Four birds and an apology!

Yesterday was a really good day.... if a bit hot!
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.

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....

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....

"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!!

I went and got the big 'scope and we had good views of them in the tree.
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]...

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.

A swarm of bee-eaters

Many times in the past weeks we have heard the unmistakeable "woorple-woorple" call of European bee-eaters (guépiers de europe, merops apiaster) here at la Forge. Morning and evening, numbers of these busy birds have taken to flying up and down the banks of the Aigronne. Last year we saw them further downstream towards the village, feeding over a field of lucerne. This year a lucerne crop is flowering just upstream of us, and we think they are roosting in trees just beside the weir that diverts water from the Aigronne into our millstream. In one photo, Tim counted 94 bee-eaters, and that wasn't the entire flock! Bee-eaters nest communally in holes in sandy cliffs (e.g. river banks). Presumably they nested somewhere not too far away, but as to where, we have no idea.

Birds on a wire [Bezuard in the background]

And off the wire

Last night [5th Sept] they came in to roost and there was a great sunset light to show off their spectacular colours.
They gave a ten minute show before retiring into the Poplars. At 7:30am they were still there discussing when to get up... after all, on a coldish morning there is no point in flying around after nothing! Wait until the big insects get going...

Caught it! [both me and the bee-eater!]

They fly fast... but don't leave vapour trails.

The bill is often raised like this... as if they sight along it?

They can be seen in an 'arrow' flight shape quite often... as here!

29th August to 2nd September 2010

Woorple, woorple, woorple!

Once again, late afternoon, on our way home after visiting the Chamussay Foullees we see the bee-eaters!
And, yet again they were over a field of lucerne near Gatault [on the D103] just down from our house [about a kilometre].
This time we were part prepared.... we had binos and my camera [but with the standard lens - useless for capturing them.]
We stopped and watched for a while then hurried back to the house to get telephoto lens [and dump our shopping.]
Fortunately, they were still there when we returned.
We spent quite a while watching them wheeling and hovering over the field, swooping up to the electricity lines to eat their catch.
Later that evening they came over our field but it was getting dark by then and they were difficult to see except when they were sillhoueted against the sky.

Bee-eater [Merops apiaster] [French name: Guepier d'Europe]

Then, on the 31st, we saw them again.... same spot!
Rushed back to the house to get the equipment we should have taken on Sunday.... they had stayed!
Spent even longer watching them and got some good pictures.

Bee-eater in flight

They look and sound so strange and tropical with their intense colour and burbling song.
We drove up to Les Richardieres and looked down on them from above...
the farmer came past and asked us if we were watching the guepiers...
he told us that they come through at around this time every year and stay for around three weeks...
fattening up on the insects feeding on the lucerne no doubt.


He also told us they come through in March on their way to their nest sites.












On our way back.... after they'd moved off down the Aigronne valley, we came upon them again... wheeling over the road.  Some were even sitting in the way of the car and seemed reluctant to move!!
Eventually they cleared a way for us to proceed.... and about an hour later came straight over the house!
Then I remembered that I'd noticed another area of lucerne just the other side of the Moulin de Chevarnay... they were probably heading for that.

Lucerne [also planted as Alfalfa]

Yesterday I checked out the lucerne the other side of Moulin de Chevernay... it had been mowed for winter forage!!
But as I was working on our meadow around 8pm [clearing a way to the Blackthorn for their Sloes] Pauline saw them fly over on the way back to the 'roost' area..."They sounded just like a party of schoolkids on the way back from an outing" she wrote in our logbook.





And tonight a large party flew over towards the 'roost' area at around 7:30pm... I went outside to see them but all I could hear was their "worpling".

Bird on a wire

In flight

Really tropical!!

Just a small part of the whole flock

All these can "bee" seen on flickr

11th to 27th August 2006

Observations from the Nature Diary

11th
Glow-worm [♀] on front lawn.

We get the males on the window since we put the pale green curtains there [a touch of bigger is better might be the reason why... as in "Cor! Look at the lights on her!!]
[Shown right is a glow-worm larva on a snail  >>>]

<<< These are the curtains

12th
Weather windy and showery during the day... very clear night 15 degrees Celcius.
Moons of Jupiter very clear; also waxing moon... astonishing views of Mares.


27th
Went to Chaumussay for their "foulées" [track events / mini marathon] and vide-grenier - Pauline heard bee-eaters when we got an Orangina to drink.
As we left around lunch we went the Etableau route and heard and saw them again near the Croix Jourdain [on the 1:25000 Grand Pressigny map 1925O] by the railway crossing.
Back to La Forge for bino's, 'scopes, etc. and headed back.
Less than 0.75K from the house, near Gatault, in "OUR" valley - a flock of about 50 to 60 feeding over a field of tares [or similar vetch-type plant] on the bees, butterflies and grasshoppers. Superb views of aerial manouvres [wheeling, gliding and stooping] with the trill calls going all the time... and of them settled in the top of a nearby tree [just out of telephoto range!!] - fab views through the 'scopes though.
This was followed by the passage of three eagles over the valley [probably Booted, going on the jizz]