As I sit in my apartment in the Alps I reflect back to when I left Herefordshire and how I had observed over 40 swallows gathering on the electricity wires going over the land next to our home. Every now and then they would take off, bar one or two and have a feeding frenzy on the insects over the fields and woods. I suspect that when I return they will have gone off on their amazing journey, back to Africa.
Another traveller is the redstart. I was fortunate to see one of these on our feeders a few years back but not since. Here in the Alps and also in Burgundy, where we stayed with my daughter, there are plenty of them and like the swallows they are stocking up in preparation of the anticipated flight back to Africa. They are a handsome bird the size of a robin and can be easily mistaken for a young one until they flicker their tails up and down and reveal the rusty coloured tail. My daughter had them nesting in an outside disused electric box where they probably raised a brood of 5-7 chicks.
Travelling along France we would see many grey herons, not just a solitary soul, but 2 or 3 at a time. Recently I saw a pair flying over our fields between Marden and Sutton. They always remind me of the ‘M’-shaped birds you find in paintings. Most of the year they live on their own except in the breeding season, so to see so many in one go was a pleasing sight.
By our place here there runs a mountain river with crystal clear waters, rocks and small waterfalls, ideal dipper territory, and, low and behold, a flash of black with a splash of white flew past and then on the next day’s walk along the bubbling brook revealed one feeding, hopping rock to rock and plunging under the water to grab a larva or some other tasty morsel. Compared to the dipper I espied on the Lugg in August it appeared to have more white down its front but otherwise similar to a blackbird to look at and great to watch.
Other birds along the walk that I observed were a mass of jays squawking away and not as shy as the ones at home and many grey wagtails popping in and out in the trees on the river banks. We could hear woodpeckers of the green kind but, like at home, they were being elusive. We visited a nature reserve that was in a semi-circular of cliffs formed by a glacier in the high mountains many moons ago. It was appropriately called the ‘circle of the horse shoe’. Eagles, vultures, chamois and other rarities can be seen here but it was a disappointment as far as birds and mammals went but the last of the summer mountain flowers were a pleasure to see and many butterflies too. A few common to home like red admirals, whites and meadow browns but also, southern white admiral and scarce copper and in Burgundy there were many clouded yellows and painted ladies.
The cliffs spill out many waterfalls from their tops which accumulate into at least two rivers running through the valley floor. It was quite obvious that there has been a lack of rain, as in many places only a dribble came down the rocks but we still counted 12 flowing cascades. In spring, after the snow has melted, there are twice as many spurting torrents down the vast outcrops of rock. You could see from the scrapings on the rocks where the glacier had left its mark and the boulders strewn over the valley floor on which we perched upon one to consume our lunch. Even though the temperatures were in the high 20s we found a large wall of snow over 10-foot-high, probably the remains of a late spring avalanche.
We have seen here, in the past, marmots. These are a beaver sized rodent that whistle in the spring in conversation with mates. At home the one animal that I saw most frequently was the grey squirrel gathering in the nuts and seeds to hide for winter sustenance. Over here they are the smaller bushier tailed red squirrel and we saw many. We stood and watched one gather up some goodies and then try to make up its mind where to hide it. They often look like they bury it in one place and then another until eventually it has done it unseen, as it scuttles off to find more yummy treats. This is to deter anyone watching, especially other squirrels, from pinching their hard earned larder. A sign that autumn is here and winter is coming.