Mad March Hare pays a visit.... in April!

Well, what a surprise just now.... a mad March hare in April.... at the backdoor [almost]....

I was just about to take some compostables outside when I spotted a hare lolloping towards me, out in the potager... it then turned down towards the big rhubarb and out of my site.
We do get hares from time to time... usually in the field next door or out in our watermeadow.
But always too fleeting, or too fast...

"Compost be damned!" I thought, as I grab camera and carefully open latch on back door...
and lo, the lievre comes lolloping back round the corner of the wall.... and towards me... WTH!
So I start taking photos as it comes right up to the grassy side of the Woodchipio®, pausing only to taste the grass... it was a wet hare... needed a blowdry?
It would have come via the roadside fence... so had probably been in the Winter wheat or barley on the other side of the road... 

Until this morning, I hadn't really appreciated just how big they really are...
the normal view being, always, from a distance... with little to give scale!
It was as large, possibly larger than Baron our small black panther....
as long in the body, the head was half as big again as Baron's...
and the hoooooge ears, amazing....
it may not have weighed Baron's eight kilos, but I think it was possibly not far off!

So, please... share in my "wet hare" moment....
I rather like the punkish topknot!

This was the closest it came... and I couldn't fit it in the frame!

This, however, was what I thought would be my closest view... the inspection hatches for the fosse filter bed!
Was I about to be surprised... it suddenly turned towards me just as I had zoomed out to get a better shot...
so, I got this...

Terrible picture.... ears all cut off, but still somewhat magical to me!

After having a nibble of the grass along the edge of the Woodchipio®, it turned and lolloped away towards the potager... much the way it had come... but, as it went... it did the Mad March Hare routine....

I had zoomed back out enough... but it decided to keep exploring..
so off it went!

This is a more normal "hare shot"... going away!!
As it lolloped it showed a clean pair of heels... but muddy feet!

Then... it stopped, sat on its haunches and did a bit of "shadow boxing"....

Followed by getting really "wild" with its opponent...
standing on tiptoe... and really throwing those punches!!

And then away it went.... much in the opposite direction to which I saw it arrive...

Although it may look to be in the classic "hare at speed" pose...
it is, still, just lolloping along...

.... and, after this last shot, it stayed around for about five more minutes.... having a nibble here, a nibble there... not, seemingly, worried by being near habitation!
So, an Easter Monday Mad April Hare came to visit.......

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 whether or knot report for May!

Just a quicky... 

Cloth of Gold at the end of a Rainbow...
[taken from our lounge window]

Wot a munth... 
wot a depressin' munth!!!
Still... here's a weather revue...

...for our very grotty May

Temperature in °Centipede
Minimum*          1.3°C on the 24th
Maximum          27.0°C on the 7th
Highest Minimum  13.1°C on the 8th
Lowest Maximum   12.4°C on the 20th
Mean Minimum     6.6°C
Mean Maximum     19.1°C
Air frosts*       0


Rainfall in mm [given what we have had... think of mm as Metric Metres!!]
Total for month  64.5mm
Wettest day      10.8mm on the 21th
High rain rate   16.2mm on the 8th
Rain days        17


Wind in kilometres per hour
Highest Gust     15.8km/h on the 8th
Average Speed    0.0km/h
Wind Run         0.4 km
Gale days        0


Pressure in millibars
Maximum          1014.4mb on the 13th
Minimum          989.0mb on the 16th



Here's hoping we get a better dose in the next couple of months... for the farmers as well as us!!

* For Susan.... on the 24th the Apparent Temperature was below Zero°C from 4:30AM to 6AM...

Not exactly a bowling green

Our front lawn, such as it was, now looks like a scale model of a battlefield after an artillery bombardment. Meandering trails of tufts of moss and grass are punctuated by shallow shell-craters. This happened last night or early this morning – a quick surgical strike without collateral damage.

There’s a long long trail a-winding….

Speculation – what caused it? Sangliers (wild boar) or deer would have caused considerably more damage. Besides, any animal of any size approaching on foot would have to come in via the bridge or the field across more grass, so why there, surrounded by fences and walls? Voles are too small to achieve such destruction in such a short time. We suspect either green woodpeckers or jays, after leatherjackets and other grubs.

Well it wasn’t exactly a bowling green anyway

The mass of feathers under the spruce is the result of another type of monster altogether - we have had woodpigeons nesting there, and the sparrowhawk (probably) got one. We found the corpse of an unfortunate squab, too, and no doubt the rest will die too. Forgive me if I don't grieve over the loss of a woodpigeon or two, after what they do to our brassicas and soft fruit.

Moths from underneath

There really should be a book about moths, aimed at those of us who see them in the comfort of our own living rooms, as they flutter against the window! The underside of the wings and body is often as subtle and delicately patterned as the upper side, though not as brightly coloured. Our latest such visitor was a female small emperor moth (pavonia pavonia, or sometimes saturnia pavonia, le petit paon de nuit). It's only the female that flies by night - she hangs about during the day, waiting for a male (day-flying) to turn up.

Female Emperor Moth

This female was particularly dim-witted, as she proceeded to deposit her eggs on the cold stone of the window mullion. She had a full range of food plants to choose from only metres away - alder and bramble to name but two, emperor moth caterpillars are not choosy. Unfortunately, the neatly glued array of eggs has already been pillaged, probably by a blue tit.

Here are the moth and the newly laid eggs.

 This isn't the only moth to have laid in an odd place.... Susan from Days on the Claise reported it here with reference to the Fox Moth [Macrothylacia rubi] le Bombyx de la ronce which seems to like doors! We've had one lay in almost the same position on one of our doors.

9 -12 April 2004 - Observations in Nature Diary

9th - Good Friday
Fritillaria meleagris at far end of point by the bief [millstream] near the wier.
Three plants.Also on opposite bank of Aigronne about 100 mtrs further on [2 plants visible].
Also 2 plants visible alongside the fence between Richard's etang and our field.
Near the fritillaries on the opposite bank of the Aigronne was a large 'colony' of Purple Toothwort [Lathraea squamaria],
only their purple flowers showing above the soil... wierd plant!

At entry to village, on bank by first houses.... Star of Bethlehem [Dame d'onze heures]
Also disturbed Green Sandpiper who were feeding on gravel bank at side of bief near the house.

Purple Toothwort  ||  Snakeshead Fritillary 

|| Bloody-nose Beetle

12th - Easter Monday
Lesser-Spotted Woodpeckers in the walnut tree by the verger and in the poplars on far side.
Red squirrel carrying baby, running towards us on the back road [le Petit Pressigny / Preuilly]
One of those moments... we stopped, squirrel stopped, stared, thought bubble appeared
"OOO Eck! O oo I oo ow?! is a oo ee ee... own ee em ery o'en!" before turning tail
and belting back down the road and up the bank!
[Translation of thought bubble - ' OOO heck! What do I do now?! It's a two CV... don't see them very often!"]

Muskrat - lives opposite side of bief, just behind the house. Comes out evenings to feed.
The crunching of vegetation echoes back off the barn wall.... sounds strange.
Caught Barn Owl in the beam of the 2,000,000 candle-power torch,
flying across fields opposite the house - it didn't seem perturbed by the light.

14th - Photographed a Bloody-nose Beetle. This large flightless beetle exudes 'blood' from its mouth if disturbed.

LISTING:

Seen round La Forge
Birds seen:

Raptors:

• Barn Owl
• Buzzard

Non-Raptors:

• Turtle-Dove [heard in trees by river]
• House sparrows
• Black Redstart
• Blue Tit
• Great Tit
• White Wagtails
• Moorhens
• Robin
• Crows
• Rooks
• Greenfinch
• Song Thrush
• Chaffinch
• Swallows
• House Martins
• Male Blackcap
• Goldfinches
• Stonechat
• Blackbird
• Lesser-spotted Woodpecker

Waders:

• Green Sandpiper [feeding on gravel bank at side of bief]
• Grey Heron

Mammals:

• Muskrat

Other Local sightings- vers Petit Pressigny

• Indeterminate large falcon
• Red squirrel carrying baby in mouth. [Along back road to Preuilly, just outside P.P.]
  When it saw us it turned round and ran back down the road, up a bank and into the hedge.

Visit to the Brenne:
At La Gabriere

• Black-necked Grebes
• Great White Egret
• Tufted Duck
• Pochard
• Gadwall
• Shoveller
• Mallard
• Coot 

At le Foucault:

• Hen Harrier [male]
  Black Kite
• Magpie
• Snipe

Elsewhere:

• Grey Herons - roost at Plume Cane [house on corner of etang - not the farm!]
• Turtle Doves
• Collared Doves
• Wood Pigeon
• Redstart [le Bouchaut]
• 
  
• Marsh Harrier [female - Meziers-en-Brenne]
• Kestrel
• Cormorants
• G-C-Grebes [everywhere]
• 
  
• Chocolate-headed Land Gulls [Black-headed gulls]
• Herring Gull
• Jay
• Green Woodpecker [Azay-le-Feron]

New Observations added to 16 April 2003

19/12/2009   
New material added to 16 April 2003
[Posted 15/11/2009]

16 April 2003 - Listing from round the house

This was our first visit to the house after purchase... hence the single day [we were too busy getting used to the area and measuring up, making wild plans, etc.]

Birds seen:

Raptors:

• Kestrel
• Buzzard
• Hen Harrier [although now we think these records may actually be the Montagues - we tend to see Hen Harriers over by Barrou and along the Claise valley]

Tits:

• Blue Tit
• Great Tit

LBJs: [Little Brown Jobs]

• Linnet
• Chaffinch
• House Sparrow

MIJs: [More Interesting Jobs]

• Black Redstart  >>>
  
• White Wagtail
• Whinchat
• Stonechat
• Goldfinch
• Green Woodpecker [or Grey?]
• Blackbird
• Starling
• Robin
• Wren
• Swallow
• House Martin [don't know where these are nesting... not at ours... although they are often in large number with the swallows]

BJs [Big Jobs]

• Jay
• Carrion Crow
• Wood Pigeon
• Collared Dove
• Mallard

Birds heard:

• Nightingale 
• Turtle Dove
  

19/12/2009    New material added from the Nature Diary in the house:

17 May 2003   

• Stone Curlews nesting in the field opposite.  
• Montagu's Harrier quartering the field when M.Sallais was turning the hay.