Arrived Wednesday evening at our place in France. Heard some (I)
Blackcap while getting out of the car, but then was busy getting the house warm preparing food, putting up a tent for a 14 year old that wanted to brave the cold night temperatures (and then finding 4 extra covers for him...) etc. Yesterday morning (April 6th), it was different. Most obvious were the (II)
Green Woodpecker calls, as well as (III)
Great Tit, (IV)
Chaffin, (V)
Black Bird and (VI)
Carrion Crow.
After getting the fire started, coffee flowing and some other domestic tasks, finally there was some time to walk around the property (will try to post some photos, once I am back in the civilized world, where the tubes of the WWW are a bit wider). First heard were two (VII)
Great Spotted Woodpeckers, one close by, and a bit further that were taking turns drumming. Since I filled the feeders, a bunch of (VIII)
House Sparrows came by, and in the wooded area I heard some (IX)
Short-toed Treecreepers and (X)
Blue Tits (in addition to most of the species heard or seen before). Nearer to the pond area, there were (XI)
Chiffchaff as well as a (XII)
Green Sandpiper. Also, I spotted the first (XIII)
Robin, which normally are rather abundant, a (XIV)
Skylark, which are definitely not abundant as well as a (XV)
Meadow Pipit. We flushed a, rather well hidden (XVI)
Mallard. Then we heard a quite distant bird call/song which we couldn't identify. Bird.net came to the rescue and identified it as a
Hoopoe. Although indeed the are reported to be in the general area, I have never seen or heard one and won't count it until I actually see one -- would be spectacular though!!
Some rather loud (XVII)
Wood Pigeons passed by, as well as an even louder (XVIII)
Nuthatch, followed by a much more discreet (XIX)
Starling. Then, as if to confusing the visiting Swiss, a (XX)
Cuckoo started calling at noon sharp. Also some raptors showed up, we heard and saw a beautiful (XXI)
Buzzard, and somewhere hidden was a (XXII)
Kestrel. Whereas in our garden in Zurich they are one of the loudest species, here we only saw some (XXIII)
Collared Doves sitting on an electricity line, without a sound.
For lunch there was a domesticated duck, but lets not count that...
Most of the afternoon was spend cutting grass, cleaning up and other fun stuff. Early evening I had some more time looking for birds. Most of those listed above made reappearances, but some new species were a (XXIV)
Yellowhammer, a (XXV)
Hawfinch and a (XXVI)
Siskin. Also, we spotted some (XXVII)
Coal Tits. Last new bird of the day was a (XXVIII)
Song Thrush.
Not bad for a single day at ones own property, but I have to admit some disappointment in the absence of any swallows or martins
