Birds of Lauragais

I’ve been fond of watching birds since I was young. However, Julie and I lived in cities around the world for many years; it was a part of the job. When we moved to Occitanie, to live in the countryside, I wasn’t sure what to expect but was very happily surprised; La Selve is calm and quiet, surrounded by trees, and in the middle of fields, with birds everywhere.

The garden has all the birds that one might expect in Europe: blackbirds, with their beautiful and varied song are a delight at the end of the day, song thrushes, similar but without the variety. Pigeons, loud and repetitive, can easily become tedious. Julie loves the presence of robins as they accompany her, working in the garden. Tits and wagtails make up our ordinary ornithological occupants.

What really surprised me were hoopoes, which I had never seen before, but are regular visitors in early summer, particularly if it has rained the day before. One pair even nested in a cellar under the outhouse which is my office, but we never saw the chicks.

We often hear the beautiful song, but rarely see the bright yellow bird, the golden oriole. The song is instantly recognisable, and so is its warning cry, which is like the screech of a cat, but it hides in the trees.

Even brighter and louder are the bee eaters which visit us every summer in large flocks, chasing insects. With the sky behind them they appear black, but when they have caught an insect, and if they land on a branch low down to kill and eat their prey, or if you see them swoop down close to the ground you see their beautiful colours and realise that no two are the same; a beautiful mixture of reds, blues, greens, and yellows. To catch the bees they are fast; fast enough to fly alongside swallows in their swirling chases.

We often hear owls after dark, including a scops owl, which we were only able to identify with the help of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds [R.S.P.B.] in England. They were keen to help because the bird is very rare in England.

Late one evening we were eating outside when a bat flew around a corner of the house and very low over our table. Close behind it was a barn owl which was very surprised to see us, but seemed to stop in mid-air, just behind and a metre above Julie, change direction and fly away from us.

The owl that we see most, during the day as well as at night, is the little owl.  They have nested in the eaves of the house and in the window frames of our thick-walled farmhouse. They’re surprisingly tame and seem quite happy to accept our presence. One used to perch on a branch to watch through a skylight as I shaved every morning. Two came into our house, or one came into our house twice, but you know that already if you’ve read ‘Little little Lauragais owls’, or ‘The Little Owl’ on the blog page.

I had planned to tell you the story of our kestrels, but there is so much to say that I’ve decided it’s worth a blog to itself and will leave it to next time.