Sharing our Airbnb with a cave-dwelling king

(Audio) Facts about wrens

Firstly, I’d like to say a big thank you to Jess, Katie and Becky for holding the fort while I was in France for two weeks last month. I hope you all enjoyed their posts on beekeeping, ivy and making your home a destination for birds. I’d love to hear some of your own nature highlights from June over in the chat!

Noushi and me in the outdoor structure of the Airbnb in Normandy

It was fun being on holiday with our dog, though she probably got bored of KP & I asking her if she knew she was in France… “How did you get HERE, Noushi?”.

We spent the first week in a little gîte in Normandy with a view of a donkey and three goats and spent most of our time desperately trying to see the golden oriole* we could hear nearby, my friend’s “stop looking and you’ll find one” advice always at the back of my mind. He was right of course, and on our last morning, as we had our breakfast on the patio before packing up the car, we were stirred by the sound of two birds fighting over something above our heads. We looked up at just the right moment to see a gloriously bright golden oriole land on the telephone wire above us. Perfect.

A cute, round wren I drew on holiday

Our second Airbnb had a lovely outdoor structure (a converted stable I guess?) that we used to shelter from the sun, eat our meals, read, paint and play games. We shared the house with a mouse, the garden with some toads large toads and multiple gigantic bugs, and the aforementioned outdoor structure with a very cute wren. We grew accustomed to saying “hello” every time a wren appeared (which was a lot… I now realise it was probably both parents we were seeing) and I recorded some audio to share with you containing some of my favourite wren facts - apologies for the rustly noises, clearly I can’t stay still!

Since we’ve been home I also went out to record a Kentish wren doing its thing, to help you identify them when you’re out and about… but having listened back, the recordings are rubbish, so I’d recommend listening to the wren song here, to get really familiar with the wren’s distinctive song. I’ll get better at recording things, I promise.

The wren’s nest at the Airbnb we stayed at in Normandy

This holiday was a great one for bird-spotting. I saw my first hoopoe ( what a MAGNIFICENT beast!) and lots of tiny pied flycatchers perched on telephone wires. We had a wonderful time watching the house martins do their thing every time we ventured into a town and the swifts soaring over every mealtime. We also had some spectacular buzzard sightings - I’ve never seen so many at once!

Right at the end of our trip, KP asked me: “What one thing could make this trip even better for you? Is there anything missing?” An owl, I replied. The following night (our last in Normandy), walking back from a sunset-watching mission, he pointed to a silhouette on top of a chimney and asked “What’s that?”. I managed to focus my binoculars just in time to see a little owl, just before it flew off. Perfection.

Part of my nature journal from the trip

*The only reason I could identify the golden oriole’s call was because I have bird ID apps on my phone and wanted to know what bird was making the “wolf whistle” sound. I highly recommend BirdNET.

I thought a lot about this lovely Tweet of the Day episode in which Fyfe Dangerfield shares his own experience of seeing a golden oriole in France as a child while we were away - it’s only a few minutes long and worth a listen.

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What are some of your favourite memories of birds or other wildlife from your holidays? Please share in the comments…

I’d love to hear some of your own nature highlights from June over in the chat too!