When we first laid eyes on the sign that stands by our front gates, letting eveyone know what the house is called, we fell in love. ‘Le Chant d’Oiseau’. The Birdsong. Truth be told, we’d fallen in love with it anyway as the car we were being driven in by the immobilier was brought to a halt by mother & baby deer. Just yards from the bumper. Syb & I just stared open-mouthed, then grinned at each other, thinking “we’ll have it…” before we’d even laid eyes on the house. Or the sign.
We had no idea what the place was called before we saw it. We simply knew it was for sale, and roughly where it was. We’d tossed around a few names in the event that it really did turn out to be as good as it sounded, and as it looked on paper.
But, all the names we chose failed miserably when we pulled up outside what is now our home and saw ‘Le Chant d’Oiseau’. A gorgeous wrought iron and metal edifice, locally made and standing sentinel just outside, on the quiet country lane. Perfect.
It’s fitting that our place is so-called, as the bird-life surrounding us, and indeed on-site too is just fantastic! We wake to birdsong, and we drift off to sleep to the sounds of the owls that are as much a part of Le Chant d’Oiseau as the bird-tables we’ve put up everywhere, to ensure a square meal for our feathered friends. The owls have lived in ‘Hibou’ (French for ‘owl’ since anyone that knows Le Chant can remember. We’ve had thrilled guests stand with us, binoculars in hand, glass of wine close by, keeping an eye on the narrow ‘window’ above the gite, waiting for the owls to appear in early spring. They fly out, calling to their young to follow, and we watch enthralled, as the parents teach their young how to hunt in the fields behind us.
We love to watch the owls hunt in the fields surrounding us.
We often fly to the office (forgive the pun) to pick up one or other of the binoculars there to see what it is that’s causing a commotion in the fields behind us. Sometimes it’s the graceful to & fro of the hen harriers that love the wide-open fields. Other times it’s the gawky herons and egrets, stock-still, patiently waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting morcel. A frog perhaps, or a mouse. Just a couple of weeks before Christmas, we counted 9 herons in the field behind us!
Frequent visitors to Le Chant d'Oiseau are the hen harriers.
Just behind Chardonneret, we often see clouds of goldfinches (Chardonneret is French for ‘goldfinch’) rising from the grasses there, swooping and diving for just a moment before settling once more, en masse. Then they’re off again…
In the spring and early summer the swallows and swifts visit, and try to revisit the old nest that’s still attached to one of the beams in our lounge. It’s been there since 1990, or even earlier, and we just haven’t the heart to remove it! They fly around my head in the office, looking for a likely nesting place. Deciding we’re too busy to accommodate, they fly back out again. Only to be replaced by another prospective home-builder soon after!
We often see (and hear) the woodpeckers in the garden, either on the poplars, or lately, on the hazlenut trees. Green ones normally, but we’ve seen a few huge black woodpeckers. Hoopoes too, with their funny flight pattern and striking ‘hairdo’s’ marking them out for all to see, easy to spot.
Kestrels, buzzards, hobby’s. The fields around Le Chant d’Oiseau are a raptor’s delight! We’re not sure if we’ve seen red kites here too. Possibly, but we need verification!
Rarer sights and sounds are the cranes that we see flying overhead at this time of year. The storks have been known to nest in the forest, in the highest branches, close to Loroux. We’ve had guests that have heard a golden oriole here too, but unfortunately failed to spot it, or them! Nightingales are popular on summer evenings, and we’ve even had to rescue one or two when the’ve become trapped in the sheds, or as on one occasion, on our landing! We sometimes have to rescue babies too, after they fall from their nests and we get the chance to reach them before the cats!
This one lived to fly another day!
Wrens & finches in the grounds, kingfishers down by the river. Cheeky robins in winter. The birdlife in & around Le Chant d’Oiseau is magnificent. Not just here, but a little to the south, by the Loire. Or close by, at Rillé, the huge man-made lake there has become a popular destination for ‘twitchers’ from all over the world. You don’t have to stray too far though, and the best sights are often the ones you don’t expect. Like a pair of hoopoes feeding their young on a country lane not to far from here. Guests of ours who’re keen birdwatchers all over the world are thrilled to have so much birdlife literally on their doorstep! They’ve stayed here twice now, and are back again this summer for their third visit. Hopefully to improve on the number of species they’ve recorded here – currently 89!
Patience is a virtue! Hérons in the field behind us.
It’s not just the birdlife that we (and our guests) are enthralled by. There’s usually a deer or two to brighten our days. they’re regular visitors to the fields around us, as you can see…
Local deer, being inquisitive!
The owl decided this morcel was just too big....
And this little beauty was worth the long trek across the countryside to get this shot. I ‘blogged about that little adventure here.
Mummy's little beauty!
Deer abound, as do wild boar. The boar are usually quite shy and not very often seen by guests. So, it was a great holiday surprise a couple of years back to be able to tell guests about this trio of orphans who’s been taken in by a herd of cows not too far from Le Chant d’Oiseau. Because the cows were naturally inquisitive, the boars came too, when we clicked and called…
Boar babies! Adopted by a local herd of cows after mummy was caught by la chasse!
So – Le Chant d’Oiseau, or (as the Cassini map of 1750 states) ‘Les Chants d’Oiseaux’.
The earliest map we've found showing our house.
Birdsong, Song of the Birds. It kind of rolls off the tongue, and it’s such an easy way to start a romance with France. Just like we did!
Until the next time, au revoir!
TBC
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