Thursday 31 May 2012

France Day 12: Château Chambord

Went to do the touristy thing today and visited the château at Chambord. It was a huge and pretty impressive building and was interesting seeing some of the really old possessions they still have. The grounds were pretty smart too.

Château Chambord 

One of the views off the roof!

The drive there and back didn't really provide too much and was a bit frustrating with glimpses of raptors disappearing behind woods, hedges etc! The scenery however was cool with lots of large château's/churches etc.  Did see a male Hen Harrier though and lots of commoner stuff like Corn Bunting, Cirl Bunting, Red-backed Shrike and there seemed to be Serins everywhere today? I'm sure if you are staying near Chambord on vacation there would be plenty of decent birds in the grounds, I think the forested area is as big as Paris and holds a good selection of raptors and woodpeckers. Could be well worth a search.

After visiting the château we thought it best to visit the River Loire as we hadn't seen it to date. It seemed to be in flood - presumably all the rain we had when we first arrived (and the few weeks before). Did get a few birds here without really trying too hard: Common Tern, Little Tern, Reed Bunting, Yellow-legged Gull, Cetti's Warbler, Black-headed Gull, Serin etc..

Back at the Gite late afternoon there was the usual Great Spotted and Green Woodpeckers with the male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker also putting in a vocal appearance.  Got Marsh Tit in garden with the pair of Firecrest still building their nest. Also plenty of Nuthatch, Short-toed Treecreeper, pair of Golden Oriole, singing Hoopoe, Tree Pipit and Woodlark, families of Blue and Great Tit, Chaffinch, Black Redstart and Blackbird.

This evening I thought I'd take a little walk around the local area and went to check out the Woodchat Shrike I'd found last week. I bit of loitering about in stealth mode resulted in me finding its nest.  It was high up in an Oak tree, about 2/3rd up. The Oak tree was a lone tree in a meadow field. Both male and female birds were observed foraging bringing food back to the nest, prey included bees, caterpillars and what looked like a Common Wall Lizard. Got a couple of pictures below, see if you can spot the bird sat on its nest...

 Woodchat Shrike (Phone-scoped)

Woodchat Shrike (Phone-scoped) 

 Woodchat Shrike (Phone-scoped)
Woodchat Shrike (Phone-scoped)

Woodchat Shrike on nest(Phone-scoped) 

Woodchat Shrike on nest (Phone-scoped)

Otherwise it was the typical Hoopoe, Cuckoo, Turtle Dove, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Woodlark, Black Redstart, Nightingale, Melodious Warbler, Garden Warbler, Blackcap, Cirl Bunting etc...

Wednesday 30 May 2012

France Day 11: More of the Brenne (+Bee-eaters)

Went back into the Brenne again today for a bit of walking and visiting various Etangs, was again a very enjoyable experience with tonnes of birds, butterflies, dragonflies, damselflies all showing well. There were many highlights!

First up at a secret location (thanks to a brilliant tip-off) Bee-eater! Or to be more precise, 30(+) Bee-eaters at a breeding colony! In order as to not disturb them we didn't go very close to them at all, therefore the photos below are not great (no surprise there!) but at least you can tell what they are! Such awesome birds!

Bee-eaters (Phone-scoped) 

Bee-eaters (Phone-scoped)

We then went on to an Etang where we walked for a couple of KM to a hide overlooking a Purple Heron colony. This was brilliant and the views we got were great! There was also a male Black-crowned Night Heron and several Little Egrets visible from the hide. Also had a pair of Black-necked Grebe on the lake with 4 Little Ringed Plover looking like they were breeding on some gravel.

Black-necked Grebe (Phone-scoped) 

Purple Heron on nest (young below) (Phone-scoped) 

Purple Heron on nest (young putting head up) (Phone-scoped) 

Spot the Night Heron (Phone-scoped) 

Little Egret (Phone-scoped)

The walk to the hide was fairly productive with tonnes of Western Bonelli's Warblers calling from the woodland. Managed to get a couple of pictures of one showy male.

Western Bonelli's Warbler (Phone-scoped) 

Western Bonelli's Warbler (Phone-scoped)

Later we moved to another couple of Etangs, again it was really hot and it was like getting into an oven on entering the hide.  The Etangs were full of Whiskered Tern, Black-necked Grebe, Great Crested Grebe and Coot. Also got a pair of Shoveler, 2 male Black-crowned Night-Heron flew through and 2 Cattle Egret sat on a tree top. Saw a couple of Marsh Harrier hunting the reedbeds and on the drive home found a single Great White Egret in a roadside pool. A highlight was watching an adult Black Kite raiding the Black-headed Gull colony on one of the lakes.

Whiskered Tern (Phone-scoped at distance in the heat haze)

One of the recently fledged Black Redstarts was on the barn roof and the male Common Redstart continues to sing...

Black Redstart (adult) (Phone-scoped)

Black Redstart (Fledgling) (Phone-scoped)

Male Common Redstart still singing away... (Phone-scoped)

Tuesday 29 May 2012

France Day 9 & 10: Relaxed (Non) Birding

The last two days have been really relaxing (apart from reading about Western Orphean Warbler in Hartlepool and Roller at Spurn, both would be UK ticks).

Today we've just done a local walk and spent the day lounging about the garden, which had its rewards.  However yesterday we took a trip about 70 miles away to visit two RHS Partner Gardens: Firstly Jardins N.-D. d'Orsan and secondly Jardins de Drulon, but before all of that I checked out another local forest: Bois de Paillet to see what was on offer. Lots of Great Spotted Woodpecker, Golden Oriole, Nuthatch, Short-toed Treecreeper, Marsh Tit and Cuckoo and all the regular fare but nothing too great.

Back to the gardens: Both gardens were very different, the first was part of an old priory with very smart, formal gardens and some very impressive hay meadows (great for butterflies), the second garden was much more 'wild' and was full of wildlife (birds, butterflies, dragonflies, damselflies) and some 'interesting' "modern art". Anyone who knows me well will know how much I love "modern art"... but the planting was generally good (though it needed weeding and the grass cutting!).  Both were a little over-priced to get in I thought, more than the actual RHS gardens themselves! Though RHS members would get in free. An enjoyable day out anyhow.

 Jardins N.-D. d'Orsan

Jardins de Drulon

Jardins de Drulon - photos don't really do it justice

I'd left my scope at home for the day but still got incredible views of 3 Honey Buzzards that were flying low over the car park at Drulon. Really great views and my best so far, there was also tonnes of Nightingale in the second garden, with Black Redstarts in both too. Was great day for butterflies, Black-veined White was pretty cool, with 3 species of Blue too.

 A very bright (and big) Blue sp. Anyone any ideas? (Phone-binned)

Black-veined White. Very impressive beast, a lot larger than I was expecting! (Phone-binned)

Late afternoon I visited the closest pair of Red-backed Shrikes to our Gite and got a bonus couple of Hoopoe (see post below or click here for pictures). Again the Scops Owl was calling, and again it eluded me! Also of note was the flock of c.40 Black-headed Gulls that flew over in a thermal with 4 Mediterranean Gulls in with them.

This morning/whole day has been very lazy with just a couple of short walks around the Gite area, focussing really on butterflies more than anything, though while having a cup of Yorkshire Tea in the garden I noticed a Firecrest with nest material, I followed it around and it led me to its nest under construction. I then spent a couple of hours watching the pair build their nest which was really interesting (way too difficult to take pics on my phone and I could only manage the picture below). When a Spotted Flycatcher landed on the branch next to the nest the male went crazy and started jumping about with his crest all raised! The best reward for standing nice and still for so long though was the male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker that flew in and landed on the tree right next to me. I'm not sure who was more surprised, too flustered to get a picture! Also had a pair of Golden Oriole mating in the trees where I saw the male chasing the Jay about this evening and a smart male Cirl Bunting busily feeding up his nest.

Male Cirl Bunting feeding up his nest (Phone-scoped) 

Male Cirl Bunting feeding up his nest (Phone-scoped)

Firecrest about to go in to nest below twig it's on (Phone-scoped)

There was again a few raptors around with 3 Honey Buzzard, 3 Black Kite, Hobby, Kestrel and tonnes of Buzzard all noted going over, also a distant possible Red Kite but was unfortunately scope-less at this point!

Finally Jenny made me put some pictures on of me birding, just incase anyone is worried I'm not getting enough birding in!

Me getting in 5 minutes birding today...

Me getting in 5 minutes birding today...

Monday 28 May 2012

France Day 9: Pictures from a verge...

Just a quick one tonight as I've been out trying to locate the Scops Owl that's been calling (as it did last night) and I'm pretty tired.

Had an enjoyable day today, will update tomorrow but for now here's a couple of pictures from my phone after spending 20 minutes stood quietly in a roadside verge on the edge of our garden... it involves a pair of Red-backed Shrike and 2 (pair?) of Hoopoe.

 Male Red-backed Shrike (Phone-scoped)

Male Red-backed Shrike (Phone-scoped)

Male Red-backed Shrike (Phone-scoped)

Female Red-backed Shrike (Phone-scoped) 

Female Red-backed Shrike (Phone-scoped) 

Female Red-backed Shrike (Phone-scoped) 

Female Red-backed Shrike (Phone-scoped) 

Female Red-backed Shrike (Phone-scoped) 

Female Red-backed Shrike (Phone-scoped)

Hoopoe (Phone-scoped) 

Hoopoe (Phone-scoped)

Sunday 27 May 2012

France Day 8: The Brenne & Melody Show

Went for a walk round one of the Etangs in the south of The Brenne park today which was rather pleasant. First off we sat in a hide and saw several Black-winged Stilts, Cattle Egret and heard a few Savi's Warblers but  the main attraction here (for me at least) was the numerous Whiskered Terns in full breeding plumage flying about the place, often coming really close to the hide, they were very vocal too. Noticed that there was one Little Tern sat on the fence posts with them too. There was loads of Grey Heron about and 2 Purple Herons too. A few ducks were on the water, mainly Pochard, with several Mallard, Gadwall and a single male Teal. Also had Little Ringed Plover and Lapwing here. This looked a very interesting place so may try and get back early one morning.

View of the Etang

After a short while in the hide we then went for quite a long walk around the lake and through some countryside where there was quite a lot of Black Kite (including 2 that sat in a tree as we walked past - phone picture of one below), one Honey Buzzard and dozens of Common Buzzard about too.

 Black Kite (phone-scoped)

Black Kite (phone-scoped) - it'd just coughed up a pellet

Several passerines were seen/heard including Savi's, Melodious, Sedge, Wood and Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Garden Warbler, CommonWhitethroat, and Nightingale. There was plenty of Stonechat and at least 5 Red-backed Shrikes, Common and Black Redstart, Tree Pipit, Woodlark, Skylark and (quite a few) Golden Oriole. Several Hoopoe flew around and there seemed to be Cuckoos everywhere.

After our walk we went briefly to the reserve base where we had a picnic lunch by the pond, here 2 Black Kite, and 2 Short-toed Eagles showed well, though with it being Sunday it was fairly busy with tourists/locals so we decided to make the most of the sun and head back to the Gite.

Late afternoon mainly involved watching the IPL final, though the result didn't go my way unfortunately. I did manage to find plenty of Short-toed Treecreeper, Nuthatch and a (the) pair of Spotted Flycatcher and a single Firecrest in the garden to keep me occupied. There was also a family party of fledgling Blue Tit which were very loud.

Highlight however was not a particularly rare bird, but just a great view of a singing male Melodious Warbler. Readers of my blog (and Dave in particularly) will know that I (we) put in hours (OK days) trying to connect with one when we were on the Scillies last Autumn (they're rare-ish in the North of England!). We eventually gained a few second glimpse of it at some ridiculous range! So I'm enjoying being able to watch these Melodious Warblers here so much. I took the following series of photos this afternoon on my phone. Light was quite bright but you get the idea.

 Melodious Warbler (phone-scoped)

Melodious Warbler (phone-scoped) 

Melodious Warbler (phone-scoped) 

Melodious Warbler (phone-scoped) 

Melodious Warbler (phone-scoped) 

Melodious Warbler (phone-scoped)