Jackdaw Couple

Today the mistral (a strong N/NW wind) hit full force, for the first time since we arrived in southern France a week ago. We stayed indoors to watch big John Isner of the U.S. Davis Cup tennis team beat his French opponent (Jo-Wilfried Tsonga) to take us to the semi-finals (we'll meet Spain in September).

Late in the afternoon we ventured out. In the driveway area I captured this pair of Jackdaws (Corvus monedula--in French choucas)--before I got my camera up they were on top of each other, but I wasn't quick enough to capture that. There are many jackdaws around, often in the many plane trees (whose patchy bark you see here). They call constantly in flight, in creaky-squeaky fashion.

On the outing--very nearby--we finally hit the jackpot. We had been searching for Little Bustards (Tetrax tetrax) since we had arrived, and we found a group of four--very, very distant, in an area with stones, grass and bushes, as is typical. They were clear in our bionoculars, and I did get some photos, but none were anywhere near worth a blip. That made our day!