Found in the garden

[Doug]

we have both grass snakes and western whip-snakes here, think that I posted this one on the other forum.
an interesting program on F3 Limousin yesterday about how rare they are becoming and how they are now protected, there are six species of couleuvres and three of vipers.
There's a three year imprisonment and 150,000 euro fine for killing or trapping them.
Not that the french take notice of, same with hedgehogs the number you see run over.

[Spardo]

That looks like a wanabee draft excluder. Nice picture though. I wish I saw more of my resident(s) here, I find all the wildlife fascinating, but snakes particularly so. The last time I saw him he was stretched out basking on the surface of the pond, I crept as close as I could and he gradually withdrew, but when I got within a couple of metres, he dived down out of sight.

[RobertArthur]

Little couleuvres surfaced from the sand when I was busy with the pavement of a terrace:








p.s.: size of the paving stones 16 x 16 cm

[Blaze]

Not everyone's favourite, but they are funny to watch. We've had two fall down our wood burner flue in the last couple of days.

Starling.jpg

[France in Focus]

We only get adders and grass snakes round here - then we don't see much of them, I certainly haven't been privileged enough to photograph one. So it's nice to see piccies of them.

You nailed that one Blaze - cracking shot. We only see those twice a year, once in the spring and again in the autumn when they arrive in the garden en mass and clear any left over apples from the trees and strip the spindle bushes of their berries. Lucckily they stay in the garden during their short visit, and I get to watch their synchronising flying display every evening.

[Blaze]

I think they're cute except when they raid the fat ball feeders in the winter. They push the smaller birds out and just devour the fat.
Yes Char, the flying displays are wonderful

[Headers]

No photo but I was out with the dog for her midnight stroll 18/7/21 and heard a bird that I think was a nightjar in flight. Not the chirring call but a sound that in my head said ‘whip poor will’ is it a nightjar? I searched for a recording but can only find the standard call.

[Blaze]

Headers - many more birds sing at night than we might imagine. Some have found that there is so much noise during the day that they will continue on into the night, particularly at mating time. They are also disturbed by so much unnatural light - robins sing far into the night, and even sing in artificial light.
The only bird I can think of that makes the whip poor will sound is a pigeon but you would probably have recognised that.

If you have a smart phone, there is an app called BirdNET - you can record the sound and it will identify the bird for you. I don't have a smartphone, but friends who use it say it's very good. One friend recorded a bird but there was someone talking in the background and the response from BirdNET cam back as "Human" !

[Headers]

Headers - many more birds sing at night than we might imagine. Some have found that there is so much noise during the day that they will continue on into the night, particularly at mating time. They are also disturbed by so much unnatural light - robins sing far into the night, and even sing in artificial light.
The only bird I can think of that makes the whip poor will sound is a pigeon but you would probably have recognised that.

If you have a smart phone, there is an app called BirdNET - you can record the sound and it will identify the bird for you. I don't have a smartphone, but friends who use it say it's very good. One friend recorded a bird but there was someone talking in the background and the response from BirdNET cam back as "Human" !

It is incredibly quiet here and also very dark. No lighting for a long way round. I will try the app. Thanks for that, but it’ll probably never happen again!

[Blaze]

The Carpenter bees appreciate the sweet peas !

Carpenter bee.jpg