A slight Hiatus on the Home Front....

or "Apologies for no major post last week..... or this, and this and that for that matter"

Sorry... with all this fine weather, and a need to get spuds in the ground at the right time this year... I hadn't pre-prepared anything...
But the moth trap has had two airings so far this year... and we've started to get visitors to the windows at night!
The Swallows are back... swinging in and out of the barn.... and paying a visit in here, too... which took a bit of juggling to create an escape route....
The Black Redstarts are back, as well....and the duck gave us a nice present the other day... a fresh egg that she'd laid on the fly down by the old apple tree.
How do we know it was fresh? Because anything like an egg down there wouldn't have lasted overnight....
A Little Egret had been fishing in the bief...and flew past the bedroom window just as I looked out... no need for binos...
The Nightingales are back... three singing males at least... and a Zizi was singing from the wall early doors... a Zizi is the Bruant Zizi... or Cirl Bunting... relative of the Yellowhammer... with a similar song but it keeps what it doesn't want a secret... "Little bit of bread and no..."
It misses out the "cheeeese"
We've got a group of young Viperene Snakes [Lat] Coulevre vipérine who have holed up together just inside the barn door... four is the maximum seen at one time.

So here are a few pictures taken recently.....

Here's the Bruant zizi... aka: Cirl Bunting.... zizi'ing his little heart out!!

There are four Viperene snakes in this picture
... count the heads... one sunbathing...
three in the gap 'twixt barn wall and the metal...
sunwarmed...
hinge.

Three from the moth trap....
R>L: a Brindled Beauty, a Small Lappet and a Lunar Marbled Brown....
the curate who named the last probably had cataracts.... it is all grey!!

 

A hoverfly.... hovering!

An Ichneumonid wasp...
possibly a female Ichneumon xanthorius based on looks and flight period.
{But, only experts can really tell... and not from photos!!}

Black Redstart [male].... showing his "shirt-tails"!

And finally... for the moment... an orb weaving spider.
Tetragnatha sp.... possibly Tetragnatha extensa which is the most common...
but I need the other side to be certain...and this one was...
thirty centimetres off the ground in stinging nettles!!

Strange?... [and THIS is called bird WATCHING.]

We have Black Redstarts [Phoenicurus ochruros var. gibraltariensis] Rougequeue noire here but we seem to lose the male each summer... The book shows the male in all his dinner suited glory like this photo....

Picture taken July 4th '06

and this is how he arrives... [there is another picture here from March of this year]

And then he and the female bounce around a bit in their courtship... lots of "ball bearings" being heard... and then the male seems to go invisible... still hearing the "ball bearings"... but we seem to have two females chasing each other around. And one "female" feeding the other that is begging... typical courtship behaviour... so one female must be a 1st summer male. [According to the book]

Female, male, first year male? Who knows...
whichever, this bird was sitting where our kitchen sink now is...
behind the newly installed double-glazed windows.
The only way in was via the owl-slot in the gable end.
This brood was raised successfully and so was a second.
[Picture taken 17th July '07]
The 2008 broods were raised in what is now our guest room!
The loft hatch was in place by 2009!!

We've noticed this occurrence now for two years running... either we are very unfortunate and have lost the mature male twice, or something else is going on.

But, do the books always get it right? These are just my thoughts...

Does the male have his main moult at the end of summer, just before migration... which makes sense as it gives the bird new feathers just before the  long flight... and a moult of the worn primaries just after mating. And it would make sense for two reasons... firstly, he renews his feathers just before he has to do a lot of hunting... and secondly, he can get into a plumage that makes him less obvious!
I ask this because we find the black wing primaries up in the longère's grenier... a reasonably safe place to "undress"! With a food supply on hand amongst the beams, too.

In which case, the female may well have a moult whilst she is sitting and being fed by the male... it makes evolutionary sense... she wouldn't waste energy moulting before, as all her spare energy is going into the eggs. But, as she remains the same colour all year, we can't really tell.

The Black Redstart is a 'short distance' migrant... like the Robin... if we see them here in winter, they won't be 'our' Black Redstarts. Ours are probably in Spain... but no further south than Morocco or Algieria.

And, whilst mentioning migration, which is now in full swing, we have a very colourful visitor at the moment.... just passing through on the way to Africa... a male  Redstart [Phoenicurus phoenicurus] Rougequeue á front blanc.
Now as you can see from Pauline's picture here... he is glorious!

You can clearly see the rusty-red breast and the white forehead that identify him as a male Redstart.

I've seen Redstarts only in Spring and they've never been this bright... is a similar moult pattern going on here too? We don't get Redstarts here, and this is a first sighting for us at La Forge, so I've nothing on which to base a comparison.

But, on another tack.... is the male Black Redstart also like the Robin in that he can have a number of wives? But that wouldn't explain the begging behaviour... this though is what birdWATCHING is all about... observations and records... followed by ponder and discuss!


The book: Collins Bird Guide [Le Guide Ornitho] Mullarney, Svensson, Zetterstrom & Grant [1999]

Moving times for the boidz....

The migration is in full swing.... first we had the Cranes [see the post for Feb 23rd].... but ever since we have noticed little and large bunches or lines of birds flying over.
And this is without actively looking out for them.

Some will be birds flying North'ish to get to their breeding grounds... I write "'ish" there because a lot of them.... some LBJs, some thrush-like, at least two groups of large waders and Tuesday morning a very large skein of geese.... have not been heading diagonally across and over us South to North.... rather WWSW to EENE, along the valley towards Petit Pressigny. They might, therefore, be following the river as a navigational aid.... even with all the management work taking place, the actual course of the Aigronne will not have changed appreciably in our lifetimes and those of our ancestors.... so, to a relatively short-lived bird, it is a fixed aid.

Part of the skein of Brents... click to enlarge... the inset then shows the white 'flash' at the back.

The geese, small, stocky and black with a white patch on the side, were Brent Geese [Branta bernicla] Bernache cravant... leaving the Bay of Biscay and the Marais Poitevin and heading inland before eventually swinging north towards Norway, Finland and Northern territories of Russia. The waders, probably Black-tailed Godwits [going on size], were possibly using a similar route....

And there have been more noticeable changes, too, around the house....

Vanishing... Robins... our winter ones probably sing with Breton or even Kentish accents. We don't seem to have Robins around here in the summer.

Arriving... Black Redstart and Stonechat... the males making themselves very obvious on the tops of walls and potager posts, White Wagtail wagging around, Warblers flycatching from bief side bushes...

Black Redstart [male]

White Wagtail male gathering nesting material...

We will probably notice later that Greenfinch and Goldfinch numbers have decreased as they move to their breeding territory and use the feeders less.

My feeder...FILL IT!!

OK...MY millet, then!

"Such ill-manners", said Mr Creosote...

And changes in attitude... birds that are normally feeding quietly are now getting more aggressive with each other... male Chaffinches, Sparrows and Tits spend a lot of time just chasing around... not just trying to get someone else off the feeder, but really trying to get them out of the tree.

Even the Moorhens have been becoming more territorial... chasing the juveniles away... especially the male, he's the worst. There is a difference between the sexes that is not in the books... the male Moorhen has a larger red plate above the bill... noticeable when they are together under the feeder... broader and slightly higher up the forehead than the female. There is, however, a difference... possibly only in the breeding season.... between the two sexes in the tail... the male cannot seem to be able to tuck the white outer feathers away... so, when viewed from the front, even if you can't distinguish the difference in the plate, the male is the one who goes around with the tail more erect with the white showing. Even one of the juveniles.... the one the resident male is most agressive toward... seems to be having difficulty with the white sides... probably another male on the way.

And Pauline mentioned to me that the Bluetits are busy at one of the holes in the barn wall....

And that afternoon [at 4:10PM]... we had a flight of Cranes over... they used a thermal from the big steel-clad sheds at Grandmont to gain more height.

Circling in the thermal

 They must have been quite tired... this lot were hardly 'grue'ing at all. The wind had been from the North East all day... the were coming from the South West.... headwind all the way.

Spring is on its way part II

The chiffchaff (phylloscopus collybita Poillot véloce) is definitely here - I heard it singing. A pair of them is working hard at the flies over the millstream. The sound of someone rubbing steel ball bearings together alerts us to the return of our male black redstart (rougequeue noir) in his favourite lookout point on the roof of the grange. There are up to three pairs of greenfinches visiting our feeders, mainly engaged in clearing up the spilled grains kicked out by the smaller and more agile birds. Some of the sunflower seeds are so solid they defeat even the greenfinches, which are almost twice as big as the siskins and much heavier in the beak. The tits seem to be spending more time fighting than feeding, and are outnumbered at the feeders by the finches.

The dog violets at the foot of the longère wall are in full flower, as are the miniature tête à tête daffodils. Cowslips are coming out here and there, and at les Hautes Thurinières the almond is in flower and plum blossom is on its way out.

Almond blossom

Today though, the wind has swung round to the south and it's started to rain (much needed, alas). Today and tomorrow there are carnivals, fêtes foraines and vide-greniers associated with the beginning of Lent - we visited one at Charnizay this morning, and the famous Manthelan carnival, in its 122nd year, is this weekend too. Those nasty weather gods are at it again!

More about the Crossbills

As promised here is a bit more about the Crossbills [Loxia curvirostra].
We were sitting in the garden when a 'thump' came from the direction of one of our big spruce trees.
We had noticed green, immature cones lying around the tree base and had thought that it was the equivalent of a fruit tree's June drop.
Then we heard another one fall and I glanced upward to look at the tree and saw a red flash as a bird moved.
My first though was woodpecker, but then the bird came more into view and it was red all over.
I went and got the binos at first and then the big 'scope. The first picture is of the male Crossbill wrecking the spruce tree! Not a good shot, but the best I could get... I was handholding the camera
against the eyepiece of the telescope. [The adaptor was indoors and I thought they'd fly.... in fact they stayed an
hour!!]

The crossbill feeds upside down, starting at the base of the cone and moving towards the tip. It works very systematically... down one strip, back to the top, down the next and so on. Sometimes it just levered the scale upwards... on other occasions it ripped the scale off the cone and spat it out.
The next pictures show the damaged cones.
The damage done! This was the sight at the top of the tree.

I collected up some of the fallen cones to take close up photographs.
You can see in these cones the way the feeder rips the scale up and out to get at the seed beneath.

And the final picture is of the top end of the middle cone in the above.
The little split with a hole at the end is the damage caused by the beak

We had a party of three feeding together... the male that is shown above, a female [very different... mainly green... a shade close to the cones themselves] who we only caught glimpses of and a young / immature male who was far more orange than red.
They tended to move around the tree in a parroty sort of way... lots of leaping from branch to branch and walking sideways along the branches... very interesting to watch.

There is also a side angle to this damage... as mentioned in the previous post, we have had an increasing number of small birds feeding inside the damaged parts of the cones. These include juvenile Blue and Great Tits, Black Redstarts, Melodious Warbler, our resident Blackcaps and also non-insectivorous species like Chaffinch and Sparrow

One of the old records: August 2008

11th
Dry, overcast with a little drip of rain early AM and Very late PM. Just before dusk - two Muskrats by tractor ford plus Moorhen and chick. Later, after dark [10.30'ish] with a very light sprinkle of rain - Glowworm [♀] by fence / telephone pole - very bright - showing three bars [reception must be getting better]. Also very cricket'ous - bloody loud and everywhere.
When looking at laiterie to check on building progress, checked also the Black Redstart's nest - all hatched - John later confirmed that all had fledged and flown about a fortnight before. I just love the idea of a wild bird that uses a double glazed room to raise its young!! But it's got to stop... we've sealed the hatchway and John has finished the bathroom light-pipe so no way in now.

14th
Frédéric mowed the verger, etc... Tim strimmed the rest of the field. Standing on the bridge, Pauline heard the Kingfisher  ... it came at speed along the bief and then came back and perched on a branch in full view - no camera!! That's the second time it's done that [the first time it had the temerity to turn round and give both side views [I wonder what a kingfisher's snigger sounds like?] It flew up and down a couple of times before shooting back towards Le Moulin de Favier. It looked fabulous in the sunlight.

Today [13th July 2010] - for the last few nights we've been unwillingly interfering with nature again... our lounge windows/French doors have a pair of pale green net curtains to help keep the sunlight levels in the room down [they face due South]. However, at night, the male Glowworms gather in number [15 last night].... given the colour is close to the female's lights it must be a case of "Cor!! Look at the lights on her then!" They'll just have to up-put until we go to bed.

Point to note; we've not seen/heard the Kingfisher for about two years now. The Aigronne was made very muddy by an extremely severe storm two years ago that washed fields away [5 litres of rain per cubic metre fell in 45 to 50 minutes] and the water quality changed overnight! It is now recovering... but no visible fish. The Banded Demoiselles are increasing in number by our bridge though.... and real weed is beginning to overtake the amount of blanket weed.

14th and 16th July 2007

14th
Stag Beetle [♂] crossing road - stopped and photographed it on the bonnet of our '56 2CV.  Put it on the side of the road it was aiming for.... it promptly turned back towards the middle of the road. Turned it round in my hand a few times , put it down again facing its original direction of travel... this time it did head off into the vegetation.
[Bois Bonhomme map 1925E GPS 3394-51962]

16th
Out in rain to Etangs Perriére & Neuf [Voir les Oiseaux in Touraine - Walk 23 Bossay-sur-Claise] Rain had got heavier so didn't stop. Turned left on D50 and stopped beside Etang Bourreau where we were able to pull off the road beside the water. Saw juvenile Great-crested Grebe and Coypu [ragondin] first. Then two Black-necked Grebe juveniles appeared.... no adults to be seen. Nice view of a Kingfisher right beside the car and then over to bushes on the right... where it stopped momentarily before diving into the water behind some rushes... it didn't return to the same perch though [must have known I'd got the camera out!!] Also Coot and juvenile Moorhen around. Grey Heron flew off as we arrived [GPS 3485 - 51824]

Later this trip we did get to the Etang Perriére where we saw Black-knecked Grebe, Whiskered Tern, Black Tern, Purple Heron, Shoveller and Pochard before Pauline twisted her ankle in a hidden rut!

But all was not lost, as we slowly made our way back towards the car, we came across a Camberwell Beauty drinking from the remnants of a puddle left by the rains.

































Also discovered that our Black Redstarts had chosen to nest INSIDE the Laiterie [as per normal....] but it now had been fitted with double glazed windows and doors.... and yes, the young fledged successfully... and again in 2008 when they chose the bedroom upstairs! This is the 2007 nest in the hole left by the removal of the old manger.
By 2008 the doors were in place upstairs... we have yet to clean the guano from the surfaces.

December 2005 - Observations in Nature Diary

26th - Black Redstarts still around.

27th - Pair of Green Sandpipers feeding along the bief. Loads of Buntings / LBJs.
Lovely view of a 'pair' of Kingfishers
[one stayed around for quite a while by Richard's sluice gate  -  NO I didn't have my camera to hand!!]

28th - Went for a walk towards Petit Pressigny then up to Chevarnay and round and back.
Buzzard over the wood as we walked up, Hen Harrier quartering in fields on the other side of the valley.

Watching the sandpipers

16 April 2003 - Listing from round the house

This was our first visit to the house after purchase... hence the single day [we were too busy getting used to the area and measuring up, making wild plans, etc.]

Birds seen:

Raptors:

• Kestrel
• Buzzard
• Hen Harrier [although now we think these records may actually be the Montagues - we tend to see Hen Harriers over by Barrou and along the Claise valley]

Tits:

• Blue Tit
• Great Tit

LBJs: [Little Brown Jobs]

• Linnet
• Chaffinch
• House Sparrow

MIJs: [More Interesting Jobs]

• Black Redstart  >>>
  
• White Wagtail
• Whinchat
• Stonechat
• Goldfinch
• Green Woodpecker [or Grey?]
• Blackbird
• Starling
• Robin
• Wren
• Swallow
• House Martin [don't know where these are nesting... not at ours... although they are often in large number with the swallows]

BJs [Big Jobs]

• Jay
• Carrion Crow
• Wood Pigeon
• Collared Dove
• Mallard

Birds heard:

• Nightingale 
• Turtle Dove
  

19/12/2009    New material added from the Nature Diary in the house:

17 May 2003   

• Stone Curlews nesting in the field opposite.  
• Montagu's Harrier quartering the field when M.Sallais was turning the hay.