Sounds of Summer: Hungry Chicks

'Our babies (see this previous post) are doing well in the nest... here is an update, writes Francesca Bostock from the Manche. Also, I went on a bike ride today, from Sourdeval to Le Neufbourg, and I came across this little chap in the middle of the Chemin de Fer.  He just sat there looking at me, then hopped across the Chemin into the ditch.  I think he must have been recently out of his nest and not quite got to grips with using his wings yet.  He didn't seem injured, so I just left him to it.'

With all the predatory bastards lurking around, the little one has little chance of survival, unlike the Giant Bustard (in photo on the right, taken in the Beijing Zoo). There is a lot of excitement in Britain as Bustards in Salisbury Plain this year hatched their first chicks in nearly 150 years. The Great Bustard reintroduction programme began to release these magnificent birds back into the wild in 2004 with birds that had been reared in Russia. The Great Bustard is the heaviest flying bird in the world with males reaching 20kg and a wingspan of over 6 feet. They were hunted to extinction in England in the early 19th century.

Read more on the reintroduction project here.

And this is a famous Vaughn Williams piece about another summer bird much loved in France and in England, the skylark or alouette.

Eggs and A Worried Parent

Here is a nest full of eggs found hidden in a bush...

 

And soon the worried parent was spotted.

 

Sent by Francesca Bostock, the Manche.

A Nest of Blondes

Found this bird's nest in the garden. Look:  it's mostly made with the blond hair off my Golden Retrievers.

See also this post on Running With Dogs blog.

Magpie Buck Riding Event

Ever seen those African birds riding on the back of the buffalo? Or Texas cowboys competing in bull riding?

Here is the Normandy version: magpies riding on bullocks. Whatever it was there the birds seemed to find lots.

Sent by Peter Drearey in Orne

A Bird of Prey (Common Buzzard)

Normandy is a birdwatcher's paradise, so many birds, so close. Here is a buzzard who comes to harry the chickens - or, more likely, the mice in the chicken run.

Sent by Francesca Bostock, the Manche

"Wow! is this all for me?"

The photo was taken through the lounge window after my husband hung up the grease balls just outside, so I could enjoy them as I was housebound at the time.

- Freda Andrews,
Percy, the Manche

Swans in Love

A fitting image for Valentine's: two swans with heart-shaped wings on the village pond at Le Chefresne, near Villedieu-les-Poeles.

Photos by Ray Clancy, Villedieu-les-Poeles
www.gotchaphoto-design.com

Save the birds

What to do if you find a sea bird on the beach exhausted after a Winter storm?
Try to recover the bird without panicking it, touching it as little as possible with your bare hands, and put it in a cardboard box with newspaper. This will help it to de-stress.
If you are in Calvados you should telephone M. Gérard Bertran at the Dame Blanche, a small country wildlife park at St Julien de Mailloc near Orbec in the pays d’Auge 02 31 63 91 70.
If you are in the Manche, Nicole Girard acts as coordinator. Her number in Cherbourg is 02 33 22 93 02.

Read more in the February issue of the Rendezvous magazine, on sale now.

Photo of a rescued gannet sent by Robin Rundle,
Groupe ornithologique normand
robinrundle@club-internet.fr