Week in the Lot region continued 14th-15th June

Sunday 14th June 1.30

Hoopoes and other birds This is a very rich place for wildlife. I think the jays we glimpses last evening may have been hoopoes. Certainly there are hoopoes here – one perched on the wall not far away as I was eating my breakfast . The heat vanished overnight and it was a cool morning – fleeces needed. We decided around 10am to walk into Rocamadour – which, like Hospitale is very touristy as it is a pilgrimage site and the second most visited site in France, apparently. Nevertheless it is impressive with its mediaeval buildings clinging to the site of the gorge which is wooded and rocky and peppered with caves and holes so that the whole site is alive with swifts swallows and martins. Some of the swifts may be different to ours at home. Walking up the little lane from the lower part of the village we watched what I’m almost sure were spotted flycatchers. Sat on a branch with speckled chests – the birds (there were a pair) flew out to catch moths and butterflies with great ease and expertise, and then flew back with tails bobbing up and down. They had very thin beaks. Then we saw a redstart – again a thin beak, very handsome dark slatey face and eyes, ligheter patch under the tail and noticeable red patch in flying. He flew on and off the ground ahead of us. In the tree, a blackcap? Pale underneath – larger than a sparrow. Perched on top of a branch – and seemed to have a black head but hard to say given our view. The song sounded very like “do-it”. We saw another kite walking back to the house. I had to think about what kinds of kite there are other than our lovely red one (no bird books with me – weight on the train!) and seem to remember seeing kites in India years ago which I think were black and also in Northern Spain. Near home we heard a purring/whirring call – no idea what it was but would recognise it if I heard it again. Then on our evening walk we saw a very large black beetle with antennae twice the size of its body that flew onto the trunk of a tree.

Monday 15th June

There was a thunderstorm today, though little thunder – mainly torrential rain so we stayed at the gite. A hoopoe spent a long time feeding on the lawn and we could see the crest fan out – lovely. There was also a treecreeper, goldfinches and more recently in the heavy rain a great spotted woodpeckers. Around the garden there are blackbirds, chaffinches, great and blue tits and starlings and at least one redstart. I also saw a grey wagtail that did not look like our pied one? Pied with a bib, but mainly grey and with barred wings and light grey underneath. Then on the telegraph wire what I’m fairly sure was a pied fly catcher – seen from the back; mainly black but with a white patch. A very pretty redstart has been back – an amazing bird 0 this one has a very red chest – not just under the tail. Treecreeper; pied flycatcher; goldfinches Tuesday 16th June We walked in the Azou gorge today – walking from the gite towards the roald and along some lovely lanes till we reached a path down to the gorge with wonderfjul views. Cuckoos called constantly as we walked the lanes but weren’t present in the gorge. From the gorge we heard (but didn’t see) ravens and heard what I’m pretty sure were peregrine calls coming from the top of the gorge cliffs – an ideal peregrine nesting spot but though we both scanned the cliffs we could not see them. But in a different part of the gorge we did see a peregrine chasing a buzzard. I’m finding it difficult to sort out my martins and swifts here! I think there are sand martins in addition to the house martins are possibly other kinds of swifts too. The martins are brown rather than the dark blue-ey black of our own house martins but as they are always on the wing, hard to see properly. We had lunch sat on a bridge to a ruined mill over the boulders of a dried up river and watched a lizard moving around. It never caught anything substantial, but kept eating small things. Back at the gite I have just seen (6.40) a small yellowy-green striated bird sit on the hawthorn in the garden. It is definitely not a yellow hammer – perhaps a siskin? I need to look it up. The head is not as yellow as a y h but otherwise it is similarish – with a yellowy pale breast, striated and a si-si-si call. My quick look on the RSPB site on J’s I-phone suggested it might be a siskin? But not sure as yet. Cuckoos are still calling again at 9.30.