Not complaining about the heat, really....
I was just not dressed for it, that's all!!
Yes, it was a good day....
On glancing out of the bedroom window to check on what was happening with the world....
as one does...
I saw movement under the old bridge...
definitely not a Moorhen....
in fact they seem to have vanished this year...
probably because the Flag Iris has taken a long time to get going...
having been flattened twice in the last month hasn't helped its growth either....
and, following their nesting there the last two years, it now has a hollow centre...
the result is that they have had to find another place to nest.
However, what I saw, bobbing away at the water's edge, was a new species for us....
a Common Sandpiper [Actitis hypoleucos] Chevalier guignette....
seen in large flocks on the shoreline in winter....
the Common Sandpiper is a bird of solitary habit in summer...
this one was busy poking away in between the stones under the bridge...
and amongst the vegetation that grows at the edge of the bief.
We get both Wood and Green Sandpipers... the Wood occasionally, as it passes North in Spring...
in fact, I put a pair up in the early days of last month as they were feeding in the meadow...
in a pond that should have been a footpath!
The Green Sandpiper is a regular winter visitor to the edge of the millstream [bief]...
and they most probably work up and down the Aigronne, feeding in the soft mud at the edge.
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| Common Sandpiper [taken at an acute angle through double glazing... !] |
The Common Sandpiper is an almost even brown on the top... paler towards the forehead...
and with a clearly visible eyestripe... it has a pale brown chest and is very white underneath.
In flight it has a clearly visible white bar towards the rear of the wing.
The Green Sandpiper [Tringa ochropus] Chevalier culblanc...
the French name being the most descriptive as, when it takes off, the rump is brilliant white...
but the bird itself is very dark, almost black, with a vertically striped chest and again... very white underneath.
The tail looks barred... and, if you get to see it through binos, the upper body and wings have fine, white spots.
The underwings are very dark and contrast clearly with the white of the under body.
The Wood Sandpiper [Tringa glareola] Chevalier sylvain also has a white rump clearly visible as it takes off...
but is much paler with visible white spots on the mid-brown upper body...
and is very pale under the wing when seen in flight...
So, that is three species....
The fourth was another surprise... I heard a warbling call at around tea time...
and called for Pauline, whose ears are far better than mine...
yes, I hadn't been mistaken... Bee-eaters [Merops apiaster] Guêpier d'Europe....
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| Here's one I took earlier.... 2010 to be precise! |
we did the usual scan of the sky just above us...
the place to scan first when you hear them...
they'll most likely be well above you...
but these weren't....
scan lower, try to get some direction...
a bit difficult with all the reflective walls around...
moved to the bridge...
better... clearly towards Moulin de Favier...
and there they were...
flying out from the large Ash besides Richard's étang....
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| "Feeding the Sheep" - September 2010 This is the Ash tree the Bee-Eaters were in... we had a better view.... currently the buds have barely broken!! |
Pauline revealed that she thought she'd heard them on Sunday...
but had dismissed it as strange duck/frog/distant oriole calls...
we just don't get Bee-eaters here at this time of the year!
So...
change that...
we do!
And the apology... a very humble one to the unknown person who had nicked my RSPB badge...
they hadn't... I have slighted them and, indirectly, the local LPO with my accusation!!
I went to get out a summer hat...
I have many hats...
for different needs and occasions....
and...
there was the badge [obviously fixed there by RonRon to play with my mind]...
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| The feather is from a Guinea Fowl [Pintade]... perchance my brain is shrinking as a result of an excess of pintade?! |
I don't remember moving it from one hat to another... it has always been on my "posh" hat...
all I can think is that as I get older, this "senior moment" was caused by AABFS...
[advanced age brain fade syndrome / alcohol aided bleedin' fool syndrome]....
so, once again, sorry to the person/people I wrongly accused!
The badge will now stay where I found it... and an LPO badge will arrive on my "posh" hat.
4 comments:
Love the 'feeding the sheep' photograph and the notes on sandpiper identification. If only I could remember the detail!
Happy that you've found your badge.
Memory blips happen to all of us. Soon you'll have forgotten that you even thought you lost the badge in the first place...
I am in a current state of forgetting everything... Pauline and I were woken by the sound of the wind-chime, on the corner of the stairs, at 5:15 AM... we thought we were being burgled... I was out of bed like a rocket... to find RonRon coming round the corner at the top... she'd rung the wind-chime!
Both cats used to do it regularly in Leeds... all four siblings could do it... but neither of our two have touched them since we've been here!!!
I am very happy, though, to have discovered my badge has not been lost... I only wear that hat in very sunny weather... and there wasn't much last year.
Very much a 'mea maxima culpa moment' but we've all had them :-) Just glad you found your badge.
Will be on the lookout now for bee-eaters. I've never seen one for real.
Radio 4 are also doing a 'tweet of the day' at 2 mins to 6am UK time [2 min to 7am our time]
This morning's was slightly surreal as it was the nightingale and simultaneously we had the real thing outside at full volume! :-)
Our alarms, the one on my phone and the one downstairs are both night&dayingales... it can get werry,werry confabulating!
We don't have a radio on at anything earlier than 9AM here!!
But the tweets are available on "Listen Again"...
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