Okey, dokey not exactly hot off the press but with a trip to the UK, Open University commitments and Christmas presents buy and parcel off to its been an unusually busy time ... oh and I got engaged too (more about this wonderful life event at a later date, when I've decided and consulted on how best to blogify!).
Maybe I've been a bit preoccupied but it seems to have been a fairly quiet month. In common with the rest of Western Europe its been unseaonably mild with winds mainly from the south and west - great for us warmth loving, sun craving humans but frankly rubbish for the usual mass movement of birds, they've simply not had anything to escape from!
Stand out highlights from earlier in the month and already reported here was of course the
Common Crane passage with my last Southbound flocks overhead on the 18th, and the 200 or so I saw on that day brought my own personal tally to almost 6000! There may have been others after this date but I was UK bound the same day so I'll never know. I've already devoted a whole post on these magnificent winged creatures (
Common Crane Migration ) but one can't get enough of the old grus grus so here's a couple more of my best pics of this years passage.
Staying with wetland birds, a trip out to Le Bren on the 11th brought about 50
Great White Egrets (pic right) in and around the various lakes I visited. Not sure about the migratory status of this bird, I suspect they disperse south and west after breeding but many breed around here and they are increasing as a species across France.
Equally good numbers of
Grey Heron (c70) and
Little Egret (c30) and it was good to see a couple of
Water Rails at the Etange de Sous - ungainly and often overlooked, its always a red letter day when you see one and I was lucky enough to get a reaonable photograph from the hide (pic left)
Plenty of the ducks around at Le Bren with decent numbers of
Teal, Shoveller, Gadwall and
Tufted Duck as well as the more common
Mallard. On to wading birds and those traditional winter wanderers
Golden Plover were present in small numbers at Le Bren (c60) along with good numbers of
Lapwing but generally a poor month for waders.
Better fare on the raptor front though with some good late
Red Kite passage on the 10th with 3 passing through the Rouflamme Valley single
Marsh Harrier at Le Bren on the 11th, a single
Marsh Harrier over Le Bren on the 11th, a
Peregrine Falcon at the Etange de Beavoir on the 14th and a general increase in the number of
Sparrowhawks and
Common Kestrels around Le Macherie whilst
Common Buzzards remain as prominent as ever with a high of 13 seen on the 12th in the Rouflamme Valley; and why restrict this to France, Baggins is after all a traveller by name ... I had a superb male
Merlin perched on a hedge whilst I was driving intrepidly across the Yorkshire Wolds on the 22nd - if i'd stopped the car to attempt a photograph it would have flown, so I just drooled and nearly drove into a ditch (that sort of thing is always nearly happening!)
Winter thrushes normally arrive in droves mid to late November, there again I'm normally in the UK so this all very interesting in a 'non thrush' sort of way. Plenty of
Blackbirds, in fact a very noticeable influx and a smattering of
Song and
Mistle Thrushes but what we're after is
Redwings and
Fieldfares .... seasonal foragers of late autumn fruit and berries. Sadly though, apart from one flock of 40
Redwings nr Moulismes on the last day of the month I had a total of 8 around here in November and not a single
Fieldfare! Obviously we're now into December and things have a got a little better, but not much ... .ah well, i'm such a bird nut that I even find their relative absence interesting! I'm sure there are more in the UK and it just goes to show what a great place for overwintering birds my native island is. Not my pics but these are handsome birds that should be adorning fields and hedgerows right now ... have you seen any?
If there were a god of birds (John James Audebon? Roger Tory Peterson? or maybe even Bill Oddie or Chris Packham?) what he doth takes he gives away, and
although I still think it was a quietish month in terms of winter arrivals there were still plenty of surprises in the locker - like the 70 or so
Crested Larks in local fields around here and the stunning
Water Pipit at La Gabriere on the 11th, whilst big flocks of
Sylarks, Meadow Pipits and
Cirl Buntings is becoming the norm once again as they mass together in search of food. Its great to be still seeing warblers around the village with a
Blackcap on the 14th and a
Chiff Chaff on the 28th.
A surprising bird to begin appearing in numbers has been the humble
Reed Bunting, another bird that is often overlooked but I think very handsome - this pic was actually taken this month when even more arrived.
Other things to report -
Firecrests are Europe's smallest bird and if you look closely and keep your ears peeled (something I find increasingly tricky!) you can see lots of these midget gems over here. Again, not my pic, really struggling to get a good a good shot (pic right) but aren't they little darlins?!
Jays seem to be absolutely everywhere, gathering nuts and making a racket in the woods. Less obvious and less in almost every way, the usually shy and retiring
Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers are a bit more obvious now the trees have shed their leaves. Never an easy bird to photograph and this one isn't very good as it was taken at distance back in the Summer (pic left) but this is many a fair weather birder's bogey bird!
Ok that's November done, might seem like a strange thing to say but we hope for a cold snap or two to bring in the birds in numbers! Already well into December and dont think we've had a frost over here yet!
I cant find any photos on the net that come close to the shots I had primed but these come close and this is what I wsas a memory card away from shooting!
Equally good numbers of Grey Heron (c70) and Little Egret (c30) and it was good to see a couple of Water Rails at the Etange de Sous - ungainly and often overlooked, its always a red letter day when you see one and I was lucky enough to get a reaonable photograph from the hide (pic left)
A surprising bird to begin appearing in numbers has been the humble Reed Bunting, another bird that is often overlooked but I think very handsome - this pic was actually taken this month when even more arrived.
No danger here .... this singing Tree Pipit was oblivious to my camera lense.
Red Kite in the Pyrenees ... awesome, no words I can add other than to repeat myself .... AWESOME!!
Not the best in terms of technical quality but I love this photo of a young fox who was happily feasting on a long dead coypu until I pointed a camera at him..... he's so defiant!
.Spring 2011 saw the emergence of 'Beyond the Gap' .... me on guitar, my sis Jane singing and in good time Mark will join us on 'le contre bass'. This is me n Jane busking somewhere in the Pyrenees back in Spring.
And as the whiff of Winter begins to blow and batter its way our way .... here's a few evocative pictures of Summer 2011
Makes me warm just looking at these last couple of pics!
The annual migration of Common Cranes from their breeding grounds in Northern Europe and Russia is a spectactular and symbolic event in these parts whether you're into birds or not. For me, newly installed in France, this has been the first time I've witnessed this mass movement and have to say it's been wonderful to see these mythical birds flying over in huge flocks as they head South to Spain, Portugal & Northern Africa. 
Montmorillon is steeped in medieval history with many historic sites includig the Octagon, an 11th Century funeral chapel built by Crusaders,the Chapelle St Laurent and St Chatherine's Crypt with its fine frescoes, and its 12th Century bridge, le Vieux-Pont. It's main claim to fame however is it's association with books with a whole quarter of the town given over to the glorification of the written word. This area of the town, penned Le Cite De'Ecrit, is a major tourist attraction with visitors flocking to browse the many antique book shops (there's even a typewriter museum!) and hosts a yearly international book fair every June. Remarkably this area of the town was a crumbling area of dereliction before 2000 and a major investment and restoration project created this atmospheric gem of a place.
Coypu. Common mammals in Le Brenne, this one swam right in front of ther hide.
Water Rail. Always tricky to photograph because they're so shy .. the only other one I got was by mistake - it turned up in the background of a shot of some waders at Blacktoft Sands in Yorkshire!
And to finish off one of several Great Egrets that stalk the lagoons in search of unlucky frogs .... this one looks like he's stepping over the ducks!
