Once the secret of migration started to be comprehended, the incorrect concept that some birds hibernate, initially recommended by Aristotle in the fourth century BC, just continued to the end of the eighteenth century.
Read more: Diary of a birdwatcher in France: Migration
The report by “a very intelligent master of a vessel” who “ between the islands of Menorca and Majorca, saw great numbers of Swallows flying northward” appeared in Thomas Bewick’s A History of British Birds, released in 1797.
Bewick went on to specify the scenario in Britain as:
“Swallows frequently roost at night, after they begin to congregate, by the sides of rivers and pools, from which circumstance it has been erroneously supposed that they retire into the water.”
Common Restart represented liberty to British POWs
During World War Two, a group of caught British officers locked up in German camps passed the long years in keeping very comprehensive records of the comings and goings of the Common Redstart, (Rougequeue à front blanc).
Photo: Common Redstart; Credit: Michel Fernandez LPO de l’Aude
A migratory types, one can just picture the passion with which they waited for the return of the birds each Springtime, travelling through the wires of the camps to use up residence in the nesting boxes they were enabled to set up.
Not just might they re-start their enthusiasm of tape-recording the information of the types’ lives, however likewise the liberty that was represented by the motion of the birds would have been, for them, particularly poignant.
This desire for liberty is meant in a timeless book – The Redstart – that a person of the males, John Buxton, composed to release their findings.
Some of these males then went on to end up being vital members of the RSPB.
Most French departments have group to sign up with
First developed by ladies in 1889 to stop the massacre of unique birds to embellish the hats of Victorian women, the Society for the Protection of Birds was offered a Royal charter in 1904, and prospered in passing a costs through Parliament in 1921, the Importation of Plumage (restriction) Act.
It is now the biggest preservation organisation worldwide.
Even though the LPO (Ligue put la defense des Oiseaux) cannot match it for variety of members, it is the most prevalent preservation association in France, and to a level parallels the work of the RSPB.
Most French departments have a regional LPO group; sign up with if you can and help grow the 55,000 followers in the perpetual work, or merely have the satisfaction of school outing being assisted by professionals.
Read more: Nature watch in France: determine doves and how to help hurt birds
See Common Redstart moving to and from Africa
You are more than likely to see a Common Redstart here in the south of France throughout the migration durations, on their method to and fro to Africa.
They are discreet birds. Roughly the shapes and size of a robin, it is the white on the forehead that is the giveaway attribute.
Here in the Aude the more typical redstart is the Black Redstart (Rougequeue noir), and a few of them exist the entire all year, and are far from discreet, moving into towns in fall to constantly remove plants like Virginia Creepers of their berries.
Photo: Black Redstart; Credit: Michel Fernandez LPO de l’Aude
I as soon as counted eleven simultaneously working away on the exteriors of a building where I resided in a neighboring town. The males are particularly good-looking.
Brambings, chaffinches and mice on the feeder
It deserves watching on the feeders you set up as the winter strikes for other uncommon birds that may sign up with the citizen ones.
At the Mill we take our breakfast looking out on among the feeders, and one day Angèle found an strangely vibrant finch-like bird; it was a Brambling (Pinson du Nord), in among its cousins the Chaffinches (Pinson des arbres).
The very same shapes and size as the ever-present chaffinch, the males have an abundant rusty breast, a white tummy, and a yellow expense with a black suggestion; both sexes have a dazzling white rump noticeable in flight.
Read more: Chaffinches sing an effective tune
Very periodically a specifically bold mouse will make the most of the sunflower seed feeder, racing up the tree to get a seed prior to scooting down to the cover of the undergrowth listed below.
Photo: Yellow-necked mouse on feeder; Credit: Jonathan Kemp
Normally totally nighttime, I think that the one visualized on the feeder is a Yellow-necked mouse (Mulot à collier) due to the fact that of the orange-brown fur, plainly demarked from the brilliant white underside, bulging eyes and big ears.
Although to be totally sure that it is not the more typical wood mouse (Mulot sylvestre) you need to see the popular yellow chest spot.
We definitely have lots of wood mice around the Mill, the fur is more grey brown above, light listed below.
Great Cormorants look effective and ancient
Away from the feeders, down on the close-by river Aude are some intriguing over-wintering birds.
Amongst these are the Great Cormorants, who fly up from their breeding location on the coast to make the most of the fish stocks in the lakes and river.
Much frowned at by regional anglers, these weird, primitive looking birds do not share the appearance of the garden birds.
With their snake-like necks, for me they are plainly dinosaurian (really the direct forefathers of all birds).
Big, effective birds, they will fly in V-formation when transferring to and from a location.
Occasionally I have actually seen flotillas of cormorants drifting low in the water, beaks held high, all relocating one instructions far from the viewed hazard of a person.
They are canny and alert, diving both to fish and prevent detection, and regardless of the periodic efforts to choose the numbers on the close-by lakes, there appears to be little success; they are constantly there every winter season.
They use up common roosts during the night in trees, which suffer as an outcome from the build-up of droppings (fiente), and frequently can be seen in weird ‘prehistoric’ impersonates they spread their wings to dry in the sun.
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