More of a flutter than a twitter... but a few tweets included!

And I don't mean a gamble, either...

The beginning of the end of October and there are still plenty of butterflies around...
Yesterday I saw dozens of Speckled Woods [Pararge aegeria] Tircis as I walked around the meadow to assess this Winter's tree and land work...

There is an ant trying to hitch a lift here... or else he's practising his scales!!

also, in the potager area we still have appreciable numbers of Clouded Yellows and a few Peacocks, Red Admirals and the odd Map...

Clouded Yellow... they never stay still!!

and on the 15th an utterly mad Humming-bird Hawkmoth working the Gaura flowers in the front bed...
in the teeming rain!!
Needed its antennae checking, that one!!

The Chiffchaffs are still here in good numbers...
I saw the first of the seasons Great White Egrets in the long field on the left as I drove from Grand Pressigny towards Abilly...
and Pauline saw a Crane [Grus grus] Grue Cendre yesterday...
just the one trumpeting away... and flying North East...
must have taken off early that morning, got so far...
and then realised that everyone else had stayed put at the previous nights stopover!!
The Black Redstarts are still around and the Robins are back!

A bit of Eperon de Murat news...
Pauline and I went to Ferrière-Larçon on Thursday evening to see what the new plans for the site were...
it was a presentation by the Conservatoire du Patrimoine Naturel de la Région Centre.

Hopefully...
a walkway from the road to the Murat farm to the main fields of the site itself...
and a pathway round...
the mayor, Gérard Henault, bemoaned the current main access that requires people to be "below 30 years old and have alpiniste skills"...
and the fact that he is getting no help at all on purchasing the farm itself...
the intention being to turn it into an interpretive centre, housing permanent and occasional displays as well as providing shelter for visitors in inclement weather.
Then, a couple of people in the audience {owners of Murat?} started arguing about the size of the plaque [about a foot square, apparently]...
and I was reminded of a meeting long ago when a committee I was involved with spent three hours discussing the first item on the agenda...
of vital importance, of course...
the colour of the cover of the college diary!!
[If I'd been the chair that would have gone to a sub-committee!!!!]

And then comments were made about the size of the car park...
if it was for more than two cars it was going to be too big!!
"We don't actually want people to visit"... was the opinion of the very vocal minority...
the same couple who were concerned that a foot square sign was going to be too big!

Actually, neither do the guardians of the site want too many visitors...
understandable, considering the rare plants & insects and the ancient fortifications...
so they are intending to install infra-red footfall counters in a couple of places...
it was also pointed out that it is about a kilometre from the proposed car park to the site itself...
many people will satisfy themselves with any display that may be at the farm and drive on, mentally ticking it off as "visited".

There are too many trees now on the site... especially the junipers... mainly there through neglect / lack of management and the current sheep are too selective [read fussy] and are not munching them properly...
they really ought to use Scottish Black Faced sheep...
not as fussy, about the only thing they won't eat is Nardus stricta [Mattgrass] which is too siliceous for even them...
the Wildlife Trusts use these for their "Flying Flocks"...
as do the LPO [who advertise their excess for sale at the back of L'Oiseaux magazine...
along with their excess Highland cattle! 
I'm tempted by the latter for here... 
only tempted mind!]

So these, along with the trees that have rooted into the defensive wall [vallum] and are slowly destroying that, must be controlled with more vigour!!
Major snag here...
removing the trees on the vallum will lead to erosion of the unprotected wall....
so a long roof will need to be constructed until other vegetation establishes...
don't hold your breath on that one...
apart from the obvious cost...
the example shown [from elsewhere] met with assorted gasps and disapproving grunts!!
It did look ugly... like a poorly built wood store!!

The two speakers were very poor, though...
the first swallowing the latter half of most of her sentences...
and the other spoke at the computer screen all the time!
Fortunately, monsieur le Maire often sub-titled what was being said by his comments!!

More interesting and understandable was the PowerPoint presentation... including two aerial views of the site...
one from 1950 showing all the little fields and very few trees...

Look at all the very little fields in the top right corner...
and the vallum is already marked by a tree line...
the smaller wall [muraille] is just visible as a faint line almost the same distance from the main wall...
as the main wall is from the tip.

and one from 1970 showing one vast field over all but the tip of the protected area!!

So we watch with interest....
whilst I can still manage to scramble up from the stile at the bottom, Pauline cannot...
so effectively is barred from the barré!!

Twittering again...

Flock of Siskin (Carduelis spinus) Tarin des aulnes working one of the alders [aulnes] near the kitchen door this morning...

Alder Catkins and Pussy Willow... from March 2012.
The Siskins were feeding on the little round "cones"
and not these catkins... but we need a lift and I thought
that the golden sunshine looked warming!

A Great White Egret (Ardea alba alba) Grande Aigrette  in the valley... near Gatault on the D103 on the way in to Le Grand Pressigny... it was in the company of around seven Grey Herons (Ardea cinerea) Héron cendré [who were probably saying to each other "Who's that flash b'stard then?"]

Great White Egret from February of last year.

Also seen so far this week... male and female Hen Harriers (Circus cyaneus) Busard Saint-Martin [on separate occasions]... quartering the fields and our meadow...

Male Hen Harrier also from February of last year.

Coming shortly... a post to brighten this weather.

More Egret Activity

I said in the last post about the shot I'd missed when I had binos to check out a white blob in the distance.... which turned out to be a pile of split poplar logs.
Today was a little luckier... glanced down towards the river and saw the Great Egret feeding in the meadow near the maples... grab camera... no shot through the kitchen window... field feeder in the way!
Went to front door and opened it very carefully... feeder trees still in way... crept out further and up it went... but I still managed to get these shots... the best yet!

Just lifted off...

Such graceful wings... the yellow beak and all-black legs showing clearly here.

About to lift over our trees and come down... out of shot... on the other bank of the Aigronne!
The equipment sheds below Grandmont are in the background.

I've also been trying a bit of freehand dodgyphotography through the big 'scope... I am improving... but very, very slowly.

This is in the snow using my little Pentax compact camera.

And this one, showing the kink in the neck very clearly, is with my older Pentax... the istD.
Light balance a bit off though... it was still set for snow!!

Now, if it'll just hang around a few days more....


Stop press: Birdguides are reporting 25 sightings of Great Egrets this week for the UK...

White Ghosts in Winter

Recently we've been seeing ghosts!

Can you see what it is yet?

These have been in the form of great big white birds flying around... especially in the snow. They shouldn't be here, according to the books!

Looks magnificent in the sun...

What we are referring to are Great Egrets or Great White Egrets [Egretta alba or, more correctly #, Ardea alba alba] Grande Aigrette. These, like the Little Egret, now breeding in the UK, are an expansion success story... spreading rapidly in the last ten or so years and wintering further north each year... as I type, the Birdguides weekly report for 2nd to 9th of February is showing 27 birds reported.... of which eight were flocked together in one location in Somerset. How long before Great White Egrets are breeding in Britain?

We've tried here to give some idea of the rate of expansion... too fast for distribution maps in bird books to keep up with:

Years	Winter [UK ]	Summer [UK]	Winter [Europe]	Summer [Europe]
1970s	Absent	Absent	Rare vagrant	Present [non-breeding]
1980s	Absent [Very rare vagrant]	Absent	Vagrant	Present [possibly breeding]
2000s	Rare vagrant [Winter visitor]	Very rare vagrant	Present	Breeding species
Current	Every year [numbers increasing]	Rare vagrant	Present	Breeding species [numbers increasing]

This expanding population throughout Europe means that Great White Egrets are now seen more frequently. They prefer all kinds of wetland habitats - even farmland ditches can attract them [they certainly seem to here]. They hunting for fish, frogs, small mammals, and occasionally small reptiles and insects, spearing them with their long, sharp, spear-like bill, most of the time by standing still and allowing the prey to come within  striking distance of the spear, or to slowly stalk a victim before stabbing downwards.

The Great White Egret is one of Europe's most graceful looking birds due to its impressive size and pure white plumage. It could conceivably be mistaken for the equally white Little Egret but it is the size of a Grey Heron, and has a longer, often kinked, neck.

Little Egret [note the BLACK beak and yellow feet]
Another one of my brother's photographs!

It builds a bulky stick nest [often in colonies] in trees close to large lakes, or fishponds, with extensive areas of reed beds or other extensive wetlands.

Partially migratory and dispersive. Most European birds migrate to North Africa and the middle East (especially Israel) but they are also wintering in increasing numbers around the Adriatic and even in Holland

There are four subspecies in various parts of the world, which differ but little. Differences are bare part coloration in the breeding season and size; the largest A. a. modesta from Asia and Australasia some taxonomists consider a full species, the Eastern Great Egret (Ardea modesta).:

    Ardea alba alba (Europe)
    Ardea alba egretta (Americas)
    Ardea alba melanorhynchos (Africa)
    Ardea alba modesta (India, Southeast Asia, and Oceania)

The slaughter of egrets for their plumes lead to the formation in Didsbury (near Manchester) of the Society for the Protection of Birds in 1889, it received a royal warrant 15 years later; its lady members used farmed ostrich feathers instead. [This from the BTO website!]

This is a record of an interaction between three Grey Herons and the Great Egret pictured above:

Calmly waiting by the pond opposite Bezuard.

First, one Grey Heron arrives....

...cutting in quite close.

Then two more, one even closer which disturbs the egret a bit... but watch out, one landed behind it! [on the right]

The egret settles back down... But the third Grey Heron is just open his wings to make his attack run....

Heron coming in fast.... and the egret decides to seek somewhere more peaceful to dine!

And flies off down the valley towards the Moulin de Cheverny!

And the crow and Tim watched it all.
We've blogged about these magnificent birds before but they've been either in the Brenne or just a sighting here but this fellow has been around for over a week now... forced to flowing water by the frozen ground and étangs... nice for us, but I hope it gets more food now the 'melt's come.
Missed a lovely shot today [I had the binos... not the camera]... it came down our meadow, barely twenty feet from the house!!



Sources for this info: Collins "Bird Guide" 2000 [the 1st edition], Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, British Trust for Ornithology and Birdguides  websites and Wiki.

Other good source of information on the Egret is Go Birding.

# This is yet another re-classification*... I heartily wish they wouldn't!! 
*The Great Egret—unlike the typical egrets—does not belong to the genus Egretta but together with the great herons is today placed in Ardea. In the past, however, it was sometimes placed in Egretta or separated in a monotypic genus Casmerodius. [Wiki]

11/1/11.... A day to remember.

The Water Rail showed up again this morning and I was able to take some photos through the kitchen window... it appeared as I was watching the antics of a young Muskrat... concerned that it might be making for my new willows in the nursery area.
However, it surprised the Rail, which popped out from the vegitation it was skulking in.... the pair froze long enough for me to get to the camera bag and extract same... and get the camera out! They both seemed wary of each other, and I am sure that the rail's beak could be used defensively!

The chicken netting is the 'protection' for the tree nursery... but I've seen a muskrat in there this year!

Then later, Pauline spotted a Great White Egret having an argument with the local Grey Heron over who owned the fishing rights on the Aigronne... as the camera was out of the bag still, I managed to get a picture of the Egret in the field below Grandmont. Again taken through the window and at the maximum range really of the telephoto.

We were able to watch it through the big 'scope and that allowed us to identify it.

The salient points are... elegant heron-sized, all white bird with a 'broken' neck, black legs and yellow beak.

Despite the roughness of the picture, the kink in the neck is clearly visible.

9 -12 April 2004 - Observations in Nature Diary

9th - Good Friday
Fritillaria meleagris at far end of point by the bief [millstream] near the wier.
Three plants.Also on opposite bank of Aigronne about 100 mtrs further on [2 plants visible].
Also 2 plants visible alongside the fence between Richard's etang and our field.
Near the fritillaries on the opposite bank of the Aigronne was a large 'colony' of Purple Toothwort [Lathraea squamaria],
only their purple flowers showing above the soil... wierd plant!

At entry to village, on bank by first houses.... Star of Bethlehem [Dame d'onze heures]
Also disturbed Green Sandpiper who were feeding on gravel bank at side of bief near the house.

Purple Toothwort  ||  Snakeshead Fritillary 

|| Bloody-nose Beetle

12th - Easter Monday
Lesser-Spotted Woodpeckers in the walnut tree by the verger and in the poplars on far side.
Red squirrel carrying baby, running towards us on the back road [le Petit Pressigny / Preuilly]
One of those moments... we stopped, squirrel stopped, stared, thought bubble appeared
"OOO Eck! O oo I oo ow?! is a oo ee ee... own ee em ery o'en!" before turning tail
and belting back down the road and up the bank!
[Translation of thought bubble - ' OOO heck! What do I do now?! It's a two CV... don't see them very often!"]

Muskrat - lives opposite side of bief, just behind the house. Comes out evenings to feed.
The crunching of vegetation echoes back off the barn wall.... sounds strange.
Caught Barn Owl in the beam of the 2,000,000 candle-power torch,
flying across fields opposite the house - it didn't seem perturbed by the light.

14th - Photographed a Bloody-nose Beetle. This large flightless beetle exudes 'blood' from its mouth if disturbed.

LISTING:

Seen round La Forge
Birds seen:

Raptors:

• Barn Owl
• Buzzard

Non-Raptors:

• Turtle-Dove [heard in trees by river]
• House sparrows
• Black Redstart
• Blue Tit
• Great Tit
• White Wagtails
• Moorhens
• Robin
• Crows
• Rooks
• Greenfinch
• Song Thrush
• Chaffinch
• Swallows
• House Martins
• Male Blackcap
• Goldfinches
• Stonechat
• Blackbird
• Lesser-spotted Woodpecker

Waders:

• Green Sandpiper [feeding on gravel bank at side of bief]
• Grey Heron

Mammals:

• Muskrat

Other Local sightings- vers Petit Pressigny

• Indeterminate large falcon
• Red squirrel carrying baby in mouth. [Along back road to Preuilly, just outside P.P.]
  When it saw us it turned round and ran back down the road, up a bank and into the hedge.

Visit to the Brenne:
At La Gabriere

• Black-necked Grebes
• Great White Egret
• Tufted Duck
• Pochard
• Gadwall
• Shoveller
• Mallard
• Coot 

At le Foucault:

• Hen Harrier [male]
  Black Kite
• Magpie
• Snipe

Elsewhere:

• Grey Herons - roost at Plume Cane [house on corner of etang - not the farm!]
• Turtle Doves
• Collared Doves
• Wood Pigeon
• Redstart [le Bouchaut]
• 
  
• Marsh Harrier [female - Meziers-en-Brenne]
• Kestrel
• Cormorants
• G-C-Grebes [everywhere]
• 
  
• Chocolate-headed Land Gulls [Black-headed gulls]
• Herring Gull
• Jay
• Green Woodpecker [Azay-le-Feron]