The New French Forum

A big chunk of plaster fell off the wall in our kitchen this afternoon and underneath it was a load of these horrible things. :shock:
I've had a quick look on beetle ID sites on the internet but haven't found anything that looks exactly the same...can anyone here ID this creature?
Photos aren't great, but hopefully clear enough for someone who...

We had a tiny bat enter the house last night. It flew in an open window in the lounge then flew upstairs into the bedroom, where I was in bed reading. I got up and threw open our large windows but it kept bouncing off the walls. It then flew into the other room upstairs, so we shut the door and again opened the large windows so it could go out....

First sighting this afternoon, heading south.

I rescued this from our pool today, never seen one like this before. Does anyone know what type of lizard/skink it is please?

White Wood Leptidea sinapis

Oh dear. OH has just rung whilst out walking the dogs to say he's seen the first group of about 20 grues heading south. It's overcast around here so although he could hear others, he only saw these 20 or so.

I almost wish he hadn't told me ............ :cry:

After months of dry weather we've at last got rain. And all of a sudden our bird population has exploded. Birds flying around in and out if trees, feeding again and singing like crazy. Why is this. Has the weather brought about this change or just coincidence. Any experts out there?

MOH spotted a link to this article recently.

But I can't find any reference anywhere as to the reason why this appalling decision has been made.
Is it just a sop to the hunting fraternity?

So, there I was....early AM...driving on local lane ( down south, 09) came across animal in road that had all the appearance in terms of size and shape of a large Marten but unusual colours- it had a Marten shaped head/ears but not obvious white Bib.. the end of the tail was banded and most of the body was covered in what appeared (in the car...

When walking my dog in the woods I came across trails of what looked like sweet corn kernels but thought it must be something else until my dog started eating them. So it is sweetcorn. Is this something hunters put down to attract animals?

We sat by the lake tonight, I mentioned to Mysty that there was a snake in the water swimming towards us. Clearly for him, I was far too calm in saying this to him as he thought I was joking :P. When he realised I wasn’t, he sounded kind of concerned when he asked if we should move, I said only if we see the grass move in front of us :lol: . So...

It's been a odd week, I took an early morning walk down the lane 6:00am only to find a pine martin and her babies running towards me - they came quite close then crossed the lane and into the fosse - how lovely to see them. Then a very small deer ran across my path. A couple of evenings ago a rabbit hopped around in the garden and disappeared then...

Amazing find in the Charente near Angouleme:

We feed the wild birds. They have a metal grille squirrel proof feeder, suspended from a branch of a plum tree, which is for the small birds. They also have a bird table below, on a pole with a roof, for medium sized birds and then a plank on the ground for the large birds. This attracts a whole range of fliers and plenty of other animals as well,...

:?: Our pet rabbit won't eat dried sweet corn. Can't blame her because the grains are as hard as bullets but practically all the packaged food for rodents, even ones labeled 'fruit and nut cocktail', contain sweet corn. So we put these uneaten grains out with the bird food and there they remain untouched. No wild birds are interested, nor are the...

Okay not quite wildlife in France but we don’t have a section for marine life which might get corrected. In the meantime, I am posting this here. Most of us I reckon, here in France, can only vote in the EU elections so I am asking for you to find out who your MEP is and if in the upcoming elections you get a chance to put a question to them, why...

I put this link up elsewhere but thought it deserves its own thread here
I support the idea that integrated nest boxes should be compulsory on all new builds and those of us in old houses could easily fit them too. I also like the nest boxes for robins, pretty sure a lot on here could make one themselves but if not then you know what to look for...

I know this has been mentioned before, however I seem to have a strange problem. We have mice, in the kitchen and the garage and in the ceiling of our downstairs bedroom, I can trap the ones in the kitchen and garage fairly frequently, however the one in the ceiling no :? I assume it will hunt around the house for food so eventually will find a...

We have a homing lizard - Eddie Lizard we have named it. It's a lounge lizard because it seems attracted to our lounge floor and likes to play with the cats who are fascinated by it. This is the third time it's been to visit and we can't seem to find out where it gets in. So it's the usual routine- put the cats in the kitchen so they can't hurt...

One of our indoor cats was getting agitated at something on the floor underneath the open tread stairs - it turned out to be a bat - it moved and he backed away, great big soppy tart he is! So - rescued it, a pipistrelle, into a plastic box and out to the barn, it's wooden with loads of gaps in the boards, gently tipped it out on a wide wooden...

In the last week we have had massive flocks of migrating birds swirling over southern Burgundy, which we have not seen before.

There must have been a couple of thousand in the flock.

They were slightly bigger than a magpie in size, dark in colour, triangular tails and broad wings.

They were too high in the sky to get a good look at them....

A family of badgers seems to have moved in right next to our house. I think it is just a matter of time before they find their way in to the garden (fenced). Has anyone successfully 'removed' them, how would we go about it? Do you think the mairie would/should get involved?

Could I remind everyone who feeds birds to please remove the netting from fatballs before putting them out for the birds. Birds can get their claws caught in the netting and are unable to release themselves thus ending up like this poor darling:
43750652_2307462826142374_8547686111105777664_n.jpg

There are several types of cheap fatball feeders...

Nooooo...I was only thinking that there haven't been any grues going south yet, and we're forecast a beautiful weekend, then this evening the first dreaded 'V' formation went over. Luckily, the drunken idiots in their wendy houses in the trees all around managed not to mistake them for pigeons :D
The grues are far more reliable as weather...

The title is not a joke but part of the title that caught my attention and is about ladybirds which are invading the U.K. .

Since being back home the last couple of days, we've had a problem with ladybirds in one room which happens to be the bathroom but I don't think that's why they are in there... I have just seen this article about infected...