France - Wild birds and guns

As well as the animals at the house itself, the area was full of bird life - it was great.

One of the main features of the area is the Etang de Saint-Estephe, a man-made reservoir just outside the village. The day we walked around, it was slightly overcast and there wasn't that much about. However, walking past a pine tree, I noticed is was absolutely alive with House Martins, busy feeding on the seeds within the pine cones.




As we continued our walk, I spotted a Pied Flycatcher sitting on a branch. This was rather nice, as I'd never seen one before, not that I realised what it was until I got home.



This was obviously a day for firsts as we also spotted a Willow Warbler towards the end of our circuit of the reservoir. Again, another first time spot.



As well as birds, there were lizards. This little guy, a Common or Viviparous Lizard, was spotted warming himself as best he could on a tree stump.



There was also plenty of wildlife to be found back at the house. A number of bird feeders were attracting incredible numbers of Great Tits...



... as well as Blue Tits.

A couple of the bushes next to one of the barns was attracting a large number of House Sparrows.







The bees were attracted to all the flowers in bloom, including this Carpenter Bee.



In the woodland to the rear of the house there are Woodpeckers, Great-spotted, Green and Grey-headed are all to be found, as well as this, which I actually thought was a woodpecker at first, a Nuthatch.



The surrounding area is mainly wood and farmland. This gives the perfect habitat for Buzzards. This one below could be found, a lot of the time, sitting on one of the fence posts of a field we regularly drove past. Unfortunately it was a fence post at the opposite side of the field.





Another experience we had was of "La Chasse à Courre", or hunting with hounds, in this instance for Wild Boar and Deer. This is is perfectly legal when done right but no less scary with gun shots going off in the field next to you and the barking of the pack of hounds echoing around the countryside - especially when there are two domesticated pigs in the garden!

Older Photos - Birds & Bees

As you may have guessed already, I like taking photos of birds and, as you might expect, I have a lot of older photos. Here's a selection of some of my best shots (so far...).

The first is a baby Wren I saw at the Leg of Mutton nature reserve in Barnes. I was amazed to see how close I could get to it without it flying away (this shot was taken from about 2 metres away). I think I may have been the first human, or one of the first, the bird had seen as it looked as interested in me as I was in it.

This next shot was taken in my garden. I was outside enjoying the sunshine and noticed this Cuckoo Bumblebee rummaging around in the leaf litter.

I had to put at least one photo of a Robin in this post! This one was seen at the Barnes Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, singing away in the sunshine.

On a visit back to my Parent's, we had a trip to Sandringham. The prize for us was to see a family of Ducklings grazing near one of the ponds. Cuuuuuuuuute!!!



This is our resident Dunnock, who often visits the bottom of the bird feeder to see what's been left by the greedy Wood Pigeons (see below).



This spring we were lucky enough to have a family of Great Tits nesting in the conifer at the back of our garden. The parents were busy at work, feeing the baby with peanuts which, we later saw, the baby was quite capable of getting itself.



A Grey Heron on the hunt at the Wetlands Centre.



And finally, one of our fat and greedy Wood Pigeons. I watched this one eyeing up the crumbs on the tray and then proceed to majestically fail to land on it. This is as close as it got on this attempt; 2 feet on but couldn't seem to get it's balance so gave up and went back to the fence to re-group.