Quite how I forgot this I don’t know.  The Honey Buzzard migration spectacle in September.

It started on a Saturday afternoon chez moi when I looked out the window to see a Buzzard sp circling above the hills behind my house.  Something did not sit right about it being just a Buzzard, especially when another 8 circling Buzzard sps joined it.  I shot outside to get my scope and sure enough, got on the flock straight away to find they were Honey Buzzards as I suspected.

The following day I went to the American WW1 monument by Lac de Madine at Butte de Montsec.  This relatively high hill gives a great vista over the lac and surrounding farmland.  By the end of my 2 hour session I had seen about 35 – 40 Honey Buzzards, including some passing below me and giving astounding views.  I also had a Goshawk and a couple of Marsh Harriers passing.

Most bizarre moment of that day was noticing something scuttling up the foam on my tripod leg that then jumped onto my leg and turned out to be a baby Edible Dormouse.  I don’t know who was the most surprised.  It then jumped off me in a panic and I escorted it safely into the trees.

As per usual photos to follow when the bastard phone companies get the acts together.

A bientot.

Still internetless at home, it seems that two French companies find it impossible to speak to each other and put in a 5 metre length of phone line, I would say typical but……..

So far the autumn has been enjoyable.  There wasn’t a great deal to write home about in the wader passage, but my local patch is now drained for the Fete de Poisson, Lapwing numbers are building nicely and I had Spotted Redshank there this week.  Also noted at Lachaussée recently was a Great Egret with a black bill and pink legs, probably just a European bird with dodgy hormones or something but it made my heart miss a beat when I first saw it and thought what the fu…….

Sunday morning at Lachaussée was particularly enjoyable, an aythya with a white arse, may or may not have been a female or immature Ferruginous Duck, it just did not come close enough to be sure.  An athya with a white arse, bright chestnut plumage and white eyes however was the full monty, a nice adult drake and the first one I’ve seen since about 1994 I think.  I then got a funny crane in my bins, when I put my scope on it, it turned out to be a juv Black Stork!!

I also had a nice trip to St Agnes and the Isles of Scilly at the start of October.  The weather wasn’t very helpful, but we still racked up a decent haul of birds including 4 Buff-breasted Sandpipers, a Little Bunting and a Short-toed Lark on St Marys airfield, a Lesser Yellowlegs and a Wilson’s Snipe, also on Marys, but alas three vigils at Higgo’s pool produced no sign of the long staying Northern Waterthrush.  On the first vigil, we left as dusk decended and walked out through the woods, I stopped to have a quick pish and a small, dark, tail pumping passerine jumped up out of the undergrowth, but then unfortunately jumped down as I was raising my bins, I think it was the boy, but I can’t be certain.  Not too much of a disaster as it would have been my third in Britain and Ireland having seen the 96 Portland bird and the Cape Clear bird in 2008.

St Agnes produced a nice couple of Pecs including a super tame bird on the beach at Perigilis and best of all a self found Little Bunting grovelling around in a field that then flew to the back of the field and as I was watching it in my scope, was amazingly joined by another Little Bunting in the same hedge!

I have plenty of crap photos lined up for when some bastard finally connects me to the internet at home, and I also have yet another new camera, a Nikon P300 with an FSB-8.  Originally designed to be a digiscoping system for Nikon scopes, with the help of two bits of plumbing tube from Bricomarche and a lot of swearing in the garage last night, I have created a Frankenstein’s monster of a bit of kit that fits perfectly onto my Kowa eyepiece with the rubber thingy screwed off.  Hopefully my general quality of photos will now be a bit better.

Boom shanka et a bientot.

In short not much from a hornythology point of view.

I have recently moved house so have hardly lifted my bins since early June.  Thankfully this has co-incided with the summer lull but recently I have managed to get out and about.  The other downside to moving house is the pile of shite of a company that is SFR not being able to connect us to t’internet.  I also managed to not see a cloud of Vultures that was seen in Lorraine not far south of me, sadly non ventured into any airspace near me that I was aware of.  Stunning pics here of the flock of Griffons that contained a very large surprise for the lucky observer the following morning:

 http://www.lorraine-association-nature.com/actualites/des-vautours-en-lorraine-66.html?PHPSESSID=f9538bce51f4df070d75b2820c334281

The upsided to moving house is that now I have a biiiiiiiiiig garden and a nice little flagged area ready to feed the birds in the winter.  I have so far had Yellowhammer, Hawfinch and Brambling over the garden on the three occasions I visited in the winter and recent bike rides have found me Melodious Warblers and Red-backed Shrikes within spitting distance of the house so a garden list is on the cards!  Singing Serins and family parties of Black Redstarts are also regular.

I finally ventured out to Madine over the last two weekends and as last year found pretty low water levels in basin no 2 and a sprinkling of waders too.  As last year, there is not much variety, mainly Wood Sands with smaller numbers of Greens and 1 Common.  I have also had White Stork there with 3 fully grown young still on the nest and best of all a Lorraine tick in the shape of 2 Little Egrets.

Hopefully the rain will hold off a bit this year and the water levels will not rise as happened 12 months ago and I can get a decent wader season in before the late drainage of Lachaussée at the tail end of the passage season.  I have also discovered where the salines are south of Nancy having visited my girlfriends family there last weekend so a trip out or two will be necessary there in the coming weeks.  Black-winged Stilts bred there this year!!

A nice surprise when visiting friends was a report of a bright bird like a Kingfisher near Ambly, seen by the river.  This could only be one thing, and it was – Bee Eaters!!  A pair of them but I could not find signs of a nest. 

Plenty of photos to follow when Free connect me back to the internet, but for now a bientot.

Bonjour,

Wow, it was hot today, 31°C and difficult to see anything with feathers.

Highlights today were Purple Heron at Lachaussée, still there!!  I also saw one on my last visit but I haven’t seen them going to THE place in the reedbed since mid May so my oh so brave breeding proclomation is now very much in doubt.  They are still there so who knows, hopefully some juv birds will prove me right.

Also seen today was target bird no1 – Bee Eaters.  They do not seem to be at the site where I saw them last year, but they are a bit further south, but only seemingly 3 birds.

I keep promising myself that one day I will get my arse into gear regarding insects.  However, I never have kept my promise to myself but this nice orange butterfly today caught my eye and I took some photos and have identified it as a Pearl-bordered Fratillary.  What a beautiful creature.

A bientot.

Bonsoir,

Finally after 2 near misses I nailed the Purple buggers at Lachaussée!!  3 Purple Herons were seen in the reedbeds on Thursday night.  Rather suspiciously (again) they kept going back to the same spot in the reeds, that set my spidey-sense tingling and I’ll run round the lake naked if they’re not breeding there.

Surprisingly this wasn’t the main excitement of the evening.  After the Night Herons and Savi’s of Tuesday night I had been consulting with the guru of Lorraine birding throughout the week and he had let me know that there were no less than 4 Savi’s Warblers singing on a small lake in the Lachaussée estate.  The area is strictly private so I did what birders have been doing for generations and headed in that direction.  En route however, I was stopped in my tracks when I saw a white heron flying in against the trees on the opposite side of the lake, it was way too small to be a Great Egret so I lifted my bins expecting it to be my first Little Egret for Lorraine (they’re rare here).  Imagine my surprise when I got on it and noticed it had a gingery, yellowy brown body and stonking white wings, there was only one answer, it’s a fucking Squacco Heron!!  It flew along the trees for a couple of hundred metres and was on view for a few seconds before disappearing behind the trees on my side of the lake.  Bingo, only the 10th record for Lorraine.  Also, that is now an amazing 6 species of Heron here this week.  I only need Little Egret and Little Bittern for the set.

I continued on and had a look for it from the bridge, but saw only the Purple Herons and then carried on round to the private lake to not hear any Savi’s.  I did however hear several Great Reed Warblers and saw the only one I looked for very well.

Added to this, the usual Nightingale crescendo was amazing to listen to as always and there were loads of Pochard down at this quieter end of the lake too.  Must visit more often.

This weekend also saw the visit of a group of Belgian birders who had been pumping me for info, they returned the favour by confirming that Cirl Buntings are indeed present at Hattonchatel having seen a pair there.  They also had a Red-backed Shrike there which is a bit of a relief as practically nobody has seen one this year so far, they are very late in coming back.

A bientot.

Well, what an evening!!

I started out checking if the Bee Eaters near to my new house in Haudanville were back yet.  They weren’t.  So I pressed on to my Eagle Owl site where a long vigil finally revealed a well grown youngster tripping about near the nest.  Excellent, success for them this year.

Next stop Madine which didn’t hold a great deal of interest, just a White Stork and 2 Great White Egrets hanging around suspiciously into the breeding season and much later than I saw them last year.  Hmmmm.  The best bird was heard when I got back to the car, a Savi’s Warbler reeling invisibly from an unviewable reedbed.

Last stop Lachaussée as night fell to listen for Crakes, again none were heard but a funny frog like croaking that rang a bell turned into 2 Night Herons flying over!!  Patch mega.  They appeared to be 1st summer birds and appeared in front of a heavy rain shower so maybe they were migrants?  They dropped down at the far north end of the lake so we’ll have to see if they get seen again or not.  Last bird just before the heavens opened was a probable Purple Heron flying around calling, I couldn’t see any detail on it as it was all but dark by this time but it was calling and I’ve never heard a Grey Heron call like that so maybe.  Also I had a very brief 99% certain (the 1% doubt is caused by the brevity) Purple Heron a couple of weeks ago so I’m getting closer to a decent view here!!

Bonne Soirée tout le monde.