March 22, 2007
Much the same as last week, only better
Today Romain and I decided to take our combined lunch break/birding trip/English lesson at the Etangs de Saclay, to find the Ring-necked Duck (Fuligule a bec cercle) showing just a little closer than usual.
I'd noticed on my previous (even worse) photo attempts that the bill seemed rather oddly shaped, but put this down to camera 'noise'. In fact, it turns out that this bird has a nasal saddle, fitted earlier this winter at the Lac de Grand-Lieu on the French Atlantic coast! I wonder where it will decide to summer...
After several minutes of struggling, this Great Crested Grebe (Grebe huppe) finally managed to swallow this big fish.
Since the sun was out and I had my optics handy, I decided to do an after-work ramble around the campus. On revisiting last year's Hawfinch (Grosbec casse-noyaux) roost spot, I found this smart singing male (although I had to assume several very uncomfortable positions to get photos through the branches). Note the lead-grey bill pointing to breeding condition.
The bird often seemed to flick its tail and droop its wings while singing - is this part of a visual display?
Equally pretty (though in less pretty light) were this male Greenfinch (Verdier d'Europe) and a Red Squirrel (Ecureuil roux).
The same male Black Woodpecker (Pic noir) who flew past my office window and onto my life list last year had its first international visitors this weekend (Mike and Rosemary from the UK) - they braved rain and hail over a two-hour vigil to finally nail the bird coming into roost (good effort). They kindly let me know its arrival time (620pm), so this evening I arrived in plenty of time to train the scope on its roost hole. Sure enough at 6:23 a 'kruk-kruk-kruk' call heralded its arrival, and I was treated to scope-filling views. This star performer is a bird I never tire of!
