The New French Forum

Saw one in 06 this morning. Really lifts your heart, doesn’t it?
Angela

A lot of them around here too !
Fantastic birds :
Many birds are nesting at the moment. When I brush our dog, I hang the fur on the hedge with pegs : all goes in a few minutes !

Hoopoe's, blackcaps, blackredstarts, to name a few.
Green lizards running about.
Yet to see our resident grass snake.
Spring is in the air.

I heard one this morning. I have still only ever caught a fleeting glimpse though. I'm envious of those of you who have them at the bird table.

Well done ! :good:
I remember my father when I was a child: he used to be friendly with robins which landed on his hand for getting seeds and pieces of meat.
One day, as an adult, I saved a female blackbird that had fallen from the nest and fed her. I took her on vacation in my camper van. She slept near me and pulled the sheets in the morning to...

I have seen them stop and circle over a larger town and have always assumed they were using the thermals to regain height.

You're lucky, Jo! Nothing like that here, except the bird life is varied.
Going back to our pond, the mares of the Gers were good places for wildlife to flourish. I think they were created for the clay in the soil which was used to make blocks for building. Then became useful eg for abreuvoirs for cattle, as well as havens for wildlife.
I used to...

This is a good website to follow their progress:

Thanks PatF. Seems to be the sort of site that might be useful. Not that it was ever that important, but I just thought someone might be knowledgeable.

Pity the other posters can't be as helpful. They seem to be in a dark, smelly and rather sore place. And I 'll leave it at that.

If you had been able to describe the crime scene in a way that...

I know which I prefer between living somewhere with wolves, and somewhere with a human equivalent. But shows sheep farming is tough wherever you are.

But I won't be transporting it, I have now officially retired from all long distance journeys and went out with a bang after a frustrating trip round northern Italy to get 2 Sicilian dogs.

Enjoy your retirement - or your second retirement I guess.

J

Thanks J, yes you're right, 2nd retirement, I will still be available for day runs but need...

Spring is sprung
The grass is riz
I wonder where the winter is...
Is winter coming next
No, that's absurd, I'd always heard...
:shock: No wonder I'm perplexed

I would rather have a nice bird any time. Circumstances allowing.

We have a 2nd home in central brittany. We’ve heard sounds of shooting on both Saturdays and Sundays if we’ve been at the house during the chasse season, so I tended to avoid walking the dog on those days. We also drove slowly through areas where the chasse were active, as did the cars we were following, to ensure we didn’t come into contact with...

Not for those that are appropriately trained apparently

I’m expecting frosts next week. I won’t be able to cover it. Never mind. There’s always 2021!

When working in attic a few years ago, a few fell down, I was called on to rescue them as someone else didn’t want to pick them up :D

They're quite friendly too, I removed a few to the window for release but after I opened my cupped hand they seemed reluctant to leave. One large green one started crawling up my arm allowing me a very close look at its face. :)

Saw this lot heading south yesterday morning: grues.jpg
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Gruesome.

Fire salamander - very common around these parts.

Make sure you wash your hands after handling!

That snake looks nasty what is it? no need for a smarty pants person to say its a snake 8-)

It was the same here yesterday with the swallows. A huge flock swooping about cleaning up all the midges and flies 8-)

Obviously there's a missing post here. I think this is the original article in French from which the story in the OP came, but I can't see any justification in it other than a sop to the hunters.

No, even though I was born within the sound of Bow Bells I don't use slang.

No sure but quicker than everyone else. 🤪