Wheeeeeeel Hell..oooo Mantis

Wheeel Hellooo tooo You, too!

Another picture post... I think there may be more of these!!
we are really quite busy here with trying to recover as much as possible from the garden...
before winter sets in.
However, this mantis dropped in... or was on the Ficus when I brought it indoors...
it really seemed too good an opportunity to pass up.
It gave me the chance to try out part of my retirement present to myself...
a 100mm macro lens.

One for Halloween, just past....
The Vampire Mantis!

Hey, you followin' me....?

Mantis on the prowl!

La Mante fecund....
now is the time you see the pregnant females....
their husbands tucked safely away...
inside!

Sly Mantis... a portrait
I feel that these are the real aliens...
look at the apparatus under her chin...
the pipes for cleaning this planet's atmosphere!!
They just don't want to let us know that they are so small...
(As with all images, this is clickable, so you can see that plumbing up close.)

Her head suddenly snapped round and stared straight into the lens...
I think she might have seen her reflection...
and reacted!
This is the same shot as the first...
as is this next shot...

Which shows the individual facets...
only visible when you look straight down the tubes!

But, this last is perhaps my favourite from all those I took....

Conducting the Dawn Chorus

Caught in the act when I went downstairs...

There will be more of these...
probably the next will be on moths...
or perhaps...
spiders.


Published by Tim

The Birdwatching Fraternity

Not our normal Aigronne Valley Wildlife post...
but the weather is dull... and some humour is needed!

Birdwatchers come in all shapes, sizes and types...
these are just some of the "species" that can be observed in the wild....
especially now... with the migration in full swing!!

The Birdwatching Fraternity
by Tim
[cartoons by Seppo and Rohan]

The occasional birdwatcher....
cartoon by Seppo

The Occasional Birdwatcher
Weekend vagrant...
Has a good pair of secondhand bins...
occasionally a cheap 'scope...
and a wobbly tripod...
carries a dog-eared original '60s copy of Collins...
that they've had since they were fourteen...
tucked in the pocket of an old water"proofish" coat...
gets out at weekends if the other half allows!
If married, has the sprog in tow!!
Somewhere at home is an old RSPB spotter's list...
with one dedicated to a Life list...
ticked in many different colours...
with lots of gaps!!

On his site Rohan posted a poem and a cartoon...
he's now posted a fully illustrated version...
it sums up perfectly the problems that some birds create...
for the birdwatcher.
[There was an Olive-backed Pipit in Norfolk this w/e...
and a Blyth's Pipit on the Isles of Scilly!]

The Birder
Often to be seen at weekends...
rare vagrant during the week...
has bins, 'scope and a decent tripod...
nowadays, often carries a "bridge" camera...
with a 20x to 30x zoom ability.
Has a first edition of the more recent Collins...
often plastic covered.
Might well be single....
or have an understanding partner...
Much rarer sub-species is...

It's no use... it was up against the sky...
I'll need another look at it... perhaps it will come lower!?

The Paired Birder
As for The Birder...
but this will be a couple...
one struggling to keep up under all the gear!!
The other "travels lite"...
sometimes have their chicks in tow...
which can cause havoc for other serious Birders who have never had chicks...
however, the chicks can be palmed off onto older Birders whose youngsters have long flown the nest...
and will chickmind and enjoy passing on their knowledge to a younger generation.
These chicks will very rarely be seen in their 'teens...
but can reappear as they reach their young adulthood...
no real research has been done in this field...
but rumour has it that they retreat into darkened caves...
and perform strange acts upon tablets and computer screens...
called "gaming"!

"Patchers" will often have excellent records of migratory species!

The Patcher
Out as often as is possible...
but never willing to to travel far...
decent quality bins and 'scope...
good SLR camera and assorted lenses....
record books, a couple of field guides [one on "jizz" perhaps]...
always has a notebook on the go... or a page-a-day diary...
often looks miserable if an entry can't be made!
Often has a dog... the excuse for numerous walks around "the patch"...
the back garden, if there is one, tends to be converted...
into a haven for birds!!

Not a species to be dismissed lightly...
The Patcher is an important part of the naturalist research community...
often a "Citizen Scientist"...
their observations cover many years for the same area...
can evolve into "The Wildlifer" but remain as a 'patcher'...
this adds to the value of their records!!

Occasionally to be seen as a vagrant "off patch"!!

Confusin' the SeaWatcher!

The SeaWatcher
Similar to the Patcher... but much hardier...
spends very long periods sitting in one place...
on damp shingle, in dunes...
or on clifftops...
trying to spot Pomarine Skuas, Such'n'Such's Petrel or JoeSoap's Shearwater...
and have very large 'scopes and SLRs with extremely long focus lenses...
the latter to photograph the dot...
for identification and proof that they have seen the damned thing...
and it isn't that they've been sitting in one place for so long...
and they've got "floaters" from staring at grey sea and grey sky for six hours.
They will know their stretch of coast exceptionally well...
they keep extensive records...
and again play an important part in record keeping for science.

However, both the above species would play an even bigger scientific role...
if someone doing research could get their hands on all those records!!!

The sexes are the wrong way round... but this will be recognised by someone we know!!

The Wildlifer
As for Birder, with the qualities of the Patcher...
started as a Birder... but discovered other things along the way...
so the couple of field guides have become...
field guides [asst'd]....
birds, plants, insects, fungi, mosses and liverworts, butterflies&moths...
the latter in addition to the insect book...
they carry lots of notebooks... as well as all the other gear...
often single or divorced...
always has need of a car...
but some can be seen on bikes...
including one in Britain on a converted tandem [for one]...
there are some biking birders, too.

Number two... the Wildlife Photographer
From Rohan Chackravati's "The 11 Types of Wildlife Photographers"
which is here...

The Wildlifer can evolve into the The Wildlife Photographer...
this species may travel lighter...
but often not...
the guides may have been left at home...
but a lot of "glass" and other accessories have replaced them!

Has this ever happened?
Very possibly...
there is great kudos attached to being the person....
who spots the bird first!!

The Twitcher
Perhaps the most well-known...
a lot of this species are to be found in sudden eruptions at remote sites.
These are the Skuas of the species...

If a field has crops growing...
most twitchers couldn't give a ****!!

Can be a pest to permanent residents...
and can also cause terrible damage to habitats...
especially fragile ones...
if a large number gather in one place, the surroundings get trampled severely!

Twitchers at Cley, Norfolk...
this bit of Cley is normally VERY quiet!!

The more "juvenile" of the species will behave very irresponsibly...
breaking into peoples' property and couldn't give a damn about anything....
but getting a sight of that "twitch"!!

The amount of equipment carried varies considerably...
but always involves a pager or other means of instant communication...
always has an excellent pair of binos and a very good 'scope...
if one of their means of communication is a mobile 'phone...
then they will have the 'scope adapter...
for that combination of lens and 'phone!
It will probably be an EyePhone...
they will, also, probably have a tablet...
in fact an EyePad... major or minor...
the purchase of these is because you cannot get Collins or the BWPi for an Android!
In fact a lot of naturalists carry these....
mainly because all the worthwhile identification "Apps"....
are only released for EyePads and EyePhones.

The Chequebook Twitcher has ALL the equipment!!

The Chequebook Twitcher

The ultimate raptor of the Birdwatching Fraternity...
has all the latest equipment...
access to fast transport...
access to "loadsamoney"...
willing to pay to have someone "bumped" off a plane...
if young... has inherited a fortune...
if middle-aged... is self-employed as a consultant...
if retired... they are spending the kids' inheritance!!
They don't have a pager... they have multiple pagers...
They have a life list... that runs to several volumes....
Like all "twitchers"... they "tick" and move on...
they have no real knowledge of the birds...
instead, rely on others to "let them know"!
Because there is always a real birder...
usually local...
at any rarity sighting...
for them it will be a...

......"mega"!!! 

Not a "twitch"!!

Dedicated to all those Blue-nosed Coldtails...
who braved the elements to see the Red-flanked Bluetail....
at Holkham in Norfolk this week! !!
Another one of Seppo's cartoons...

As you may have gathered from the above....
I'm not very impressed by "twitchers"....
or "tickers" of any persuasion!
Get a life...
there is a "patcher" I follow...
his blog is called "Birds and Beer"...
and includes a list of Norfolk pubs that are good for watching birds from...
that is real luxury birding...
Pauline and I were out with the Leeds RSPB to the Wirral...
it was bitterly cold... we retreated to a nearby pub...
found a window seat that overlooked the marsh...
and watched seven spoonbills feeding...
just outside the window!!
That's birdwatching luxury...

Perhaps we should just let them fly around us and say
"There's yet another bird over there!"

-----ooooo00000ooooo-----

I was inspired to write this after reading another blog I follow....
written by a Norfolk birdwatcher who coined the term "chequebook twitcher"!
Thanks, Penny! And the Red-flanked Bluetail is dedicated to you...

-----ooooo00000ooooo-----

Thanks also to the two cartoonists featured here...
Seppo Leinonen from Finland....
and The Green Humourist,  Rohan Chakravarty from India....
both of whom put their cartoons up as Creative Commons artwork...
both their sites have some wonderfully drawn environmental 'toons...
and I can't draw 'toons!!

Seppo
Rohan

Posted by Tim 

The Sentinels

A picture post...

Sentinels in the evening sun.

Blue Stinger!

Getting the balance right....

Delicate Blue Hunter.

Spare green wings?

The Banded Demoiselles [Calopteryx splendens] Caloptéryx éclatant are really rather magnificent in the strong evening light.

Click on the pictures to "view on black"...
and at a better resolution.


Posted by Tim

They're back......!

In the "Big Freeze" of February 2012, we had overnight temperatures of less than minus 18 degrees Centigrade for around a week...
one morning we awoke to -21°C....
in fact, during that week the temperature never rose above -6°C.

It killed all our overwintering vegetables...
and it killed wildlife, lots of wildlife....
amongst them our Wasp Spiders <i>Argiope bruennichi</i>.

There were none to be seen in 2013 either...
nor in 2014! We'd effectively lost a species from the meadow.
Our meadow is an island in a sea of agriculture...
there are no natural corridors for things like the larger spiders....
except where the trees happen to touch.
The little spiders parachute in on silk.

At the lake end, the ground is kept mown, either by machine or sheep...
I felt that we'd never have this rather magnificent spider back.
Then Susan, of "Days on the Claise"....
when I went to mow her verger with Betsy....
happened to mention that there were plenty in the long vegetation...
so I "spidernapped" four large females....
and released them in one small area of our meadow.

Sunday evening I was having a walk around and....
as I had done on previous occasions....
paid special attention to where I had released the kidnapped madames...
and, hey....
there were six webs visible from the path...
including one occupied by a male.

A male Wasp Spider...
much smaller and less highly marked than the dame!

A female wasp Spider....
highly marked...
yet difficult to find!

They're back... they're back... the Argie-Bargies are back!
Hopefully Susan will allow me to do a further spidernap later this year.


Posted by Tim

Well, well, well... we're in a vole lotta trouble again?

We took our WorkAwayers to Chédigny to see the roses on Sunday...
they are a couple of lively Japanese who are honeymooning around the world...
before settling down to the nitty-gritty of life.

A rather industrial window for Chédigny...
but rather nice all the same!

Whilst they wandered around looking at the roses...
still wonderful, despite being visibly frazzled by last weeks heat...

Just a few of our favourites...
top to bottom:
Nuage Parfumé
Sir Cedric Morris
Westerland

....Pauline and I sat by the Lavoir and listened to the sound of the bees in the flowers and the rippling Ruisseau d'Orfeuil....
the stream that runs through the lavoir and joins the Indrois further down.

We had some fun people watching...
everyones' eyes were on the roses...
and it being the "weekend of gardens"....
in the UK as well as in France...
there were crowds enjoying the roses and the very strong sunshine!!

An awful lot of pictures were being taken...
and I have decided that there is nothing really more amusing than watching someone trying to see their iPad screen and take a photograph in strong sunlight....
I was very tempted to snap a picture of one rather large elderly gentleman in cargo shorts...
using a towel over his head and fullsized iPad....
rather like a Victorian using a "plate" camera...
I don't know where the camera is on the back of an Eye-Pad...
but he was having much trouble at that end of his "arrangement"...
presumably because the towel kept blocking the lens!
Perhaps I should have videoed it for posterity and U-Bend...

I decided to compare the ruisseau with our millstream....
it was wonderfully clear and hadn't had a catchment-full of mud poured down it...

Directly in front of the bench...

I was hoping for shots of damselflies...
but none were to be seen...
the environment was suitable though...
the stream beyond the lavoir was rich in vegetation...

Upstream... beyond the lavoir
looks choked to us... but will give both cover and food to river livers!

and similar conditions downstream, beyond the bridge...

And downstream...
equally rich, not as choked though...
but still perfect cover.
The rosebuds in the foreground and the flowers at the top....
are all part of the same rose... Kiftskate...
a vast climber.

...over which feet tramped and paused only to photograph the lavoir and another vast Kiftskate rose that enveloped it....
which was sniffed by many but to me has no scent...
just beauty!

Suddenly I saw movement... something scuttling... it was a Southern Water Vole [Arvicola sapidus] Campagnol amphibie....
I watched it scuttle and swim... past me and the rosegazers...
as I tried to get the camera switched on and ready...
nada!!

That wouldn't have happened in analogue days...
take a picture, wind on, fresh bullet up the spout...
but with the digital compact I have, there is no "sleep" mode and...
if you choose the option to stay on 30 minutes... the maximum...
it eats batteries working the screen...
you need a bagful of ready charged spares to get through a day!!
My SLRs, however, go to sleep and are ready at the press of the shutter button

No, by the time the camera was ready, the vole was under the bridge.

Many "pardons" as I ran in front of rose-snappers and to the other side and leant over...
trying not to damage myself or the rose...
not... a... sign!!

No way could Pauline report that on Faune Touraine...
in the middle of a "town" full of people, such a record just would not be accepted...
although there a many instances in the UK where they have been seen in town streams and streamlets...
in fact there are photographs of Water Voles with shopping trolleys taken near a branch of Sainsbury's somewhere "opp t'north" [##]...
Pauline came to look at the wonderful clear stream... and just then another, larger water vole came through...
this time I got some photos... not good, as you must admit...

Unmistakeably a vole... no visible ears...
and the dark tail, only half the length of the body clinches it!

but good enough for a 'record' shot....
so Pauline duly recorded it that night...
and  so now we are in trouble...
now we are awaiting the....
"NO, you did not see this!" ...
emails from the moderator...
so, please note, Chédigny is not just about the roses!!
And Water Voles are happy in noisy, crowded environments...
and I'll be going back...
with the right equipment and an apple or two!

Posted by Tim




[##]And some film from one of the Bill Oddie TV series "Bill Oddie Goes Wild"...
series one - episode six...
got that nugget from Wikipedia whilst "glooking"* for the actual image...

I think it must exist on U-Bend somewhere.

I didn't find the shopping trolley image though....
but I found a wonderful site about Shropshire Water Voles [A. terrestris] called...
About a Brook  by Kate Long.

And Pauline found these interesting A. terrestris sites:
http://www.wildlifeinthecity.org/urban-wildlife/water-vole/
http://www.wildlifeinthecity.org/images/uploads/Animal_Facts_-_WaterVoleWINC!.pdf
and this map: Press the "back" arrow to go back one page...
otherwise it shows all sightings for all species...
by going back one page you get A. amphibius sightings for South East UK...
it is interesting to look at the map that loads...
the black and white hatched squares are where there are no observations of anything....
which points to a lack of recorders for those areas.

* "Glooking"... Googling for something

Elusive visitors... no more!

On Friday afternoon Pauline came in and hissed...
"They're back"
"Who are back?"
"The Black Woodpeckers... they just flew over me!!"
"What do you mean...THEY?"
"There were two of them and they've just flown into the old willows!!"
Up until this week, all we'd seen of them had been one large, floppy winged woodpecker flying overhead from one ridge to the other going  "breeep-breeep... breeep-breeep... breeep-breeep"... their flight call...
and by large, I mean bigger than a Jay or a Jackdaw!

I grabbed camera and dived out of the front door...
We could hear their "kweee" calls coming from the old trognes...
Black Woodpeckers [Dryocopus martius] Pic Noir have a wonderful range range of calls...
and I crept across the bridge...
and again....
very...verry.... verrry..... verrrry slowly....
across the open ground between the bridge and the trognes...

I saw a movement, raised the camera and managed to grab this shot....

A female Black Woodpecker in the green...

before it flew off.

I walked back up to the bridge to show Pauline...
"They are still here" she said, not looking at the picture... "Listen!!"
And yes, I could hear the "kweee" calls and the odd "breep"...
close by...
they were still in the willows...
this time I walked very quickly, but quietly, back to the willows and then crept slowly.... round to where I had first spotted one...
I could hear the "kweee" calls from a couple of places...
once heard, it is unmistakable.... extremely similar to an artisan telling you that that repair is going to cost an awful lot of money.
I saw movement and a female flew up onto a vertical branch...
this picture is as good as you are going to get...

Perched in the classic woodpecker pose...
the small red cap, white eye & bill all showing well.

I am using Manual focus at the moment because Autofocus is always slightly off the spot...
but Autofocus would have done better than this...
had I remembered to focus, it would have been nice and sharp!!

She flew and was immediately replaced by the male...
I didn't know this until I looked at the pictures on the computer...

You can clearly see the full red cap of the male here....
and how close he landed to where the female was....
very slightly lower and a bit to the right!!

my thought was that she'd moved and re-settled in almost the same spot.
And "she" also flew off...
they were still in the willows, but at the far end of the five...
I crept quietly forward, but, more sightings and photos were not to be...
with their "breep"ing flight calls, I think they headed for the old pollarded alder in the middle of the meadow.

Pauline and I kept hearing them during the afternoon... at various places along the riverbank...
but late in the evening we saw the pair again...
I looked up to the top of our big walnut as I could hear the Turtle Dove purring...
and saw the unmistakable shape of the Black Woodpecker...
it would have made a very nice photograph....
I turned to tell Pauline... and it flew.
But only a couple of seconds later a second bird, presumably the male again, landed in exactly the same spot...
Pauline kept watch, but by the time I had got the camera....
I was just in time to see that one fly, too!!

It seems, though, that one bird exactly follows the other...
if they do stay around we might be able to learn more about their behaviour!

We are right in the middle of their breeding season and they are spreading*...
so these might be last year's juveniles needing new spaces!! 




* The BWP [Birds of the Western Palearctic] states that the population is increasing rapidly...
in France there was under 1000 pairs in the 1970s...
by 2002 it was around 32,000...
and Birdlife International [2004] reported the population to still be increasing in France, Belgium, etc...
and they are quite willing to use small patches of woodland if there are other patches nearby.
Another entry I noted was...
"Plant food rarely taken, though sometimes in quantity: fruits of cherry Prunus, apple Malus...."
Damn, another one after the cherries!!

Elusive visitors...

Long time - no blog post....
We usually have a hiatus around this time of the year, there is just so much to do in the garden and the meadow...
especially now that the potager has reached maximum size.
All this means that we are just too exhausted, by the evening, to concentrate on little more than holding knife and fork for eating... and more drastic... holding a glass straight!

But what we have had over the past few days has got fingertips to keyboard at last...


I was on my way out into the meadow on Wednesday morning to rake up some fresh cut grass for the "maggot"....
and as I drew near the  five old "trognes"....
the big old pollarded willows...
I heard thumping noises.

Hard thumping!!

Now, Richard's son Eric has been having great troubles with their brand new irrigation system since needing to use it in earnest...
his wife told me it had broken down seven times on the first day!!
So, I thought that there was another problem and he was using the age old remedy...
whacking it hard with a length of wood!!!

But, as I walked forward more, the thumping was no longer in line with the pump house....
it was more and more to my left and slightly below me...
energetic woodpecker or vole with a Kango?
I crept forward very...verry.... verrry..... verrrry slowly....
and saw a large woodpecker thumping its white bill against the rotten wood of the nearest old willow...
hold on... white bill?
Black Woodpecker!!!!
And, sure enough "breeep"... and it flew up onto one of the trunks in the sky...
and sat there, looking at me...
and what did I have to photograph this wonderful bird with...
a wooden rake!!
Then, casually, it flew over the longère... "breeep-breeep... breeep-breeep... breeep-breeep"...

Well, that was very nice... thought I.... and carried on to do the raking I was meant to be doing.
I mentioned it to Pauline when I got back so that it could be recorded on Faune Touraine.
"I've been hearing them all week" says she...
"Oh?" was my response!
Pauline is way better at identifying birds by sound than me... a severe short-sightedness from an early age made her a "Bird-Listener"....
rather than a birdwatcher...
and she hasn't abused her ears with rock music through headphones either!!
Since a cateract operation corrected that, she's been able to watch them more clearly too!
But, I've lost my microscope that talked!

A slight pause in the tale, here...


Posted by Tim

Return of the moorhens

Once again the moorhens gallinula chloropus gallinules poules-d'eau are building a nest on the millstream outside our bedroom window. One bird (probably the female) is directing operations and weaving twigs into the cushion shape that will be the base of the nest. The other (the male) is doing most of the fetching and carrying.

Now don't tug, dear

We cannot tell whether or not this female is Myrtle, our soap opera star from last year, or one of her daughters. The male may well be inexperienced, because last year's male disappeared before the chicks hatched.

I'll just go and get some more, dear, is that right?

The flag iris, site of the moorhen nest for the past three years, is this year spread out across the stream bed, and looks unlikely to produce enough cover for the birds. This nest is an innovation, set upon a stone, possibly a piece of masonry from the old forge. However, as Tim puts it, they will have to go up another six inches to be in with a chance.

There's a nice twig over there ...

Did you know that moorhens have teeth? And scarlet underpants?

Presently the water is clearer than we have seen it for years, and there is plenty of waterweed. Today we heard the clear whistle of a kingfisher for the first time since autumn last year. The mallards anas platyrhynchos canards colvert are nesting a little further upstream than last year. The duck is as dignified and the drake as attentive as ever. It's getting better!

Posted by Pauline.

In go the trout

Yesterday on our way into the village we saw more than the usual number of white vans and cars parked by the bridge.

Taken through the car window - did we mention that it was raining?

It would appear that the issues that we described here between the members of our local fishing clubs, the Gaule du Grand Pressigny of late memory and the AAPMMA "La Truite de l'Aigronne" are resolved and the AAPMMA has taken over. Fishing permits are on sale and the stocks of farmed brown trout and (non-native) rainbow trout were being released as usual.

Large red boxes were shuttling from the back of the pick-up to the river bank. Grey boxes waited to be emptied. The colours identify the species. Further along the river, a smaller red box was in transit, carried gingerly across a field. Meanwhile...

Monitoring the dispersal of the fish

As for the person with the bucket heading purposefully for the river bank, we will charitably assume you also were monitoring the dispersion of the released fish, and not helping yourself to a bucketful of gawping tourists....

A name changer...

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 realised that there is so much history to this area...
and, for us particularly, that of La Forge itself and its environs...
that the title "Touraine Flint" was a "bloggers handicap"...
especially that flint word.

We are finding bits of flint all the time...
some of it is worked...
and some of it is from Man's workings past and recent.
However, flint is especially hard to photograph clearly and show detail...
but there will still be reports of findings...
moreover...
we've recently found out a lot about the buildings here at La Forge....
and we've just had the roof of the longère fettled....
which revealed more detail still....

it isn't just those from pre-history that have lived here...
and that is occupying a lot of our thoughts and time.

And Pauline has been... and still is...
researching some wonderful snippets of WW1 information from a scrap of paper...
that, in 1915, someone used as a rawlplug in our old kitchen...
a fascinating, one hundred-year-old story...
actually a set of stories...




But we felt that our original aim for Touraine Flint was off target...
so we've changed...

To see much more...
with illustrations....
visit..

Following Others' Footsteps.

S.O.B.

Normally, this would be in the sidebar....
but I don't think this should.
It is from the BBC News channel this morning...
and I have quoted more than normal, too.
The link is in the header below:

One in ten wild bees face extinction in Europe

From the BBC article:
"Almost one in 10 of Europe's native wild bees face extinction, according to the most comprehensive expert assessment so far.

"The European Red List, drawn up by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, found 9.2% of nearly 2,000 species are threatened with extinction.

"Another 5% are likely to be threatened in the near future.

"Threats include loss of habitat from intensive farming, pesticide use, urban development and climate change.

"The new assessment made a number of recommendations, including:
1] Better monitoring and assessment of common and rare species
2] More protection for habitats supporting bees
3] Regulation of trade in managed bees, which may spread diseases
4] Long-term incentives to farmers to provide habitats for bees.

"Bees need to be incorporated into how we think about and develop sustainable agriculture."

"Insect pollination has an estimated economic value of 15bn euros per year in the EU alone.

"Boosting populations of pollinators would bring benefits to wildlife, the countryside and food producers, said the report."

But will the powers that be accept or ignore the comments...
will the agrochemical industry lobby be more powerful than science advisors??

Ripples at the fishing club

Individual fishing clubs in Indre-et-Loire are affiliated to the départemental FDP37, La Fédération Départementale de Pêche 37. This gives them the right to call themselves an AAPMMA - un Association Agréée de Pêche et de Protection du Milieu Aquatique, a recognised association of fishing (with rod and line) and protection of the aquatic environment. FDP37 is in turn a member of the regional federation l’Union Régionale des Fédérations départementales pour la pêche et la protection des milieux aquatiques des régions Centre et Poitou-Charentes (URFCPC), which is a member of the national federation la Fédération Nationale de la Pêche en France et de la protection du milieu aquatique (FNPF). Got that?

I'm what all the fuss is about. Blup.

Gradually the local associations of the communes bordering the Aigronne have merged so that AAPMMA « la truite de l'Aigronne » is now a body representing 114 fishermen of eight communes. Originally this was the AAPMMA of Le Petit Pressigny which has gradually mopped up the other associations. The latest to be engulfed (sorry, merged) are the Betz-le-Chateau and Le Grand Pressigny associations.

Reading the article in La Nouvelle Republique of 19th February 2015 gives an impression that the AGM on 7th February of the newly merged and renamed AAPMMA "the Aigronne Trout" must have been a rather distressing business. Although the association after the merger now has three vice-presidents, it was still necessary to appeal for younger members to put themselves forward for election to the administrative council, to be held on 21st November. The average age of those serving on "the committee" was too high for comfort. Anyone who has served on such a body knows what that feels like, and how depressing it is to be the junior member at 63.

As for the merger (le regroupement), that of the Betz-le-Chateau club and its membership had gone according to plan, so there would be continuity for the fishermen (and it is almost  exclusively men who fish here).

On the other hand, the dissolution of AAPMMA "la Gaule Pressignoise" - the Grand Pressigny fishing club - had not yet been achieved, the outstanding balance of funds had not been handed over, and the fishing tenancies for the sector were lacking. Should a grant to AAPMMA La Truite de L'Aigronne from the Indre-et-Loire federation FDP37 enable a release of trout on that species' nursery grounds, they could only release the young fish where they hold fishing tenancies.

FDP37 wanted to move towards a merger from the beginning. Despite lacking the prerequisites, "certain fishermen" of the former AAPMMA la Gaule Pressignoise want to form a separate club (or re-form the old club). They still have the fishing tenancies and the money, but they aren't an officially recognised body. Only an AAPMMA can issue fishing permits, with or without an official stamp for trout. You can only fish on the Aigronne if you have a permit, even on private land. Standoff.

Or as they say in the playground, "Fight! Fight!"

Normally, 100kg of young rainbow trout (not a native species) would be released into the Aigronne from the bridge by Moulin de Favier or in the Aigronne just behind our meadow, the furthest extent of their remit, in two batches about six weeks apart. Further up the Aigronne and the Remillon, in the communes of Charnizay, le Petit Pressigny, La Celle Guénand, 300 kilos of brown trout and 90 kilos of rainbow will be released, and on the Brignon, i.e. Betz le Château, Ferrière Larçon, Paulmy, Neuilly le Brignon, 50kgs of brown trout and 110kgs of rainbow. This adds up to rather more than three quarters of a tonne of alevins.

Electric fishing - sampling the Aigronne's population

The released fish are sterilised females. These grow quickly and look well, but they do nothing for the long-term population except to bamboozle the native males into attempting to breed with them in preference to the less attractive native females. The future of the Aigronne is a Category 1 trout-fishing river without breeding trout, and no amount of knocking down of barrages or regrading the river bottom will bring them back.

It is interesting to compare the attitude of the fishermen towards the native brown trout with the hunters' approach to the declining population of pheasants.The Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage (ONCFS) have attacked the issue scientifically with careful study, planning and testing of results.

A sample taken from FDP37's website

The fishermen, with the LEMA law behind them, appear to want to knock down sluice gates to permit migratory fish to pass, and for the brown trout, do what they have always done: pour money into the water in the shape of little wiggling fish.

Posted by Pauline
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