1. Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Not particularly rare over here I guess but I wasn't really holding out much hope for actually seeing them due to all of the vegetation coverage on the trees. Had a bird fly over that I thought looked good and then it started drumming across the valley so I headed towards the noise where I found a female preening in a tree top, unfortunately the male remained out of view but I'll try to get that another day. It showed really well although the light was in the wrong direction for pictures so I just got the following record shots on my phone. There was also Great Spotted and Green Woodpecker all within 50 m of here too!
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (Phone-scoped)
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (Phone-scoped)
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (Phone-scoped)
2. Woodchat Shrike. Only seen the one Woodchat over here so far, way outnumbered by Red-backs in this area so thought I'd have another look at it this morning to try and get some pics, again light was not great from my angle, think afternoon would be better.
Woodchat Shrike (Phone-scoped)
Woodchat Shrike (Phone-scoped)
3. Hawfinch. I saw one the other evening but today had 2 birds land in a tree top after flying low overhead calling, unfortunately it was still fairly early so no chance of a decent photograph, just the record shot below.
Hawfinch (honest) (Phone-scoped)
4. Golden Oriole and Jay. No pictures of this but quite interesting watching a stonking adult male Golden Oriole fighting with a Jay for a good 10 minutes. What a sight. It was in an area that I had a female type thing earlier in the week (and daily in this location since) so I think its likely they are breeding in the small copse.
Golden Oriole from a few days ago at same location (Phone-scoped)
There was also plenty of other smart birds (as usual) such as 3 or 4 male Cirl Bunting, lots of Melodious Warbler, several each of Hoopoe, Cuckoo, Woodlark, Tree Pipit, Stonechat, Black Redstart and Turtle Dove, and of course the explosive Nightingales everywhere.
Male Cirl Bunting trying to hide (Phone-scoped)
Turtle Dove (a bit closer than the last photo) (Phone-scoped)
We decided to go and check out a Medieval village today (called Chauvigny) and also go to the local market, was quite an interesting place with some very impressive buildings. We had lunch in the park where I noted a pair of Serin and some Moorhen on the pond. Hundreds of Swift and Jackdaw around the castles. On the way back to the Gite we stopped at a forest area briefly (due to their being millions of mosquitos), did manage Hen and Montagu's Harrier in this area and tonnes of Tree Pipit.
The late afternoon was spent lounging around the garden soaking up some rays, it was another cracker of a day. While sunbathing I got distracted by my first Black Kite over the garden, 3 Honey and 3 Common Buzzard and several Kestrel low overhead. Smaller birds within the garden included several Nuthatch, and a pair of Spotted Flycatcher, both of which I spent some time phone-scoping and I'm reasonably happy with the results (below). Several Golden Orioles were in the trees but never settled well enough for me to even bother trying to photograph and the Short-toed Treecreepers were too fast too! There's always tomorrow!
Nuthatch (Phone-scoped)
Nuthatch (Phone-scoped)
Nuthatch (Phone-scoped)
Nuthatch (Phone-scoped)
Spotted Flycatcher (Phone-scoped)
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