An oriole in my fig tree.

The spring came early this year; it was the end of winter one minute and then almost overnight it was early summer. The early spring blossoms, the ruby red quince, vibrant yellow forsythia and the beautiful dusty pink tamarisk all seemed to come into bloom two weeks or so before they normally do and  almost in the blinking of an eye. This seems to have been the pattern all along this year. The hay was cut in the middle of May, as opposed to June in normal years and some farmers have already begun the corn harvest. I don't suppose the vendange be any earlier than normal because the viticulteurs will want the grapes to soak up as much sunshine as they can before they are picked.
Just in front of the terrace there is fig tree planted by my friend and neighbour M. Rossignol many years ago just after we had bought the house. Then it was a holiday home to be enjoyed whenever we could find the time to leave behind our busy lives in Paris in order to make the 500 kilometre roadtrip down here to snatch a couple of weeks in the countryside. Our neighbours were so kind and first welcomed us to the village with invitations to share long,convivial (and delicious) meals with them in their farmhouse kitchen.Over the years we became firm friends and as a gesture of their friendship and because every Charentais house should have one, they planted us a tiny fig tree in front of the house.
In the intervening years the tree has flourished and grown amazingly. It is now a fine specimen of ficus carica which gives us two crops of figs a year, one in May and one again in September.The fruit we sometimes eat straight from the tree, usually during the cheese course when we eat outside on long spring, early summer evenings, or preserved, as fig jam.
The figs,of course, are also of great interest to birds and insects. Hornets love the sticky, over ripe fruits as do the birds. Almost every bird in the area seems attracted to them and this year our fig tree was graced with with the presence of one of Europe's most exotic summer visitors-oriolus oriolus, the Golden Oriole.
  The Oriole is a medium-sized bird, about the same size as a Blackbird. The similarity ends there however because the Oriole has bright yellow head, back and underparts and black wings or at least the males have.The females are a litle duller being mostly olive green with dark wings. The oriole's song is a rich fluty 'wee-alla -wo' and they can sometimes make a squealing cry like a cat. A remarkably exotic bird which probably looks more at home in Africa where it overwinters than it does in the fields and woods of Europe the oriole visits us each summer arriving in May and leaving as summer ends. There are always a couple of pairs nesting in the woods near the village and you can sometimes see a bright flash of yellow between the branches but only fleetingly, as they emphasize their reputation of being secretive arboreal birds.Not this year however. This spring,attracted by the ripening figs, the oriole visited my fig tree on several occasions. I have suceeded in seeing one from my kitchen window. I don't imagine there are many birders who can claim a Golden Oriole on their garden list. A good tick!