I find that I'm using the Merlin bird identification app more and more often, just because it picks up bird song at a fair distance that I can't distinguish and sometimes can't even hear.

This morning's motley selection is a serin, a blackbird (plenty of those all around the garden), the cuckoo (only one for the moment), wood pigeon, blue tit, chiff chaff, and the raucous green woodpecker that has taken to shouting in alarm in the grass about 20 metres away.
Sound up for this one!
#auvergne
#livradoisforez
#massifcentral
#France
#birdsong
#birdsofmastodon

Different settings, different birds. Back in central France, in semi-open woodland, interspersed with moderately hilly grazing pasture.
Heard our first cuckoo yesterday, and managed to record it this morning (have a separate screenshot for that). It probably arrived about a fortnight ago when it was warmer, but we weren't here.

The golden orioles will arrive soon, usually around mid-April.

The sound of the woodlark is also usual for this time of year, they tend to sit on the wooden fence posts of the neighbouring field before they take flight.

The woodpeckers are also year round residents, including the black woodpecker, not recorded here, but separately yesterday, despite Merlin app's diagnosis as it being unlikely. Their plaintive cry is unmistakable and they often visit the garden.
#auvergne
#massifcentral
#France
#birdsofmastodon
#livradoisforez
#birdidentification

Ce matin, en essayant de rattraper mon retarde de lecture sur #Atramenta, j'écoute cette pépite, ce serait bête de s'en passer, en plus c'est gratis, à moins que vous ne vouliez soutenir ces braves.

#Musique #neotrad #massifcentral

https://lexcentrale.bandcamp.com/album/plouc-c-leste

Les "sans-trains" ont crié leur colère à #Limoges

Près de 800 personnes ont défilé ce samedi 31 janvier dans les rues de Limoges pour dénoncer le sous-investissement #ferroviaire. Plus d’une trentaine d’associations d’usagers du #MassifCentral et au-delà s’étaient donné rendez-vous sur le parvis de la gare des Bénédictins pour faire entendre la colère des « sans-#trains ».
https://www.lamontagne.fr/limoges-87000/actualites/les-sans-trains-ont-crie-leur-colere-a-limoges_14822296/

#Limoges ce 31 janvier 2026

#Rassemblement 15h00 à la gare

à l'appel des #SANSTRAINS

de #NouvelleAquitaine et du #MassifCentral

28 organisations de défense du #Ferroviaire

Pour des liaisons #Bordeaux #Lyon par Limoges et par #ClermontFerrand

#Trains #Train #Fer #Rail #TER #TET