.... more on the arrival of Winter.

...as promised more observations on the arrival of Winter.

Flocking tits...
flocking jays...
flocking pigeons...
flocking Goldfinches...
in fact,
flocking everything!

The birds are flocking, a winter trait among many species...
and we have large flocks of corvids... crows and jackdaws... 
milling around....
suddenly....
a tree will appear to loose all it's upper leaves...
and the 'leaves' leaving turn out to be a huge flock of Goldfinches that were blending in with the remaining foliage.

Simon of "Days on the Claise" observed last year a flock of corvids playing in the wind... and, despite the recent rain, our corvid flocks have been doing the same! Susan blogged about the same sort of  behaviour here in 2008.

The flocks of Lapwings are getting noticeably larger and the tit numbers are much larger than a week or two ago... and the warblers that were with them then seem to have moved on.

But perhaps, amongst all these flocking birds, the most spectacular have been....
the Wood Pigeons...
swirling flocks of a couple of hundred...
taking twenty or so minutes to pass the bedroom window...
when they are strung out as they move from one recently harvested maize field to another....

A very small part of a strung out movement of pigeons... open it in a separate window to view the numbers.
(I took three pictures to try and show the length... but they didn't stitch together.)

or in swirling clouds as they descend for a break in the poplars at the end of our meadow...
and then, without warning, exploding outward in all directions...
before assembling again, swirling around and settling...
a raptor had passed, probably, but I'd missed that.

Could have been the female Sparrowhawk...
or even one of...
or more probably, the local Goshawk.
We have had the occasional Peregrine...
all of which would love a tasty pigeon breast!
And it is the raptors that 'cause' the flocking...
it is a winter survival trait...
with the swirling mass it is difficult for the raptor to target an individual...
fish shoal for the same reason, but not seasonally.

Now we are watching out for the Cranes... they are on the move... a few flights have passed through Limousin... but they are massing at the Lac du Der to the north... 40,000+! So they are on their way south, too.

A red letter day

Today was special in more ways than one. It was a lovely spring day, although still with a bit of a sharp breeze. The young sparrowhawk was up early and enjoying the sun.

What do you do on a cold and frosty morning... spread yourself about a bit!

While we were admiring him, a pair of red squirrels whisked by, going from branch to branch along the river bank without touching the ground (the first time we've seen them down there). This afternoon, Tim planted out the last of his rooted willow cuttings, seventeen cultivars and over 100 plants in all. He still has to plant out his marker stakes, cut from our own willow trees and which grew just as well! While I was erecting a meagre barrier to the ragondins composed of blackthorn clippings jammed into the straw, I came across what looked like a hare's lying-up nest (a form).

The form.

Then a pair of freshly minted brimstone butterflies zoomed up and down the riverside, such a bright yellow they seemed almost green.
Meanwhile, an orange-tipped bumble bee was getting spectacularly drunk in the crocus flowers. It spent some time in each of the flowers, but never seemed to get any farther, like a toper on market day staggering from one pub to another.

Hic! Loverly drop o' nectar this!

When touched, it waved one leg blearily in a sort of "I'm havving a wunnerful time!" way. A riddle from my childhood: what's the difference between a sick elephant and a dead bee? Answer: one's a seedy beast and the other's a bee deceased.

More gratuitous Sparrowhawk shots....

Warm enough... now what's for breakfast!?

Sparrowhawk among the bluetits

This morning a commotion among the small birds using our feeders alerted us to the presence of a raptor. It was a juvenile Sparrowhawk [accipiter nisus] épervier d'europe, all baggy streaked feathers with white patches on his back, wings and head. He swept across the meadow, missing his target completely, then perched for a few minutes on a post near the young willows, to stare imperiously around him for a more likely prey item. He posed nicely for photographs taken through the eyepiece of Tim's telescope. After a short interlude the small birds gradually returned to the feeders, the acrobatic siskins probing urgently for chips of peanut. Then there was mass panic all over again and the sparrowhawk swept into the cherry tree right outside the window. Missed again! He retreated to the post for a thorough preen, continuing to stare around him from time to time.

Juvenile Sparrowhawk [it was misty!]

A NOTE:

What is noticeable is that BWPi [Birds of the Western Palearctic interactive] and Collins latest guide both show NO white patches in their illustrations of juveniles.... however, the videos on BWPi do show clearly visible white patches. Is this a case of drawing from preserved skins, all nicely groomed, or the same mistakes carried on blithley because "if it was drawn so originally, it must be right!"
Ted Ellis [a famous Norfolk naturalist] used to despair of tidying by artists.... his usual example was the holes round the edges of the older leaves of Butterbur [Petasites hybridus]. Never shown, but always there, caused by the Strawberry Snail [Trichia striolata].... and always edited out in the drawings.

16 September 2010 - Snakes Alive

Came across this little fella [about 35cm long].... it is a young Viperine snake [Couleuvre vipérine or Vipère d'eau] Natrix maura.

Viperine snake [Couleuvre vipérine or Vipère d'eau] Natrix maura

Pauline used Planete Passion to get a fix on his identity.
Planete Passion state that they are very variable ["Its colouring is extremely variable, olive greens, greenish brown, yellowish brown, greys, yellowish orange and reddish browns. On its back are two rows of dark lines, angled backwards, which are often joined together to give a zigzag pattern."]... indeed the illustrations on their site show five different colourways and patterns. They also say "but if threatened it adopts a very similar intimidating pose to a Vipére" and whilst being manouvered for a photograph, it took up a strike pose and then relaxed and slid off in the direction I'd hoped. It moved very fast and in almost all shots is slightly blurred against the background. [I've sharpened them as best I can.]  Visit Planete Passion to get more information and see the other pictures.
This is the first "live" snake we've seen on the property.... the only other observations have been sloughed skins.
Thanks to Susan from Days on the Claise for this link to the reference on Reptiles and Amphibiens de France [it is an English Language site despite the french title]

Viperine snake showing a zig-zag pattern at the right

Viperine snake [head detail - note the round pupil]

Other observations today:

Suddenly the Swallows are gone.... as are the House Martins from town! Summer is finished!

A male Sparrow Hawk [Epevier d'Europe] took a small bird [probably young Goldfinch] in the Sunflowers next to the house. It came from the meadow at flower-top height and dove in directly in front of me. Came out again very swiftly and composed itself [and its prey] on a sunflower [tournesol] head and then flew back towards the meadow.