don't know where they are nesting this year.
A robin and a cirl bunting played only brief parts in the drama but blackcaps, although furtive, were always present.
I purposely did not go searching for those species which revealed themselves only through their song and settled for merely listening to nightingale, chiffchaff,  cuckoo, song thrush, turtle and collared dove, golden oriole and wood pigeon.
I saw no raptors today, not even the nesting kestrels, and the only fly-overs were the numerous swallows and the occasional crow and magpie.
The pond which adjoins my garden held its usual moorhens but the mallard don't really count as I put them there.
And worthy of note was a mistle thrush which I disturbed  as I opened my gates this morning.
I reckon that makes 25 or so species which is a respectable tally for no outlay of physical effort.

Saturday 16 May 2015

Shrike

I think that I've waxed lyrical before about the beauty of the male red backed shrike and so it was a delight to see my first of this Spring sitting on top of a hedge near Goise today.

Shortly before this I came across my first reed warblers in the usual small reed patch on the Son-Sonette. Two birds were singing there although neither showed itself.

I came across a pair of stone curlew in a different location yesterday; they were in a field of emerging maize not far from Le Chatenet. The bike ride that took me there also turned up a Cetti's warbler on the Bonnieure and a singing yellowhammer.

Swifts are flying around  the church at Saint Front and there are a remarkable number of house martins in Saint Angeau.

We had the curious experience yesterday evening of an unidentified large bat flying around inside the house. It was perhaps three times the size of a pipistrelle and how it got indoors is a bit of a mystery. I eventually allowed it to make its escape by opening a bedroom window.

Monday 11 May 2015

Late Wheatear and Five Raptors

I've  just noticed that my last post was numbered 333, half the number of the beast according to Revelation! --- so I'd better move on quickly.

I managed an early morning ride over the plains this morning before I resumed my wrestling with the garden. A single female wheatear was an unexpected sight so late in the Spring; she remained
completely stationary in a ploughed field throughout the five minutes or so that I watched her before I moved on to view an equally statuesque stone curlew in an adjacent field.

Four black kites were taking advantage of a recently mowed hay field to prospect for their breakfast and a male hen harrier made his familiar slow and stately progress in a different area for the same purpose. Our usual commonest raptors, buzzard and kestrel were strangely absent until later in the ride and not until I'd clocked a female sparrowhawk which was hunting near the bio farm.

Cacophony is not really an appropriate term for the throbbing notes of nightingales but so many were singing this morning, and often in close proximity to each other, that it was difficult at times to pick up other calls. Nevertheless, ' a slow and stopping' ( as Philip Larkin would have termed it) two hour ride around the plains turned up forty three species including tree pipit but still no sign of any shrikes.



Back From Iberia

The two week gap since my last post is the result of a drive down to Portugal and Spain.  The trip was not primarily a birding one but I took my bins nevertheless and had the pleasure of such delights as bee eater, wryneck, southern grey shrike, crag martin, spotless starling, calandra lark, griffon vulture, short toed eagle and iberian chiffchaff.

Anyway that's not much to do with Charente birds and I'm back here now. Since I've been away there has been a lot of rain and it's taken a good two days to get the garden back in order but while doing so  I listened to the sound of my first turtle doves of 2015 (there were none in Spain or Portugal).

 The black redstarts are nesting in my garage again and the kestrels are doing the same on the gable end. Starlings and house sparrows are occupying other parts of the building.  Serins, goldfinches, blackcaps, blackbirds and probably firecrest are nesting in the garden.

A break from gardening this morning took me over the plains on my bike where I came across a pair of stone curlews near the eoliens and later a third, probably different individual.

Melodious warblers were singing in several locations as were nightingales, whitethroats, cuckoos, orioles and a single tree pipit. Corn buntings were common but I saw no harriers or shrikes during the couple of hours that I was out and about.

The forecast is for very warm weather for the next few days so any birding will need to be done very early.