Bonjour a tous.  News of a Crested Lark in Domceverin quarry near St Mihel on Thursday made my mind up for me about where I was going on Saturday!!  Sadly it was not to be as there was no sign of the little beast despite a good 2 hour search for it.  This is a species that has now gone from Lorraine completely and was probably the first record for a couple of years.  Great Grey Shrike is likely to follow as a breeding species very soon.  Corncrake is just about hanging on in there.  Same old story for farmland birds over here as in the uk.

After rooting around in the quarry I headed off to Madine.  Extremely quiet today, 2 Dunlin were the only passage waders apart from a very literally passage Greenshank that ignored my whistling as it flew around the lake looking for somewhere to land.

More Egret action though today with a few more Greats.

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Bonsoir.  A visit to Lachaussée and Madine ce soir with Julian Pichenot.

We had one Osprey at Lachaussée, 3 at Madine and then another one on the way back to Lachaussée roosting on a pylon above the road.  5 in all.  Other than that, 1 Garganey on the 2nd etang at Madine and that was that.

Apparently the big bats I saw at the weekend were Noctules and they were migrants.  Not a single one tonight backs up that theory nicely, there must have been about 100 on Saturday evening, so a bit of a fall of bats!!!!!

A day off work today.  A visit to Decathlon and 2 hours of swearing trying to fit my porte velo to the back of my car.  My cunning plan was in place to take my new VTT (mountain bike) to Madine. 

Quite frankly the lake is fucking massive and I think the tour du lac is about 20km and I’m here to tell you that I am feeling every single centimetre right now.  I feel like I have been taken roughly from behind by a very well endowed horse (again).  I’m going to be walking in such an attractive manner tomorrow.  Thank christ for cycle shorts.

So were my VTTing efforts rewarded?  Not really.  Best birds were 1 Osprey and a different Bluethroat.  In the red mist this morning I completely forgot my camera and so you can probably guess that this one was showing constantly, pausing for long periods and in perfect sunlight.  Pigs Knickers!!  Very nice one it was too, this time an immature or an adult female.  If it was a female, I am going to have to give more careful attention to this petit etang next spring.

On holiday tomorrow too and meeting super French ornitho Julian Pichenot at Lachaussée.  Off to buy the Pelforth Brune now, the thought of that kept me going during the last 2 kilometres.

A plus tard mes amis.

After two weeks of not pointing the old Swarovskis at anything I had a good mooch around Lachaussée and Madine today.

As usual, Lachaussée was very quiet until I was nearly back to the car when a massive eruption of flying ants brought something of an insectivore fest to a sun drenched hedgerow by the main track.  In a short space of time several Spotted Flycatchers and Redstarts along with lots of Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps and 2 Lesser Whitethroats were seen.  Even a Middle-spotted Woodpecker joined in the fun!!  Several of the birds were coming down to a puddle to drink and bathe, until I got my camera out that was!!

Onto Madine where Basin no1 with it’s increased water levels thanks to the recent bad weather is now almost completely useless to waders, just one Snipe there today.  A fine adult winter Spotted Redshank was there two weeks ago.  Basin no2 held only one Common Sandpiper and I was cursing my luck under my breath when this popped out of the reeds:

The worst photo of a Bluethroat you are ever going to see, but proof is proof!!

If you think that is bad, try this Osprey from two weeks ago.

A handful of these were back at Madine today, give it a month and there will be nearly a hundred at Lachaussée:

Walking back to the car it was nearly dark and a load of Bat sps were out, I have no idea what they were but they were so big you could hear the hairy bastards squeaking!!  A couple of Hobbys were also having a go at the Hirundine roost, one of them grabbed a Swallow out of the air, the first time I have ever seen one catch another bird.  The poor bugger stood no chance.

A bientot.

Nutcracker, only my second ever.  Flew over Grandma’s house in les Vosges mountains in East Lorraine.  A brief sortie up t’mountains produced a few Wheatear and a Whinchat.  None of the specialities unfortunately.  However, last week Citril Finch was accepted onto Category A of the British List so I needn’t have worried.

Rock Bunting, Citril Finch and Alpine Accentor are up here somwhere, but fuck knows where!!