Poitou Charentes, Charente Maritime. (1 Viewer)

[bella34]

Hi, i'll be staying near Saintes, Poitou Charentes for two weeks june into July, any notable birds or bird places to see in this region, is it worth taking my binoculars ?.

 

[Eugene Archer]

I've been working near Saintes a few times recently and have seen the following: Bonelli's Warbler, RB Shrike, lots of Melodious, Black Kite, Monty's, S-T Eagle, Crested Lark, Golden Oriole, Rock Sparrow north of Saintes in the village of Villefranche, so a few species that might be of interest.

 

[bella34]

thanks for that Eugene.

 

[bella34]

Hi Eugene, your advice was pretty good, I did get to see just about every one you mentioned.
We were in a gite near Nancras on the Saintes - Marennes road, and I saw Black Kites, Buzzard and Short toed Eagle every day but the highlight was a male Montagu's harrier hunting over the crop fields around our gite, one evening I watched him carrying prey overhead and dropping into the crops maybe a kilometre away, and in that direction a day or two later maybe the same male nearly flew into my car whilst chasing a bird that escaped into a bush.

Fantastic stuff.

 

[Eugene Archer]

Glad to hear you had a good visit - the number of Montys in the cereal-growing areas of Vendée and Charente-Maritime seems to be particularly high and, like you, I've had them flying down the road and almost into the car on a few occasions !
I also regularly saw them following tractors cutting grass for silage and they seemed more or less indifferent to the presence of humans nearby, assuming you stay in your car that is. Fantastic birds indeed !

Eugene