We have paddocks across the roads and ours is separated from the neighbour's by a stream which has been flooding in all the recent rain.
This morning I saw one of the great white egrets who is a winter visitor with his or her mate plus our local flock of Egyptian geese and the usual wild mallards. In our own garden the usual sparrows and tits, chaffinches, robins, blackbirds and turtle doves. No sign of the woodpeckers and I was up too late for the jays and jackdaws cos the wind howling round the house kept me awake half the night. Our woodpeckers are two families - one nutty and one fat ball fans.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
I am very excited, have just seen a male Hen Harrier flying low over our field. Its the first in two years.I know they are very scarce now in the UK and I guess its probably the same over here in france. Do the others who live in France know?
I wonder if I saw a female the other day here in Essex, I only got a glimpse but I'm sure it wasn't any of the hawks I'm use to seeing around here. I'm keeping an eye out.
We have hawks too in the surrounding fields and they perch on the phone wires along the road edge so they can watch for rodents in the boundaries. However, they are too quick for me to see exactly what they are. Some are small and mostly grey and others mostly brown.
I did see a hen harrier just the once in a local field whilst out walking the dogs and we do have buzzards too who raise broods in the nearby woods. Gerat to watch them teaching the young about thermals over the big back field.
A flock of goldfinches on the dead feverfew and a glorious bullfinch Wood pigeons, blackbirds,a robin, dunnock,wren, house sparrows and a gang of starlings having a bath in the pond...
The usual mob today, great tit, blue tit, blackbirds, dunnock, the tits are still busy feeding, think they are expecting a cold night.
Saw a pair of herons wheeling down from the sky to the dew pond in the field out the back. The dew pond didn't fill up for at least a decade after I moved here, but with the wet weather this is the second year in a row it has held water in the winter.
Thanks Joe_the_Gardener, I'll be really pleased if it is and it puts in another appearance. I saw a red kite in the summer for the first time locally, we have buzzards, sparrow hawks and kestrels, but it will definitely be the first hen harrier I've seen locally.
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Haw finch back again today for the sunflower seeds.
We have paddocks across the roads and ours is separated from the neighbour's by a stream which has been flooding in all the recent rain.
This morning I saw one of the great white egrets who is a winter visitor with his or her mate plus our local flock of Egyptian geese and the usual wild mallards. In our own garden the usual sparrows and tits, chaffinches, robins, blackbirds and turtle doves. No sign of the woodpeckers and I was up too late for the jays and jackdaws cos the wind howling round the house kept me awake half the night. Our woodpeckers are two families - one nutty and one fat ball fans.
I am very excited, have just seen a male Hen Harrier flying low over our field. Its the first in two years.I know they are very scarce now in the UK and I guess its probably the same over here in france. Do the others who live in France know?
I wonder if I saw a female the other day here in Essex, I only got a glimpse but I'm sure it wasn't any of the hawks I'm use to seeing around here. I'm keeping an eye out.
We have hawks too in the surrounding fields and they perch on the phone wires along the road edge so they can watch for rodents in the boundaries. However, they are too quick for me to see exactly what they are. Some are small and mostly grey and others mostly brown.
I did see a hen harrier just the once in a local field whilst out walking the dogs and we do have buzzards too who raise broods in the nearby woods. Gerat to watch them teaching the young about thermals over the big back field.
Floralies, France is rather a large country so I expect there are some in the less populated parts but they are more likely to be predated by hunters and game keepers. Found this on the RSPB site. Scroll down to comments - http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2014/07/24/what-the-rspb-thinks-about-the-proposed-defra-hen-harrier-action-plan.aspx
A flock of goldfinches on the dead feverfew and a glorious bullfinch
Wood pigeons, blackbirds,a robin, dunnock,wren, house sparrows and a gang of starlings having a bath in the pond...
Only the usual collared doves who are enormously greedy plus a rather beautiful robin and bluetit.
The usual mob today, great tit, blue tit, blackbirds, dunnock, the tits are still busy feeding, think they are expecting a cold night.
Saw a pair of herons wheeling down from the sky to the dew pond in the field out the back. The dew pond didn't fill up for at least a decade after I moved here, but with the wet weather this is the second year in a row it has held water in the winter.
GemmaJF,
It's entirely possible that you saw a Hen Harrier in Essex. Apart from home-grown birds we do get a fair few winter visiting birds from Europe.
Thanks Joe_the_Gardener, I'll be really pleased if it is and it puts in another appearance.
I saw a red kite in the summer for the first time locally, we have buzzards, sparrow hawks and kestrels, but it will definitely be the first hen harrier I've seen locally.