This year's family summer holiday was 2 weeks early in July spent at a gite in the small French village of Mandegault. This is in the Deux-Sevres region about 50 miles south of Poitiers and a similar distance east of La Rochelle. It is a very agricultural area with arable crops of sunflower, rape and grain being the principal products. There were a few cattle and sheep but not many round the village.

There were no trips specifically for birdwatching apart from my daily strolls along the large network of roads and tracks around the village. The village itself had large flocks of house sparrow, goldfinch, collared dove, starling and swallows. There were also significant numbers of black redstart, linnet, chaffinch, greenfinch and swift. Most of the villages in the area seemed to have significant numbers of the above. There does not appear to be any problems concerning the number of house sparrows in central France.

The other significant group were raptors. The highlight of the trip was walking down a lane with a male Montagu's harrier hunting over the field to my right, a male Hen harrier in the field to my left and a female Hen harrier hunting over the field behind him. Raptors were very common in the area particularly buzzards and the harriers.

Of the 65 birds specified below 51 were seen around the village - an area without any river or stream and no woods either. The hedgerows were alive with birdsong and I was ensured by the locals that the noise in springtime was deafening.

The remaining birds were spotted during various trips including the crested lark at a busy roundabout near the centre of La Rochelle.

The full list for the holiday:

Grey Heron         
Mute Swan
Mallard         
Gadwall      
Buzzard
Sparrowhawk     
Red Kite     
Black Kite     
Hen Harrier
Montagu's Harrier      
Hobby        
Kestrel
Red Legged Partridge  
Grey Partridge
Moorhen   
Lapwing     
Black Headed Gull 
Woodpigeon      
Collared Dove
Little Owl  
Barn Owl    
Swift    
Kingfisher 
Hoopoe
Green Woodpecker     
Crested Lark        
Skylark
Swallow     
House Martin
Tree Pipit  
Meadow Pipit      
Grey Wagtail
White Wagtail    
Starling
Jay   
Magpie       
Rook    
Crow 
Wren
Dunnock   
Fan Tailed Warbler
Melodious Warbler
Garden Warbler 
Blackcap    
Whitethroat 
Chiffchaff  
Stonechat
Black Redstart    
Robin
Nightingale  
Blackbird   
Song Thrush
Blue Tit     
Great Tit     
House Sparrow      
Tree Sparrow      
Chaffinch
Serin
Greenfinch 
Goldfinch      
Linnet         
Corn Bunting
Reed Bunting     
Yellowhammer     
Cirl Bunting