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.

Bonjour a tous.

As the title suggests, the wind swung to a very interesting direction yesterday.  Cue mother of a storm yesterday evening and then more rain overnight and that can surely only mean one thing?  Black Terns with maybe some goodies in with them.  Well, I was half right.

I arrived at Madine, parked up near the port and lifted my bins, there was a Black Tern over the lake, and another, and another, and another……  I got my scope out  and hurried to the edge of the water to see a swarm of Black Terns hawking over the lake.  YES!!  Surely there would be a Whiskered or a White-winged Black in with them?  Further scanning soon answered that question, there wasn’t.  But I did get some amazing views of the terns, coming really close, calling the works.  The black is such a smooth velvety colour, they remind me of moles with silver wings.  Excellent creatures.

The same conditions that had dumped these terns in at the lake also had an effect on some waders.  I heard a Wood Sand and then saw it flying off, soon followed by a ringed plover sp that shot through without stopping.  Star bird was picked up during another scan when a curlew sp drifted through the tern flock giving me quite a surprise!  An even bigger suprise was had when it landed and turned out to be a Whimbrel a patch and Lorraine tick, if I kept a list that is.  It roosted up on the causeway for a short time before disappearing off towards the island in the centre of the lake.

Other birds noted over the lake were one of the nesting White Storks off on a jaunt to collect more nest padding, several Black Kites and one Red Kite, a very scarce bird around these parts outside of passage times.  Contrary to the UK where the population is booming, numbers on the continent are in nose dive.

A look around the other side of the lake failed to produce much, except for stonking views of Great Reed Warbler.  I tried to get a few photos but the same stiff breeze that had brought in the terns made it difficult to get shots.  If it had been clear and still I would have murdered the bugger as it is just about the most showy Great Reed I have ever seen.

A last stop at Lachausée revealed a piffling 10 Black Terns.

A bientot.

Bonjour,

With more very pleasent spring weather this weekend I was very happy of the opportunity to be out and about.  Saturday was a bit of a disappointment at Lachaussée and Madine with nothing special seen or heard so on Sunday morning I thought I would give Etang d’amel a try.  I had not been very impressed with previous visits here until this year however, when I found a couple of singing Bluethroats there.  This morning they were silent but a Grasshopper Warbler was reeling away unseen deep in an isolated hawthorn.

While I was listening for Bluethroats, I noticed a White Stork coming in over the fields just by my car, nothing unusual there, I had seen them on a couple of occasions before, but this time there were 2 of them, but they looked like photo negatives of each other, bird number 2 was a Black Stork, my first in Lorraine and only the second one I have seen.  That very quickly became 3 lifetime Black Storks when a second bird joined in the harrassment of the White Stork.  Just over the back of the fields is a massive forest and the Black Storks were very keen to escort the White away.  Hmmmmm…… 

Soon I had lost all 3 birds behind some trees so I headed off in that direction to have a look for them and have a look on the lake.  Nothing of interest was seen so I headed back to the Bluethroat spot and put my scope up hoping the Storks would come back.  Very soon they did with this time just 1 Black escorting the White away from the forest and then spending a few minute soaring over the trees.  I reckon they are breeding in there, they were very anxious to make sure the White Stork fucked right off out of it.

I grabbed a few digiscoped shots of the excitement but as the birds never landed, they are quite frankly crap.

Bonsoir.

An absolutely stunning day today, perfect blue skies, warm sunshine and a gentle cool north easterly breeze.  Unsurprisingly with conditions being settled like this for a few days migrants have arrived en masse.  My first Nightingales were heard belting out their songs from the hawthorns, Sedge Warblers are in in numbers, Marsh Harriers are displaying to each other, Lachaussée’s Bitterns are still booming and I even saw one today, Blue-headed Wagtails are in every horse and cow field and the White Storks were mating on their nest at Madine.

Today’s highlight was re-visiting the Vergers under Hattonchatel.  I had stunning views of a Wryneck that finally gave itself up for about half an hour, sitting in the top of a nearly bear Mirabelle tree, occasionally calling and trusting to it’s camoflage as I crept ever closer.  Nothing was rattling in the trees today so last weekend’s Cirl Bunting remains only a possible.  A male Goshawk was seen over the forest just nearby and another was seen at Madine later on too.

The above one was from the wrong side of the tree, looking into the sun but lets you see why they are so difficult to see.  This one totally trusted it’s camoflage and just sat there no matter how close you got to it.

Bonjour a tous,

From the title of the post, you can probably guess what today’s weather was like!  It pissed it down from late morning until mid afternoon.  Yesterday was stunning, blue skies, 22° and a gentle migrant helping southerly breeze so predictably I was in Metz buying a suit.

This afternoon I was free as a bird to bird, so predictably the heavens opened.  My first stop was Madine which was a total wash out.  Right now is peak time for Penduline Tit passage so I was hoping to break my duck on this one but with the rain teeming down I had no chance.  So I sat in the car for a bit in a huff by the first lagoon.  I then drove around to the second lagoon to sit in my car again in a huff and watch a big flock of Swallows and Sand Martins.

At this point I decided to give up but typically as I got about 5 kms away from Madine the sky turned a paler shade of grey and the rain eased off to the point of stopping.  What had increased my bad mood was e mails on obslorraine about Wrynecks arriving and singing their heads off, not for me, I had already tried the vergers (Mirabelle orchards) near Heudicourt with zero success just like last year.  It was at this point I passed a road sign for Hattonchatel, a lovely village on the Cotes de Meuse with an old chateaux in it, surrounding the village are more vergers and I remember typing Torcol into obslorraine search thing and reading about singing birds in the orchards, bingo, I’ll give it a go.

As I pulled the car up by the side of the road the rain totally stopped so I jumped out double quick to hear a Lesser Whitethroat rattling away.  A half second later I realised that it was only the 3rd April and the little buggers aren’t back yet, so I reckon Cirl Bunting was the culprit.  The problem was that after about a minute it shut up and I didn’t hear it again so it has to go down as just a probable, but I’ll be back!!  The orchards were alive with birds and unlike those around Heudicourt they seemed to be older and more neglected with holes in several trees, holes that I sure Wrynecks would notice too.  After about half an hour of plodding up and then back down the slope I finally heard the distinctive pee pee pee pee calls of the main boy and doubled my step to where the call was coming from.  It was in a stand of 5 isloated trees, this should be easy.  Wrong!!  Now I’ve tried to see some elusive Pittas in my time, a family with a reputation for being one of the most elusive on the planet but this Wryneck took the biscuit, at one point I was pretty sure it was calling in an almost leafless tree but I still couldn’t see it.  I moved a fraction and something popped out of the back of the tree and flew into another one right next to a few thick old hawthorns and started calling again in there.  I sneaked up as quietly as possible and got in between the tree and tha hawthorns and not one but two Wrynecks started duetting or arguing in there.  I was easily within 10 feet of both birds but I still could not see either of them.  This was just getting ridiculous.  After another few minutes and more calling a movement eventually gave one of the birds away preening in the topmost twigs.  It soon hopped down a bit and gave excellent views until my arms gave out from holding my bins up.  It then soon moved off up the slope and started calling again from the bushes and trees higher up.  I mooched my way back to the track and heard a second bird calling about 20 yards away so that was 3 birds in the area and they are very probably only just in so this is a place I need to go back too on a better day!

Other species of note encountered were Black Redstart and newly arrived Tree Pipits singing away. I expect Woodlark to be in the area and maybe Melodious Warbler so definatly somewhere to keep an eye on.

A bientot.

Bonsoir,

Another spring like day revealed a handful of spring like migrants.  Concentrating on Lac de Madine today revealed at least one Osprey, 4 Black-necked Grebes a few Great Egrets and a White Stork back on the nest by the old farmhouse.  Other than that it was like watching an English world cup batting performance, you get the feeling that it needs to progress more quickly to be worth anything and that is how spring is feeling here, it is warm and feels like April, just that the birds aren’t back yet.

A bientot.

Bonsoir,

Winter has finally loosed it’s grip on the continent and Spring is filtering in slowly.  Black Kites are now everywhere.

It would appear the the local Rough-legged Buzzard has now disappeared too and Cranes are getting very thin on the ground, however there is still a flock hanging around in the vicinity of Etang d’Amel where for the last couple of evenings I have been listening to booming Bitterns and Bluethroats singing in the reedbeds.

Swallows are now pouring in and I also saw my first Sand Martin tonight.

Recent highlights have also included White Stork at Amel this evening, Whooper Swan at Lachaussée along with my first ever Lorraine record of Lesser Black-backed Gull.  A Mediterranean Gull was also at the same site in spanking summer plumage.  3 Black-necked Grebes have also been noted here and Marsh Harriers are in and yelping over the reedbeds.  A female Merlin was also a patch tick as it surveyed a flock of White Wagtails and Water Pipits at Lachaussée and Black Redstarts are in the towns and sharing the fence posts in the fields with Stonechats.

Migrants are indeed arriving and it will not be long before the classic summer birds are here.  To sign off I will add one or two photos taken with my new Panasonic TZ10.  Conventional wisdom says that digiscoping cameras should not go above 4x zoom.  Every photo here ce soir is taken with the new camera.  I am undecided whether to send it back and go for a Canon S95 or carry on as the results are pretty damned good and are hand held.

Bonjour,

This is going to sound very Jessy’s Diets-esque, but recently I have been mostly enjoying some fine local birding.

The best part of the last month or so was finding 2 Rough-legged Buzzards about 20km east of Verdun in between Maizeray and Riaville in la Meuse.  The first bird was found as I was on my way to Lachaussée.  I have been conciously checking as many Buses as possible this winter after the invasion of Pattues from Scandinavia and a white-tailed Buzzard finally caught my attention as it drifted across the road at windscreen height early one Saturday afternoon about 3 weeks ago.  I pulled up next to the German Military Cemetery just west of Maizeray.  As I hopped out of the car it was hovering over a rape field so I quickly got my optics out to have a look.  As soon as I got it in the scope I was however a bit non plussed by it as it had a dark head.  It did however appear to have a pale tail with a dark band at the end, but still non plussed, I didn’t think there was enough pale in the tail.  I watched the bird persistantly hovering over the same field for some time before it finally turned back on to reveal a nice white tail with a dark band at the end.  Still not quite bingo for me though as I was still worried that it had a dark head, showed several bands at the end of the tail, one big fat one and I think 3 thin ones.  It didn’t have a solid black belly, it only had indistinct pale panels on the back of it’s ‘hand’.  I dug into the field guide at this point and the penny finally dropped, it was an adult and the first one I had ever seen, all my previous experience with this species has been of juv birds.  The number of bands on the tail and the dark head point to it being a male I believe, but I am not 100% certain of this.

Being very pleased with this, I decided to have another crack at it on the Sunday morning to try and get some photos.  As soon as I arrived, the bird was again hunting over it’s favoured rape field and was again very obvious because of it’s habit of persistantly and frequently hovering.  After a short while, it crossed over the road and headed off behind a small wood.  As it had disappeared I spent some time watching a small group of Common Cranes that were feeding in the fields too, occasionally checking to see if the Buse Pattue had re-appeared.  Finally it flew out from behind the wood and headed for the rape field again.  To my enormous surprise however, it had now developed a pale head and whopping great obvious panels on the back of the wing???  What was going on?  Had I mis-aged it or something?  The answer was soon very obvious when it started hovering over the rape field and revealed a big solid black belly patch – it was a juvenile!!!!  This was indeed a two bird theory that actually did involve 2 birds.  Soon after juv crossed the road and dropped into a ploughed field right next to another Buzzard, the adult Rough-legged, now obviously picked out by the white U on it’s chest, separating the head from the dark belly patch (not solidly dark I might add, it had a pale area of barring separating it into 2 patches either side of the belly).  Soon both birds were up and hunting and then finally soaring together with a group of thermalling Common Cranes.  Fantastic.  The adult gained height while the juv headed off towards Riaville.  I last saw the adult heading off high in the direction of Verdun and nobody has seen it since.  The juv however was still present this morning, ever faithful to it’s rape field near Riaville and sometimes showing really well as it hovers about 200 metres from the road.

My other February highlight has been the Madine Eagle that has finally started playing ball.  I did not see it today but have seen it on each visit on the last 2 weekends.  It is ever faithful to it’s favorite tree on the island in the centre of the lake and I still have not seen it anywhere else at Madine.  I have not actually seen it do very much however, just a couple of flights away from the island causing complete panic in the local Coot population.  3 Whooper Swans on Lachaussée today were a welcome patch tick too.

Whilst looking at the Eagle last Saturday morning at Madine I noticed a drake Goldeneye close in with another smaller duck.  This was the drake presumed Goldeneye x Smew hybrid that has returned to Madine for the last few winters, I even managed to get a few passable photos of it which was difficult as it was diving constantly.  Typically when I saw it today really close and in perfect light I had not bothered to take my camera out of the car.

A sign of oncoming Spring has been the start of the Scandinavia bound Crane passage.  I had a thousand or so birds over the plant at work midweek and today they were just everywhere around Lachaussée in some big groups.  I reckon about two thousand in total seen today, including some really close to the roads that were not fussed by my presence as I had a nicely placed shrine to our mother of god to hide behind!!  Not what it was intended for, but I am sure if a god exists he will not mind me using a shrine to his mum to watch a few of his stunning creations.

Last but not least, I have also seen an upturn in Woodpecker activity and have bumped into a Black Woodpecker on each of my last 3 visits to Madine so it must now be time to hit the woods in search of better views.

A bientot.

Bonjour a toutes et a tous,

Saturday the 22nd January was an absolutely fannytastic birding day out.  Like 99% of the time, I concentrated on Etang de Lachaussée, favourite local patch no1 and Lac de Madine, least favourite local patch no2.

Lachaussée was extremely quiet which prompted me to try to string a grey-headed and pale Wigeon into a female American Wigeon.  It did actually look quite promising so I waited about an hour for it to fly but when it did, it didn’t have white underwings so that was the end of that!  Certainly a Eurasian Wigeon and I guess a juvenile female.

Onto Madine where I was determined to finally catch up with the White-tailed Eagle.  As usual the Eagle tree was empty.  Knackers.  So I started scanning over the lake and easilly picked out the female Harle Huppé (Red-breasted Merganser) that was found by the official duck bothering squad last Sunday morning.  A patch and Lorraine tick.  On the small lake behind me a 100 or so strong mixed Aythya flock contained a mixed Aythya, a Pochard x Feruginnous Duck hybrid that looked superficially a bit Redheady with it’s dark grey back.  The rest of it did not look remotely Redheady.

I drove round to have a scan from the point to try to get closer to the Merganser and mount a bit of a vigil for the Eagle in the hope it would come in.  Plan A worked a treat as the Merg was showing very well out on the main lake with several Goosander and a few Smew for company.  Frequent scans of the Eagle tree revealed just a tree until finally something huge swooped in from the right on one scan and perched right on the top, target bird numero un was in the bag, the presumed returning adult White-tailed Eagle.  I watched it for about 45 mins imploring it to fly about a bit and do something but it stubbornly refused.  As I could no longer feel my feet due to the deepening cold, I scooted off back to the car to de-frost.  In the 5 mins it took me to exit the woods, the fecking Eagle went for a fly around so I quickly lobbed up my tripod and put my scope on the tree to confirm it’s emptyness when the boy swooped in again from the direction of the point where I had just been standing.  If I had stayed there another 5 minutes, superb views would have been mine.  Serves me right.  The only other bird of note was a partially albinistic Fieldfare on the way out.

As it was nearly dark and the conditions were very still I decided I would drive the 20kms to the disused quarry where I had Eagle Owl last year.  The successful Eagle theme continued as I could hear a bird calling as soon as I got out of the car even though it was still pretty light.   I hastened into the quarry and even thought to take my scope.  What a great decision as the bird was perched right out in the open calling.  Superb views were had before it flew a couple of hundred metres and perched up right on the top of a tree and continued to call in silhouette against the darkening sky.  It then did the same thing, flying to a pine tree on the very top of the quarry and sitting there until I sneaked off calling regularly.  No female was seen at all, unlike last year’s duetting couple so I hope he can attract a mate.

The only fly in the ointment today was forgetting my camera for all the above action.

A bientot.

At the fourth or fifth time of asking I finally saw the juv Rough-legged Buzzard that has been present just outside of Verdun since the beginning of November.

Otherwise it’s not been great recently.  The good news is that the Eagle is back at Madine and has been seen at Lachaussée too, the bad news, not by me as usual.  There is also a flock of geese at Madine, the usual couple of hundred Greylags plus about 60 Beans, 5 White-fronted and a single Barnacle.  So far I have not pinned down their feeding area so I have only seen them distantly on the ice but I think both forms of Bean Goose are present.

Plenty of these about again now after the thaw.

And there are plenty more Cranes around too, there was a single flock of about 500 seen near Madine last week, my search on Saturday revealed 3.  1200 were then seen on Sunday.  Nuff said about my recent form.

A bientot.