Spent a week back in the UK (12th - 20th) so this is an extended report covering more than the usual week (one day I'll get into the swing of publishling weekly reports every week!)
I've had a comment from a birder asking why I don't report my sightings using the usually accepted taxonomic format listing bird families from
Divers / Pelicans through to
Finches - good point, and since it makes it easier for me simply flick through my field guide which of course uses this system, here goes ....
Surprise surprise ... NO pelicans! Plenty of other goodies though and as Autumn takes a firm grip here there have been new birds arriving and others that have moved on.
Ok, according to said order we need to consider yon herons, storks & grebes. Totaly unsure about the wintering habits of
Great White Egrets but 34 of these magnificent birds were on the Etang de Beavoir on the 26th along with 17
Grey Herons. The odd one of the former have ben turning up along the river too and on the 29th I had 20
Common Cranes flying south (
pic right) in the Rouflamme valley which I hope is a sign of further Stork / Crane passage. 22
Great Crested Grebes on the Etang de Beavoir is my highest record for this location.
Next in the hallowed order of all things feathered we come to
Wildfowl (how interesting is this non birders?)... well, not very for me either with just a few extra
Mallard aboutr and 10
Pochard on a local resevoir (simply must get to the coast soon!). 8
Mute Swans overhead on the 11th were probably just local wanderers.
Better fare with raptors & owls with a
Merlin and male
Hen Harrier both at Etang de Bouvoir on the 26th and a further male
Hen Harrier in local fields yesterday (28th).
Buzzards remain as visible as ever with 10 or so in my immediate locale - always good to photograph, the pics below are all of the same bird and although they're commonly mobbed by crows it was a lucky shot to get this harassed individual calling (in irritation prsumably!)
Common Kestrels seem a tad more abundant then usual with almost daily sightings of 1 or 2 in local fields and several
Sparrowhawks are about in the Rouflamme valley.
No wading birds of note here in the past couple of weeks but a flock of about 120
Golden Plover & 150
Lapwing somewhere along the A59 nr York (UK) was a reassuring reminder that 'big plover' flocks are still patrolling the skies in that neck of the woods.
For the sake of brevity I'm skipping
gulls, auks & pheasants, escept to mention a couple of
Common Gulls in ploughed fields en route back through Northern France - apart from
Black Headed Gulls on resevoirs any other species of gull around here is a find!
Pigeons. Love 'em, race 'em or shoot 'em (definitely the French preference!), they fly like masters of the sky and personally I'm quite liking seeing big flocks of
Wood Pigeons rising out of nowhere and filling the sky - so much so I snapped a few doing just that today, not a great photograph but it gives some idea of the how they fill the sky
(
pic left)
Still not seen a single
Stock Dove over here though!
Ok, on to that middle group of birds including
Swifts, Kingfishers, Hoopoes, Rollers & Bee-eaters - apart from regular
Kingfisher on the river, unsurprisingly there's zilcho to report.
Woodpeckers next and of course there have been many
Great Spotted &
Greens about but I was also fortunate to bag another
Black Woodpecker flying over the village (counts for the garden list!) on my way back from emptying the bins - looked so prehistoric and wished I'd had a camera!
Next in line - and maybe at this point you'd be interested to know that the further we go along the bird families, the more intelligence said bods are said to possess... I sense you're now rivetted, so, where were we - yes, next in line come
Larks & Pipits and call me abnormal but I HAVE BEEN RIVETTED by some spectacular flocks of
Skylarks and
Meadow Pipits flying south over the village with 150 +
Skylarks over in an hr on the 26th and about 200 south today. Smaller flocks of
Meadow Pipits are a daily occurence at present and there has been another influx of
Woodlarks with flocks of up to 20 not uncommon on higher ground.
No further
Swallows but a late
House Martin south over the barn on the 11th is my last to date.
Accentors are next and I mention these only to tease ... an
Alpine Accentor is damn fine bird but unless your garden bird table is situated in Southern Europe and at an altitude of over 2,000 meters then you're just not going to see one, but it has a closely related and far more widespread cousin - the
Dunnock or
Hedge Sparrrow, they're another bird that tends to move south in Winter and many more around the woods here. Likewise
Robins and after last month's influx numbers have stabilised with maybe 20 - 30 a reasonable number on any given walk.
Right, we're into the
'Chats & Thrushes' and here's a thing ...
Stonechats, common as you like, perched on just about every other telegraph wire through the Spring & Summer seem to have disappeared from around here. Saw 1 today but apart from that - where have they gone? Maybe it's a Westward migration to the coast, I know not. Less mystifying has been the expected influx of
Song &
Mistle Thrushes, Blackbirds and in smaller numbers
Redwings. No
Fieldfares here as yet but did have 35 over south in Sherwood Forest on the 16th along with 15
Redwings. Acompletely random extra sighting on that day was a bollock naked man walking along a forest track (oo er missus!)... not photographed or dwelled upon!
On to the 'wee birds' or 'little brown jobs' as they're often somewhat unfairly labelled by fairweather birdwatchers. Warblers have all but flown on to more insect laden lands but a few persist and 2
Chiff Chaff on the 25th in the Rouflamme Valley may be my last aprt from the odd over wintering individual. Also had a male
Blackcap in the garden on the 21st and although I suspect they over winter a
Cetti's Warbler at the Etang de Beauvoir on the 26th. The 'weeist' of the 'wee' -
Firecrests have noticeably increased in number around here with small gatherings of up to 10 locally. Also on the increase are
Great, Blue and
Long Tailed Tits along suitable hedgerows and green lanes with the occassional
Marsh Tit in there for good measure.
Nuthatches are as abundant as ever and there seems to be increasing numbers of
Treecreepers in the woods flying from trunk to trunk and generally being as unphotographical as ever!
Getting to the truly advanced species now with
Rooks, Carrion Crows &
Jackdaws gathering in ever increasing flocks; and along with the ever present, acorn gathering
Jays, their evening fly overs in the dimming Autumn afternoon are to me symbolic of the changing seasons.
Last but not least, and therefore presumably the most advanced of birds, we have
Finches & Buntings.
Last Spring I witnessed many
Chaffinches flying North, literally hundreds of them and more than I had ever seen in the UK on migration and although not in such huge numbers I'm seeing them again fling in the opposite direction. Not sure where they spend the Winter, some will stay here of course but hey there must be a lot of Chaffinches in world! Few other finches in there too -
Greenfinch, the occassional
Linnet, Goldfinch and
Siskin and a good highligh was 4
Hawfinches south on the 27th through the Rouflamme Valley.
Cirl Buntings are as common as ever and have been joined by ever increasing numbers of
Yellowhammers (not a common bird in France) with 6 seen on the 11th. About 15 roosting
Reed Buntings at Etang de Beavoir were believe or not my first for France and I suspect they over winter here.
Ok thats it folks, been a quietish couple of weeks here, almost 'in between' seasons. Pretty sure there will be more
Cranes and hopefully some
Geese flying over soon and that the hedges will be full of
Fieldfares,
Redwings and I wonder if
Waxwings will grace us with their presence in numbers this year?
I leave you with a few images of Autumn around here
Stay tuned to the skies folks!
Ok, according to said order we need to consider yon herons, storks & grebes. Totaly unsure about the wintering habits of Great White Egrets but 34 of these magnificent birds were on the Etang de Beavoir on the 26th along with 17 Grey Herons. The odd one of the former have ben turning up along the river too and on the 29th I had 20 Common Cranes flying south (pic right) in the Rouflamme valley which I hope is a sign of further Stork / Crane passage. 22 Great Crested Grebes on the Etang de Beavoir is my highest record for this location.
(pic left)
Except maybe Australia!
The high pressure system that has given most of Western Europe some glorious early Autumn weather these past few weeks persisted into the first few days of October with 30C sunshine radiating down through trees already shedding their leaves. It was unusual to look up into blue skies and see not a single Swallow or House Martin but as if on cue, come October and they all but disappeared and with their departure Robins continue to stream into the countryside and it was slightly odd to see so many singing in bright sunshine. 
A few weeks ago I spent a whole afternoon photographing mushrooms that had sprouted overnight following a few days of rain. There are said to be over 3000 different types of mushroom in France and although I've only captured a tiny fraction of these there are many types I've never seen before … so many different shapes, colours and sizes! 
In the end this beast remained uncooked because when sliced open it was a bit yellowish inside, not a good sign - shame, they're supposed to be quite tasty fried in batter!
It was a good recommendatioon! Unlike many animal parks & zoos I've wandered through, La Valle des Singes is a refreshingly 'un-stage managed' and friendly reserve (and no I'm not on their payroll!), with a vast area of land in which monkeys of many species roam free in the trees. Ok it's not an all singing all dancing safari park ... its just monkeys, but to see so many of our closest relatives (sorry bruv!) swinging across the branches was just brilliant and if you're ever in the area I'd highly recommend a visit.
Going slightly larger, Golden Orioles have brightened up my days with their dashing colour and weird song & I reckon there are about a dozen pairs in and around the village, even had a couple in the garden! Both Great Spotted & Green Woodpecker are very common around here, as are Nuthatches and although less visible Lesser Spotted and Middle Spotted are both present in smaller numbers. Red Backed Shrikes, became visible mid month with maybe half a dozen pairs in and around the village. Hoopoe's crop up just about anywhere and there are at least 2 pairs nesting somewhere in the village.
I'd hoped to squeeze a trip to the Auvergne, a well known raptor migration hotspot, during the month but social and car issues intervened, so have had to content myself with catching what birds of prey decide to float southwards over La Macherie. Sure I'd have had greater numbers up in the mountains but the 14th of Sept saw 3 Honey Buzzards, 2 Red Kites, 2 Booted Eagles, 2 Immature Hen Harriers, 1 Merlin, 1 Short Toed Eagle and 2 Black Storks over the village with a couple more Honey Buzzard and single Booted & Short Toed Eagles on the 16th. A single Marsh Harrier flew south over the village on the 20th and a pair of the same species did likewise on the 22nd. On the 26th my mate Mark, who's much better on raptor identification than me, popped over for a few days and we had a wandering male Hen Harrier on the Etang de Beauvoir plus an Osprey at the same location, another splendid male Hen Harrier on the Camp de Militaire, near Montmorillon on the 27th and at the same location we had Merlin plus a Short Toed Eagle. All in all, not a bad haul for a rural location in the middle of France!
Last day of the month (30th ) brought some goodies – a male Redstart, my first Black Woodpecker (sunning itself on the top of a dead tree!), another Honey Buzzard south, 3 Whinchats, 10 Woodlarks and several Blackcaps and Chiff Chaffs still holding on in this glorious, if slightly unseasonal 30c heat!
