Oh! What a beautiful morning....Oh! What a lovely way....

 ...to wake up!

I went to bed early last night... feeling tired, depressed because a sharp frost had hit some 'hardy' fuchsias that I'd just uncovered in an effort to tidy up... and fed up with the weather that's hampering efforts to get on top of the meadow. You'll have spotted that we haven't put anything up here in the past three weeks because there has really been nothing much to say. We've made observations of various birds, however this isn't a "twitter" site...
But...

At Boeing-o-clock this morning [7:07] I was woken... not by hungry cats, but by the dawn chorus outside the bedroom window....

Male Blackcap singing outside the bedroom window

We've seen this little fellow and his "other half" around since mid-March... and heard his song in the past few days... he seems to have taken a liking to my willow nursery area that has young trees in it 'that must be moved'... but now not until Autumn. I cannot now move the willows without major disturbance to a probably nesting bird... I'll nip in with a sharp spade and cut round the roots to make life easier later.... and to harm the trees less when I do move them.

However, that is a problem for later... back to an hour ago... this Blackcap [Sylvia atricapilla] Fauvette à tête noire was singing his heart out in the top of one of the willows 'that must be moved' and disturbed our slumbers in a beautiful fashion! I use a Nightingale song as my alarm on the 'phone and that usually wakes us up... but the Blackcap's song was so loud this morning that Pauline asked if I'd left my 'phone downstairs... it isn't set to go off on Sundays anyway.

As I went to make tea and feed the normal alarm clocks a Nightingale did start up from the Blackthorn [prunelle] by the river... that was then accompanied by a rhythm section [batterie]... the Greater-spotted Woodpecker started drumming in the dead willow that is in the middle of the Norway maples.... all that and the sunshine has "reet chaired me oop!"

Since posting this I spotted the male arrive at the middle front of the tree nursery... and the female immediately flew out, towards me as the male disappeared behind where she flew from. Possibly sitting, so I won't try cutting around the trees for at least three weeks. I'll wait until there is no regular activity.... or it is obvious that they are feeding young.


Just a note: The female Blackcap has a chestnut cap... and a bit more about them and the song can be found  here [along with the a comparison of the Garden Warbler song and a nice picture of the female.]

Aliens in our midst

On Monday morning, Tim glanced through the door to see a pair of ducks floating nonchalantly downstream. Small, dumpy ducks. Not the usual Mallards.... he reached for his camera....

Wood ducks! (aix sponsa, canard carolin)

Wood drake... or Wood Duck drake?

These are in Category E in L'Inventaire des oiseaux de France, which means that they are an escaped or released non-native species that is not capable of establishing a long-lived breeding population in the wild without human assistance. In other words, somebody somewhere has lost a couple of pet ducks. Wood ducks, or Carolina wood ducks as I know them, are a North American species, very popular in wildfowl collections. Ken, your ducks are here!

Their close cousins, mandarin ducks (aix galericulata, canard mandarin), are by contrast accepted on the French "list" in Category C. That means they are a non-native species which is either reproducing naturally in metropolitan France without interference from man, or a visitor from a natural population in a neighbouring country - there are reputedly more mandarin ducks in the wild in Britain than in their native South-East Asia, and this population is thought to be the origin of wild mandarins seen in northern France. Category A birds are generally accepted French native species - they breed or migrate here. They differ from category B species only in that they have been seen since 1950, whereas Category B birds have not.

That leaves Category D - non native species that may possibly be wild individuals that have got to France under their own steam, literally in the case of birds roosting on a ship. An example is the Cape Petrel, one specimen of which was seen in the Var in 1844! (Thinking about it, that was probably under sail, not steam). These, in twitcher terminology, are a bit streaky.

All those categories clear? Good. There will be a test later...

Incomers of a different sort are with us now - whitethroats, cuckoos and swallows, and yesterday our first nightingale (luscinia megarhynchos, rossignol philomèle) started tuning up in the trees by the riverbank. Rare in the UK, the rossignol is quite a common bird here. I am listening to one as I write this. In the Loire, if you want to find a nightingale, look for a bush. Is it singing, VERY LOUDLY? No? find another bush. By contrast to its name, the nightingale sings both night and day. I've only ever seen one nightingale - unfortunately it was road kill, in Crete.

Evening light on the Cherry blossom

The cherry tree is in full blossom, covered in bees of many species, sizes and colours. It flowers and fruits late, although not as late as the morello in the orchard. The demand on our bird feeding station in the cherry tree is reducing - the siskins have gone, as have most of the tits and goldfinches, although there are lots of greenfinches and our loyal ground feeders - robin, dunnock, chaffinch, house sparrow - are still with us.

More cherry pictures:

Walnut and Cherry

The Japanese look.

Cherrywebs

Sunset stamens.