Wow, wow and thrice wow

Our profound thanks to our friends Martin and Denise for alerting us to the sight of the year - migrating cranes coming in to their overnight stopover in the Brenne. This is just a quick post and we have all the videos (with stereo sound) and Tim's photographs to come.
If you can, GO TOMORROW!!!!

We've visited l'Étang de la Mer Rouge many times without seeing much. Our friends had visited on Tuesday and were raving about it - would the birds all have gone on? We saw not one crane as we pottered around the Brenne this afternoon. However at La Mer Rouge I caught the sound of a few calls on the wind.

At last (4:20ish) parties of cranes started to fly in. Lots of cranes. They milled around a bit - and flew on! Just over the wooded hill on the other side of the Étang.

Should we go or should we stay? We went. We found them again near the chateau de Bon Asile down a dead end off the D20, which turned out on further map study to be a continuation of the Chemin rural du Blanc that leads past La Mer Rouge. There were a few hundred cranes in the fields opposite the house but the incredible noise hinted at many more on the far side of the hedge.

Still they were restless. Tim spotted an osprey perched on a post in the middle of the field. A murmuration of starlings happened. Then...

Then the cranes took off en masse. Thousands of them. They were streaming back towards La Mer Rouge. What a sight! Both of us switched our cameras to video and filmed until we could no longer hold up our hands. Still they came  past.

Another dash, this time back to La Mer Rouge in rapidly failing light, and the cranes were visible as grey bands on the far bank. Marvellous!

But why thrice Wow? We were just eating our tea back home when I thought for an instant that one of the cameras had started playing a video by itself. I could hear cranes. I could hear cranes outside! Two large parties were circling up there, one above us and one above Grandmont or La Jarrie. No idea how many, it was pitch dark, but there were easily several hundred, going by the racket, and could have been as many as a thousand. And they were looking for somewhere for a little R&R. Forty minutes later, we heard them again. I think as I write this that they are just along the valley...

Update: 11,500 cranes were counted in Indre the following morning.

A further update [Sunday 16th at 11AM]:
We missed them... but there have been parties and singles seen over our region...
yesterday, we saw a group of twelve flying south-east....
in the direction of the Brenne...
and a singleton flying west...
the weather has bottled them up... and yesterday Grus-Grus reported...
that from Indre...
"plus de 35 000 grues sur les dortoirs en Brenne, ce qui constitue un nouveau record"...
so the spectacle goes on...
and will stay this way until the weather improves!

Étang Purais - the start of a good Sunday out.

Last Sunday, a nice sunny Sunday, we went to the Brenne.... for the first time in about nine, or even ten, months.... made note to get out more.
We travelled via Yzeures-sur-Creuse to get some sunflower seed for the birds from the Intermarché and then continued, via Tournon St. Martin and towards Martizay because we wanted to visit the new hide by the Étang Purais. It was just being completed when we last visited Brenne territory... when the orchids were just coming out last year.

Everything looks very new... and it doesn't look much used, yet. We arrived towards 11AM... and quickly realised that the middle of the day was not the time for this hide... the sun is directly towards you. There were some duck shapes, some heron shapes and some LBJ* shapes... none of which were identifiable... except a couple of Tufted duck males... however, it is a large expanse of water and apparently rich in life.

The hide is called the Observatoire Luc Hoffman, the founder of the Tour du Valat private research station in the Camargue... he's a really dedicated naturalist as can be read in the photograph below. But without him we wouldn't have the Ramsar convention that has helped drive the conservation of some of our favourite areas of the UK.

And there is more here at the Tour du Valat website

But apart from visiting at the wrong time, the entrance to the hide is magnificent... it has these beautiful murals that are shown below....

Purple Heron, Marsh Harrier and Wigeon

Pochard, Great Crested Grebe and Whiskered Tern

Whiskered Tern, Coot and Black-necked Grebe

Those grebes again and a couple of Tufted Duck males

We intended to go back on the way home... but got caught up with events, at another étang, and left it too late.... now there's a reason for getting out more. You can't do the Brenne justice in a day!
More later on the other things we saw on Sunday, including getting a stiff neck from a pike....

The surprise inside... the Chocolate-headed Landgull

*LBJ =  birding talk for small birds... "Little Brown Jobs"
Chocolate-headed Landgull... Black-headed Gull... everywhere in the Brenne... centre of France!

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]

21 -29 March 2004 - Observations from the Nature Diary

21st
Trip to the Brenne... 
All seen at La Cherine
Great White Egret
Hen Harrier [male]
Honey Buzzard
Pintails, Teal, Shovellers
except a Grey Wagtail... seen on returning to La Forge
Also Barn owl by road bridge near Moulin du Favier as we returned from a visit to GP for a meal.

22nd
Muskrat swam past at lunchtime
Saw wren, robin, white wagtails
Stonechat and a warbler [buff & pale-buff]
Put car away in the laiterie and disturbed a Black Redstart

23rd
Small warbler by river [very visible cream eye-stripe - pale green and buff-green - probably a willow-chiff]

24th
Swallows appeared at around 5.50pm [along with the sun]
Pair of Buzzards wheeling over the woods in front of the house.

25th
Hen Harrier [male] along below Grandmont towards Petit Pressigny.
Hobby dropped from over the grange [barn] into the field by the willows and then flew off. It was trying to catch Swallows but failed miserably.

26th Woodcock flew over late afternoon
27th And again but I had bino's with me this time... for Woodcock, read Snipe!!

28th
Visit to Brenne again...
Saw Black kite, loads of Black-necked Grebes [at La Gabriere], Purple Heron plus assorted other species and a roost of Cormorants.
Large raptor took off from our meadow on returning - probably a buzzard [ it was behind the barn and away before there was a chance of identifying it. Swallows present AM as we left for the Brenne and heard a buzzard calling from the wood out front.

29th
Chiffchaff calling and hopping around us as we planted trees by Richard's etang. Female harrier [? species... too fast] came low across meadow in front of us, thro' trees and up across fields towards La Jarrie.

As a list of sightings:

Seen round La Forge
Birds seen:

Raptors:

• Barn Owl near Moulin du Favier [by road bridge]
  
• Buzzards
  
• Hen Harrier [male]
  
• Hobby
  
• Harrier [female] - came low across field and up thro' trees to La Jarrie.
  

Passerines:

• Grey Wagtail [by our bridge]
  
• White Wagtails
  
• Swallows [with Hobby in pursuit on one occasion]
  
• Robin
  
• Wren
  
• Black Redstart
  
• Stonechat
  
• Willow-Chiff
  
• Chiffchaff [called whilst being watched]
  

Waders:

• Snipe
  

Mammals:

• Muskrats
  

Visit to the Brenne:

• Hen Harrier [male]
  
• Honey Buzzard
  
• Black Kite
  

• Purple Heron
  
• Great White Egret
  

• Pintail
  
• Teal
  
• Shovellers
  

• Black-necked Grebes [loads - La Gabriere]
  

• Roost of Cormorants