LPO Touraine invite you to two events in Yzeures sur Creuse! The first, on Tuesday 1st April at 8pm, is a talk on the Birds of Yzeures, by Jean-Michel Feuillet, a local naturalist and animateur. This event, intriguingly illustrated by a photograph of a bee-eater, is in the Salle Auditorium on Place François Mitterand, is free to all.
The second event, entitled Swallows is a workshop for youngsters from eight years upwards, and is also free. This is at 3pm on Wednesday 16th April in the Library at Yzeures. A splendid opportunity for your child to get covered in clay making a swallow nest! For more information and to inscribe, contact the Mairie on 02.47.94.36.54.
In France, what we know as house martins, sand martins and swifts are all varieties of hirondelle, the swallow itself being a hirondelle rustique. Hirondelle may be better translated as "hirundine", but that's a bit of a mouthful for most eight-year-olds, although on second thoughts many are perfectly au fait with the diplodocus!.
This is obviously an area where moorhens gallinula chloropus (gallinules poules d'eau) breed successfully, the bridge over the bief being a prime feature in the best territory. We have blogged about these confiding birds several times, for example here.
For the past couple of weeks we have been hearing "pip..pip..pip" noises from the waterside, which signal the presence of a pair of moorhens, walking or swimming along the water's edge, and periodically stopping to view a choice piece of real estate where they can build a nest. Today the inevitable happened - two couples met, competing for the same territory. One male (probably) was up on the top of the bank.
Who, me?
The other male (almost certainly) rushed up the bank at him.
Yes, you!
Chaos ensued....
'
All hell broke loose
They hit the bief in a great fountain of water, squawking loudly, leaning backward to kick with their long finned toes, while the females (presumably) took cover. The Marquess of Queensbury's rules forbidding biting, kicking or gouging clearly did not apply, while pecking and water boarding were the order of the day. After about 30 seconds of punishment handed out by both sides, one bird eventually fled (flew! how often do you see that?) downstream, leaving the victor in possession - until the next encounter.
These punch-ups were repeated at intervals of about two hours throughout the day. They are, as I write this shortly before midnight, at it again. Tim has threatened to get some logs out of the chaufferie to bung at them if they keep it up all night.
To the victor the spoils
In spite of the beating the birds give to each other, nobody was seriously hurt and the females were duly impressed, which is what it's all about, really.
Here's an exciting piece of news for French orchid-spotters, from Benjamin Griard, for the Faune-Touraine team:
The VisioNature family of websites has grown. The National Orchid Society "la Société Française d'Orchidiphilie" has just put a national data entry site on line:
Its purpose is to collect your data on wild orchids. You can log on to it, as with all the other sites of this type, using the same identifiers (your e-mail address and password) that you use currently on Faune-Touraine.
It will soon be spring and the orchids will soon be back!
Good observations!
If you aren't already registered on a VisioNature site and would like
to be, you can join directly on orchissauvage, or via the
faune-touraine website if you live in Indre et Loire, or from one of the
"other sites" if you live in elsewhere in France. Be prepared for a
question about your background in Natural History (e.g membership of
organisations, etc) and it's all in French, of course. I have undergone a
crash course in bird names and behavioural descriptions (comportement) and made a couple of stupid mistakes, but the team has been very kind.
VisioNature is a great way of learning what's around and where you might see it. The gallery of photographs is always worth a look - there are some professional-quality pictures there, look out for Céline's work in particular.
It has been a great privilege to overhear what I can only describe as an operatic love affair worthy of Tristan and Isolde, between two Tawny Owls [Strix aluco] Chouette hulotte. But it is as though we are listening to the opera on the radio. We have never seen any of the protagonists, but we have heard them up to three times a night for the past six weeks - and the drama is by no means over yet. In the absence of any of our own pictures, here is a wonderful picture by Martin Mecnarowski from the Czech Republic.
Copyright Martin Mecnarowski under Creative Commons
We have learnt a lot about Tawnies, their behaviour and particularly the sounds they make since 16th February, from both literature and observation. I basically knew that the females calls "kee-wick" and the male goes "tu-whooo". ""Tu whit tu whoo", the merry note of Shakespeare, is not the call of one bird but the combined contact call of a pair. I learnt that they mate for life (only four or five years on average in wild birds, though a captive bird reached the age of 21) so it's to the female's genetic advantage to form a bond with the best male possible. What the literature doesn't say is that she initiates the process (in our hangar in this case) with screeches and trills of high excitement when her hormones reach the right state of readiness. Mid February is a typical time for this to happen, when she is about 9 months old. The four males that responded may not all have been the same age, and on 4th March she kicked off a response from what sounded like eight males - probably every male for miles around.
Her "kee-wick" calls were loud and carried a
long way.
However the trill, though soft and musical, does not carry. It is supposed to only be audible over some 50 metres. It is rare for humans to hear this trill from a wild bird, and there is only one
recording of it on Xeno Canto out of 188 Tawny Owl recordings [I've put that in lower down].
One male (bolder?) came into the hangar to call for her, several nights running. She called out with regular shrill "kia" noises, and he hooted in reply to make up the "tu whit tu whoo". I recorded these calls with the voice recorder on my veteran Nokia mobile phone. At the time I thought I hadn't got anything. It was only when I downloaded these recordings that I realised that they actually aren't too bad. The tricky bit of this was to get the recording out of the phone. and
onto something that can process it. Nokia's software doesn't do it - in
the end I just treated the phone as another storage device, found the
recordings with Explorer and copied them to the computer.
These are the Nokia recordings from just after midnight, 16th February....
first the female calling "kia" and the male hooting gently
and again
His lyrical hooting calls contrasted with the fortissimo blast he gave one night in challenge when another male had the temerity to respond from outside. I was standing in the barn listening in darkness, and I didn't know the doors to the hangar were open! She too was outside, moving around probably from one telephone/electricity post to another.
After that we heard them flying up and down the valley several times per night, she leading, he following, stopping briefly in a tree or pole to call to one another.
The owls were also coming together for more intimate meetings, and some of these were in our hangar. After numerous attempts I managed to make a recording of the trilling call, this time being made by the male. It's recorded on an I-pod using a microphone intended for voice memos. The quality is awful, with a lot of white noise, and it failed completely to pick up the female's high-pitched call. The Nokia is much better quality, albeit fainter.
First we heard the female calling, then the male replied with some gentle hoots. Then (30 seconds into the recording) he started to trill. She continued to call, although that didn't record. You can just pick out the trill, particularly in the later part of the recording.
Unfortunately, this recording is extremely faint and crackly...
but this one, from XenoCanto is somewhat clearer
We continue to hear them on their nightly rounds of the valley, and at dawn we hear the male calling from the direction of the river. It is very probable that they will breed, although we don't know where - they may take over the barn owl box. Then we might see some of these...
Copyright: Twearth.com-species-tawny owl (under Wiki Commons)
Today, along with a lot of "pub" (advertising material) this little leaflet arrived in our letter box.
Going out in Touraine
It's the 2014 Calendar of Nature trips in Sennsitive Natural Spaces, and it's full of walks and visits to a wide range of sites, led by various bodies including the LPO and La Maison de la Loire at Montlouis.
Take mountaineering gear if planning to join the 5th August visit. If you wanted to join the 4th March trip - bad luck.
It's an essential item for any nature lover in Touraine. It's so new it isn't on the Conseil Général's web site yet, but you will eventually be able to download a copy (keep nagging here - select Environnement if necessary). You should also find copies at a Tourist Office. The Conseil Général's Environment pages can be found here.
Temperature (°C): Mean (min+max) 8.3
(Mean Minimum 3.5 / Mean Maximum 13.2) Minimum -0.9 day 03 Maximum 19.2 day 24 Highest Minimum 8.5 day 20 Lowest Maximum 8.0 day 11 Air frosts 3
Rainfall (mm): Total for month 64.2 [2013 - 49.5mm] Wettest
day 12.3 day 13 High rain rate 7.2 day 08 Rain days 18... 12 in 2013
Wind (km/h): Highest Gust 45.4 day 07 Average Speed 5.6 Wind
Run 3783.8 km
Pressure (mb): Maximum 1022.2 day 27 Minimum 985.0 day 10
February 2013
Temperature (°C): Mean (min+max) 5.4 (Mean Minimum 0.5 / Mean Maximum 10.3) Minimum -4.2 day 20 Maximum 15.4 day 19 Highest Minimum 5.9 day 01 Lowest Maximum 5.5 day 12 Air frosts 9
Rainfall (mm): Total for month 49.5 [2012 - 12.6mm] Wettest day 20.4 day 01 High rain rate 18.0 day 09 Rain days 12
Wind (km/h): Highest Gust 36.7 day 05 Average Speed 0.7 Wind Run 334.9 km
Pressure (mb): Maximum 1031.5 day 03 Minimum 995.5 day 10
Tasha Tuesday
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Tasha has been spending some time on the deck while I've been down below
stacking firewood. It keeps her dry (the grass all around is pretty wet)
and out...
Domfront — paysages
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The middle of May in 2005 in the southern part of Normandy around the town
of Domfront. Green, green, green. This is an area where a lot of pears are
grow...
Everyone Knows the Story About the Donkey
-
At the fruit tree care and maintenance lecture I attended last year,
Jean-Pierre Couturier said at one point: 'Of course, everyone knows the
story of Sai...
SCONEHENGE (second attempt!)
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Well if the 17 people who viewed this post first time around are having a
bit of déja vu it's because you are right. I was in the process of editing
a b...
May flowers
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May is a time for poppies in the garden. We let the poppies self seed and
then give stray ones a helping hand to find more acceptable positions but
you hav...
Swoboda and the radical lawyer
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*La Touraine* with two masts
In April 1 1915, Raymond Swoboda was charged with the sabotage of the liner*
La Touraine* on which he was a passenger. Su...
Trichodes spp Checkered Beetles
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In the Loire Valley there are two striking checkered beetles that look very
similar and are quite commonly encountered during the summer. Both are red
and...
Struggles of a Senior.
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I hate shop windows, and mirrors, more and more. Who is that old man, who
looks more and more like my father, and seems to follow me wherever I go?
One adv...
New Blog
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You may think we have gone completely...
NO we have started another blog which we will be completing every now and
then...
This can be found at
http://more...
DIY flan
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When we saw silicone flan case moulds in our favourite low-cost store, we
bought one. Fruit flans, we thought. Macerated fruit from our home-made
liqueurs,...
A name changer...
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One of our other blogs...
*Touraine Flint*
has changed its name and header...
it is now...
*Following Others' Footsteps.*
The change came about when we re...
Spring Intermezzo
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A brief intermezzo before we post the second part of the Sculptures in
Touraine exhibition.
After seemingly endless grey skies and rain we've suddenly been...
Tried and tested uses of goose fat.... Wot??
-
Being rather a rotund feline with a good appetite, I was reading the *Days
on the Claise* post of this morning about the Touraine Goose...
L'Oie de Touraine...
Spotted on the Web
We collect links to interesting Natural History & Environmental stories that we spot on the Interweb... this is where we draw your attention to them... [and there is an archive page of the same name... where you can also leave comments]
Japanese Knotweed: Asbos for failure to control invasive plants...
"People who fail to control the spread of invasive non-native plants such as Japanese Knotweed could be fined or receive anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos), the UK government says."
"In the past few years there has been a "wild food" boom with celebrity chefs heading for the great outdoors in search of fresh ingredients. So, how practical is it to live solely on wild food? And does spurning the supermarket, as some critics have claimed, make you just a bit annoying?"
Based at our house near Le Grand Pressigny, we are centrally placed between The Brenne & The Loire Anjou Touraine National Parks and the Sologne, enabling us to observe wild events and discover new [to us] insects, plants and birds.
We started this record in 2003, when we bought La Forge and from time to time we will be publishing the odd species list of what we've seen here at La Forge and in the immediate vicinity.
We've also been building a collection of finds, mainly from prehistory... we record those as well on the blog Touraine Flint. As well as pictures on this site, we've been posting to flickr.
Guided Tours in a lovely limo!
Susan&Simon from Days on the Claise have another blog, Loire Valley Nature, which is "designed to be used as an English language natural history web resource for lowland central France." .
About our other, more occasional, bloggings... and other resources
We havent made any recent changes on our website.... but there you will find a nice web album of photos from around the house. Click on the Deptford Pink to start the slideshow.
From there you can also find links to our other blogs... Our'foodie' blog De la bonne bouffe, where we are posting recipes, local taste discoveries and snippets on life in Touraine du Sud...
Our occasional blog Touraine Flintwhich focuses on the pre-history of the area and Man's effect on the land and the environment up to present times.
Also there Art en Saule, which is a record of the of the attempts at management of our six acre meadow.
The early listings were only a few observations with an entry and usually no record of numbers! They had been taken directly from our 'birders notebook' Where there are further details from the book we keep at the house, they will be added later.