Now you see it...

Here you can see a line of trees and shrubs....

Now you don't!

But, now you can't.... magic.... no!!

Eric, who now runs the Fauvellier farm, has been putting in a set of irrigation pipes....
as if we currently need it...Ha-ha!!
The source is a bore pipe in a field near their étang...
this will give them ground water, with the étang as a reserve.

All very interesting, yes....
but you are now thinking...
"What has that to do with the above pictures?"

Well Eric.... sensibly on his part... took advantage of having a big digger on site...
he removed a tree and shrub line that divided one of the big fields...
from a smaller one and filled in the ditch!
It costs to get a digger in...
so use it whilst it is on site for another job.

It has been removed up to the neighbours garden.

But as you can see from the picture above....
the ditch, trees and shrubs formed a corridor toward the étang...
and then linked to the other side of the valley...
however...
it was the LAST such corridor from the nearby land South of us.

There are now no easy links between the wooded areas to the South...
with those on the Northern side of the valley...

It looks as though there is a link down by the Moulin de Chevernay...
but if you drive up into Chevernay, you rapidly discover...
that there are vast open fields on the flatlands beyond....
where, ten years ago, there was quite a lot of remnant hedge still standing.

The nearest easy links between the Aigronne and Claise valleys...
are now down by Gatault...
one and a half kilometres towards Grand Pressigny...
and up just before Chateauneuf...
another good kilometre from us towards Petit Pressigny...
where a big wood and then a set of small copses act as the link

A great shame... another chunk of habitat destroyed in the name of...
PROGRESS!!
The only real beneficiaries will be the raptors....
especially the Barn Owls and Harriers...
Hen and Montague's....
whose hunting habits require big flat open areas!

But small birds now have a big open tract to cross...
leaving them vulnerable to other raptors...
the Falcons and Hawks...
let alone the loss of nesting and feeding that the shrubby line gave.

And the small mammals will fare little better...
more open land to cross...
perfect for the Harriers and Owls!

Even some predators suffer...
flattened on the road just there the other day was a beautiful Pine Marten....
I thought it was a Fouine [Beech or Stone Marten]...
until Pauline questioned the colour.
We had a closer look on the way back....
and took photographs to record the loss!
Sure enough...
the colour on the neck was a rich cream and....
on close inspection...
the undamaged fur was too reddy-black.

Pine Martens have a huge territory...
upward of 80 square miles according to Collins "Mammals"*...
and martens, both types, move fast...
think weasel... and scale that up about five-fold.
The poor creature probably hesitated for that second too long....
trying to get its bearings!!

And all in the name of PROGRESS...
so that bigger machines have easier access!
Wildlife corridors are vital highways for the interaction of breeding groups...
the smaller the creature, the more vital it is to have easy links.
And I haven't yet mentioned the insects...
but poor fliers and habitual crawlers need habitat to almost touch....
or else their population becomes isolated and genetically, inbreeding can lead to....
disease resistance being lowered...
poor reproduction rates...
and eventual extinction of that population.

And, in the name of PROGRESS, the world becomes a poorer place.
I am not against progress...
I just want people to take into account what their actions might mean...
and try and create alternatives...
like a line of trees and shrubs...
or a hedge...
down either one of the sides of the road to Favier...
seventy-five metres further along.
But that will never happen...
there are no financial incentives...
no "rewards"...
no altruism, either!!


* "Field Guide - Mammals (Britain and Europe)" David Macdonald and Priscilla Barrett [HarperCollins 1993]

Destruction.... shock, horror!!

Two blog entries in a day... but this one won't wait. We have just witnessed the destruction of a field boundary opposite  our meadow... on the opposite side of the Aigronne. The shrubs were ripped up and deposited on the river bank... right on top of the last remaining clump of fritillaries around here!!

This was some of the patch in 2004

These fritillaries are not yet out [see this Days on the Claise post], fortunately, so may well be protected by the dumped bushes from the old hedge line. But yet another wildlife corridor destroyed.... OK, the hedge was in a terrible state... gappy and dying... why? Because they will insist on "trimming" their hedges with tractor mounted flails on a long arm... because it is quicker and cheaper than hand cutting with a billhook. The flail method leads to disease... which then creates gaps in the hedge... which soon means that the hedge is worthless as a boundary... so it gets removed.

One of our patches the same year... but not seen them here for around two years.
We think the coypus have had them.

But dumping it into a gap beside the river, whilst convenient for the farmer [or contractor?] is no substitute for proper management.

In the same place, but on the riverbank in 2004 were these Purple Toothwort

The destruction of wildlife corridors leads to isolation of species and their eventual disappearance. All along the Aigronne at the moment, there is a mass clearance of all the old trees.... especially the poplars... and we will be blogging about this in the next few days and explaining why the way it is currently being done is a bad way of proceeding if it is to benefit wildlife.

If it is just being done for the fisher folk is is a sad thing.