One mystery solved and a bogey bird is no more....

Though the only connection they have is the location. In this case it was on a south facing slope in Charente Maritime in the midst of the "Petit Champagne" vineyards providing some of the finest Cognac in France.

The mystery has endured since 2003 when, on that same slope, we acquired an ancient house with a modest garden in which is a healthy mature Hazel tree. We've been back there most autumns since and never seen so much as a single nut.  We were able to do an early July trip this year and found, to our considerable joy, a crop of the plumpest most beguiling Hazel nuts you've ever seen outside Kent. RESULT!  They were still pale green and nowhere near ready for harvesting but I was already planning a 2013 nut picking trip. Have a look at this.

and there were lots more like that....

A couple of days after this happy discovery I took a break from brushcutting to go and admire the crop (again) and heard a slight rustling in the Hazel Tree which I put down to a Blackcap which had been warbling away for a while. Then I heard the cracking sound.......

I peered into the foliage and saw movement; rather guilty sheepish looking movement. I then had to pop back indoors for the camera and to summon Mrs BNTS.  We returned briskly but stealthily and I was able to grab this shot of the culprit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tufty here looked a bit bemused by our appearance and looked us up and down thoughtfully. He decided that, on balance, discretion was probably the better part of valour and mooched unhurriedly away to the adjoining woodland with its inferior wild "noisettes" and this year's rather modest looking Walnut crop. It's an interesting small wood where "Couleuvres" (western whip snakes) bask and Golden Orioles call tantalisingly (and invisibly) from the top of the canopy.

Charente Maritime doesn't really have a regional cuisine unless you count Oysters and Mussels but there's nothing wrong with the avifauna. Loch Garten Ospreys seem to loiter around near the coast during autumn passage and Hoopoes occasionally visit the garden. This year Black Redstarts seemed to be back in charge with Common Redstarts apparently taking a year off. The Cirl Buntings occupied our Box hedge as usual and we had our first Serin jangling away (acoustically a little like a Corn Bunting) on the TV aerial. A Common Buzzard family never seemed to be far away. Linnets seemed to like the rose bush by the front door and were constantly flitting in and out of it. It was good to hear a purring Turtle Dove too which I spotted on a telephone wire across the vineyards.

Tufty was on a mission. For some reason he wanted those Hazel nuts while the kernels were the size of sunflower seeds - What a waste! Eventually he got used to us stopping by to glare at him, so I was able to capture him in better light and somewhat more exposed. He was rather hoping that folding his tail down would make him appear less conspicuous. Good luck with that then.....

Anyway - to the bogey bird. It was a lazy sunny lunchtime and I was on the point of slapping a bit of "Tartare" (Like Boursin but cheaper) on a baguette when Mrs BNTS remarked, rather enigmatically, "big bird". I pushed aside thoughts of a big yellow character from "Sesame Street" and thought "Black Kite or Buzzard?". The specimen in question hove into view with a complete absence of forked tail and mid-wing kink. Buzzard it was then, or was it? The wings and tail looked longer than normal and the wings were always held flat or slightly depressed. Female Hen Harrier? - Nope. No white rump and whenever did you see a harrier with an anhedral wing angle. Short toed Eagle? - Nope. They're almost white underneath. This one was "beige" and barred. Finally a young Honey Buzzard and another bogey bites the dust.   Sadly no photo so you'll have to make do with one of these that live conveniently beside coastal car parks on purpose built platforms:

And now I need a favour. I'm rubbish on Lepidoptera so if anyone can ID this one for us I'd be ever so grateful. The topside "zebra look" masks a vivid scarlet underwing that manifests itself startlingly in flight.