A happy Easter surprise...

Happy Easter everyone...
We had a rather nice surprise yesterday... after seven years of feeding the birds here.... a male Great Spotted Woodpecker [Dendrocopos major) Pic Épieche discovered, after around twenty minutes of hesitation and failed attempts.... how to use the bird feeders... well, the fatball feeder.
And he was back this morning... rather a lovely sight... and very interesting to see how delicately it feeds. But I suppose that is down to not having to chisel its way to the grub!

So, here's a picture post.... with captions to tell the story as events unfolded....

I suddenly saw him arrive... they never usually come this close...

He then moved even closer to the feeding station....

Then he moved up onto the feeder....
you can clearly see the red patch at the rear of his cap...
that clearly shows he's a he!
Females have no red on the head.

He hopped closer to the fatball feeder...
watching what the female sparrow was doing.

He hopped all around the feeder, studying it....
and watching what the sparrows were doing....

He made an attempt to reach the feeder, but he branch...
well, twig actually....
was too thin and he lost his balance!!

He let go and flew to the other end...
he was a little shocked I think and raised his crest!

He then hopped back and forth along the main feeder branches...
he spent quite a while doing this....
when, suddenly everything seemed to click....

And he was there....
and stayed for quite a while...
and came back twice today!!

This is a cropped area from the previous shot...
you can very clearly see the long, thin tongue that woodpeckers have...

So a rather nice Easter weekend treat... even if I was taking photos through the double-glazed kitchen window.... a today, a female has also been seen closer to the house than normally... spotted by Pauline that one....
other bird news, we think we must have robins this year... there are two still around and seem happy in each other's company... so probably a pair.
This year's dominant male Black Redstart is one of last years brood and still looks like a juvenile/female but with a noticeably darker face.
The male Stonechat is not impressed and keeps chasing him!!

Robbin' Robin

I made a new fat-ball feeder yesterday and hung it up....
in fact all the feeders are now out...
and the one in the meadow is getting a hammering!

But back to the new one...
I hung it, temporarily, near the front door...
to make it easier to see who's using it.

The sun hadn't been up too long before someone found it....

I remember these...
I just need to lean in and...
PECK!

I have a feeling...
that someone's watching me...

Aww!
Who cares....
let's have some more!

We think he may be last year's Robin...
who also used to access the fat-balls this way!
Cheeky...
that's what he is!

Visitors sniping at Winter's chill

An icy cold, misty grey morning yesterday to welcome in February... and a flash of white passed across the walnut tree trunk. I followed it with my eyes and saw a Hen Harrier [Circus cyaneus] Busard Saint-Martin.

Not the one I saw... my brother captured this today [3 Feb 12]

Recognisable, in the grey, only by its flight and the black tips of its wings as it coursed low over the fields towards the Moulin de Cheverny. A nice start to the day which brightened considerably as the sun burnt through the mist.

Song Thrush on the ivy this morning... the ivy berries [an important winter food source] are the black 'seeds'.

A Song Thrush gets chased off the ivy by a Blackbird by a rear assault [beak up backside]... "My ivy berries, you!" scolded the blackbird as it sat on them calling. Dunnocks, Robins and Wrens hurtling all over the place looking for insects, although the Robins have taken to feeding from the seed feeder here. Five pheasants clustered under the sunflower seed feeder in the field gleaning what the Greenfinches, hogging the field feeder, have scattered or wasted. Mr Creosote and his chums [Goldfinches] scattering seed from the seed feeder.... a Green Groundpecker* [Picus viridis] Pic vert working over the potager whilst it still could.
[*That should read Woodpecker... but for a bird that feeds mainly on grubs and ants from the ground perhaps Groundpecker would be better... it's like the Chocolated-headed Land Gull!]

What was that?...

I'm outa here!!

A trio of Willowchiffs [collective name for Willow Warbler/Chiffchaffs when you can't hear them singing] worked their way through the battered celery plants in the potager. All in all, awful lot of bird activity as they fought to keep up their food reserves in this cold, icy weather. But I had work to do... can't spend the whole day birdwatching.

A glance out of the window as a Blue Tit risks a direct flight of the one hundred metre open ground between the trees along the bank of the river Aigronne and the seed feeder here in the cherry tree... it flew low, to avoid the attention of predators... especially the local Sparrowhawk [which I saw burst like a rocket through  the top of the cherry a couple of days ago.] As he passed over the bief edge, I saw movement down by the water's edge... aha! The Water Rail; haven't seen him for a few days, thought I... but wait, that colouring seems wrong... look again.

A Snipe [Gallinago gallinago] Bécassine des marais was preening itself just opposite the kitchen window.
Then it went hunting for food. It looks for soft accessible organic soil, rich in food organisms just below surface. It also requires clumps or patches of vegetation/shrub as cover. Both of which it has aplenty along the bank of the bief.

The warming of the beak!

Warmer now... let's carry on...

It is not a common bird in France [Concise Birds of the Western Palearctic give the distribution in France as 300-350 breeding pairs; listed as decreasing - 2002] - we are towards the southern end of the range here, but it is believed to breed in the Brenne, where it would nest in a shallow scrape, concealed in short vegetation.

A-probing we shall go...

The winter distribution is as far away as the Nile valley and North Africa, but it is shown as a resident breeding species in the Loire valley.  So we are more likely to see them in the winter months. I thought I'd heard 'drumming' round here before, but had dismissed it as such... but pairing and display may well take place as they migrate to breeding grounds and we now know they feed around here in Winter.

Blending in well with the vegetation

He then went up on the bank to pose!

And he's there again now as I started to write this this morning, probing away at the mud along the edge... I wonder how often we've missed seeing them.

A teaser for the Weekend

Early September was our last posting.... and much has happened.
We've been a bit too busy to put much up lately... despite being assured that Winter is here by the return of the Dabchick and the Robins... and getting in the harvest and processing tomatoes as fast as we can because of the frosts.... nursing colds.... watching a possible juvenile Goshawk  up on the ridge opposite [but it never getting close enough to make a positive identification]...so we thought we'd better keep our readers entertained.
So here is a picture quiz!
What are these four?

Wotisit1

Wotisit2

Wotisit3

Wotisit4

This is coming up with the irritating "lightbox" effect... but I will leave it like that as it works quite well in this instance.... just remember to click on the white X in the top right hand corner to get back to the blog entry.

We will give you the answers next week.

Hopefully, the internet cable will be installed through to the house from the office by then... and it will mean we will be more able to write on the fly and posts will become more frequent!!