From Cranes to Cuckoos...

It's going to be a strange year. Although the first half of winter was extremely cold in western Europe wildlife did not seem inhibited by this. I travelled to Le Port on 13th February and I noted that:

 " Having slept I bought provisions and an axe, then cut brambles and pruned the vines in the afternoon, then chopped wood whilst it rained until I felt faint and cold and then went and ate three cheese pancakes.  A flock of about 150 cranes passed over migrating north at about 16:00 hrs. Seems rather early but having seen a blackcap and a bumble bee with full pollen sacks on 31st January in newly unfashionable Shepherd's Bush it seems wild animals know something we don't!"


Indeed for anticyclonic conditions set in early in April and on 8th a maximum temperature of 27c was recorded.


Other dates:  The first cuckoo was heard early on the morning of 7 April.
Returned to Le Port on 30th March to find Blackcaps already active around the house.
Before the 5th I had noted Blackbirds were busy foraging with  beak fulls of food to feed their young so they are well on in the nesting cycle.


Great Tits were nesting in the holes on the north side of Le Port and were entering all the rooms of he house when the windows were left open.


A Nuthatch emerged from a hole in the wall too on the 4th and one was seen loafing in the walnut tree behind the house at evening suggesting that there are no young yet.


The sparrows are busy too and are continue to spread their area of activity which was once confined to the back of the house.  They are now found all around the houses.


There appears to be only one pair of Black Redstarts. The population does not seem to have recovered from the period of decline probably due to feral or wild cats being resident in the barn where they nest. The male sings from the roof ridge of the barn.This bird must be vulnerable to the Sparrow hawk seen on the barn wall and then overhead on the 4th. I went birdwatching that day but it was very difficult to see any birds at all so they were either absent or were keeping undercover. There had been much alarm calling by Blackbirds and blackcaps earlier in the day.


Perhaps most remarkable of all was the huge bat on the wing on Saturday 2nd. This was about the size of a blackbird, it flew in daylight and high at about 10 metres above ground. It landed in an ivy covered poplar tree and also lay around on the roof tiles of the barn for a few minutes before returning to the wing. This bat was only  little shorter than the industrial roof tiles and it looked black on the wing but when settled on the tiles could be seen to be dark brown when viewed through binoculars. The preliminary identity of this bat is that it is the largest European bat the giant noctule. They are migratory so an effort must be made to establish if it is resident, apparently this can be done using an ultra-sonic bat detector as this species has a very distinctive call. There are certainly enough big trees at Le Port to accommodate a bat of this size. A bat was also seen on the wing in day light two years ago in May but it was not so large.




On April 8th the first Nigtingales were heard, one near St Cybranet and the other far away to the North of Le Port possibly around the stone masons yard where one or two normally nest. They are unlikely to nest at Le Port this year because the regional council decided to cut the road edge bordering the walnut field for the first time in 35 years. The result is that a mass of bramble and shrubs were cut leaving bare ground so it will be two years or so until sufficient has grown back to provide cover for Nightingales to nest. These will be the first years we have no nightingales since we first came here in 1977.


There are good numbers of Orange tip butterflies, but mostly male. Southern small white, a Cleopatra and a brimstone were also seen and unidentified blue. First swallowtail seen on 4th April but one only. Several red admirals too but little else.  The first crickets were heard singing on 7th April when the temperature rose to 24c.


No haikai inspiration yet!


So are we going to have another year of drought and heat as in 2007 when late March and early April were notably warm?  The human race is really making no progress in tackling global warning. A lot of people are in denial and the rest of us are obsessed with growth.  The only decline in fossil fuel use over the last five years was due to the unintended financial crisis and this was short lived.  What hope?