Pesticides, Herbicides, Fungicides and GM crops all in the French news.

How the time flies when you’re busy and when the bees are swarming it doesn’t leave time for much else, especially if you are like me and are always leaving everything to the last minute. In this case it’s preparing enough hives and frames for the swarms to be housed in which I’ve just about kept up with, (about 25 so far). Then nature decided to lend a hand by dishing out the rather vile weather we have been experiencing for the last week which has prevented any more colonies from swarming giving me some catch up time. Unfortunately this won’t have helped the bees at all. Any colonies prepared and waiting to swarm may have had to tear down and destroy any Queen cells that were about to hatch and colonies that had already swarmed may have had problems mating their new Queens with all the cold wind and heavy rainstorms which seem to be an increasing spring feature of the weather in this part of France. The requirement to be around my hives for swarming does rather hamper my other activities at this time of year which is a shame, but back out and about soon with some interesting field trips penciled in.

Click on images to enlarge.

On the agricultural front there has been some good news recently in France with the total banning of aerial spraying without any exceptions. This has been an EU law since 2009 but individual member countries can derogate from this when and if they consider it’s required. In France this has been principally in the overseas territories of Martinique, the Antilles and Guadeloupe with certain of the vineyards of Mâcon, (Burgandy), in mainland France. No future authorisations will be granted. Additionally all use of land based sprays will soon only be permitted in the evening and night, not in the daytime although how this will work out and be enforced in practice remains to be seen.

Cultivation of Genetically modified crops has been totally forbidden by the French government which will please many people myself included although I’m sure the corporations will fight back again and again to try and get this overturned.

Back to the vineyards where it seems the river Charente between Angouleme and Saints is the most polluted stretch of river in France with the finger pointed firmly at the Cognac grape growing regions.  A study in 2011 by the highly respected CHU Poitiers showed a higher mortality rate for the population living in the Charente vineyards. Scientists found an over representation of Parkinson's disease (29%) and blood cancers lymphoma types (19%).  Atrazine, desethyl atrazine and the “worlds’ favourite herbicide” glyphosate have all been recorded in substantial levels. Dependence on chemicals at every stage of most French wine production is reducing it to no more than another industrial process, sad days indeed. Even now as I write this there is a report in the paper Sud Ouest of an incident on May 5th at a school in Villeneuve near Bourg-sur-Gironde surrounded by vineyards where 23 students from two classes of primary school and their teacher began to feel the same symptoms of pain in the throat, tingling of the tongue, eye irritation, nausea and headache in the late morning. Earlier, the director had tried to contact the mayor, Catherine Verges, who is also one of the two owners of the vineyards adjacent to the school, to stop the spraying that was underway but to no avail. These incidents are not uncommon and I have heard the tales of people feeling unwell in the vineyards since we came to live in France. The craziest thing of all is that Emmanuel Giboulot a biodynamic winemaker since the 1970s was summoned to the Criminal Court of Dijon this year for refusing to use a chemical product to control flavescence dorée, a bacterial disease of vines. On April 7^th he was fined €1000 following which Emmanuel Giboulot said “I do not feel guilty at all. I do not agree with the court's analysis and I still consider that it was not justified to treat the vines against flavescence dorée in the department of Côte-d'Or in 2013 when no outbreak had been detected.” He went on to say “that a product called Pyrevert that is based on natural pyrethrum, an extract of dried chrysanthemum flowers is permitted in organic agriculture but this insecticide is not selective and although it destroys the leafhopper which is the insect vector for the disease flavescence dorée it also destroys a large part of the auxiliary fauna on which I rely for regulating the ecosystem of my vineyard.”  Which is to my mind a totally logical attitude; if and only if there is a requirement to control something it should be targeted and proportionate.

Too much to mention everything in the garden but it hasn’t been good again for butterflies and I've only just seen a few Hornet Queens and Common wasp Queens in the last week and none of the smaller wasps. It does seem that the number of insects is decreasing year after year although I have no hard evidence for that but with the relentless expansion of the “green cereal desert” and given the massive levels of “cides” that are being sprayed here all the time, both agricultural and domestic, it wouldn’t be a surprise. However it isn’t all one way traffic, woodland species seem plentiful with lot’s of Violet oil beetles early in the year, lot’s of baby Bush crickets in our fields and the one butterfly that’s abundant this spring is the Southern speckled wood. All the common birds have nested well on our land and many have fledged their young such as Long tailed tits, Goldfinches, Blackbirds and Black caps. Nightingales are once again everywhere making their presence known with their almost non stop singing with Golden Oriole arriving here in the last week.

Enough for now, it's getting late,

Chris

Bats and mushroom growing underground in France.

One thing I've learnt is that when you get out and about you never know what that day will bring and that was certainly the case again the other week when I went to do a bit of underground Bat recording organised by Samuel Ducept and Miguel Gailledrat of Vienne Nature. We met at the bureau at 9am which is early enough for me in winter and as soon as everyone was present set of in two vehicles, 5 people in each to go our separate ways for the day.

I must mention that for some unknown reason it seems that it’s mainly females in France that are “into” bats and Saturday was no exception. Other than Sam and Miguel I was the only male the other 7 being “girls”, (any female under about 35 or possibly 40 is a girl to me these days).

We were going to try and research some underground cavities that either hadn't been looked at before or hadn't been researched for several years. These are all old workings, principally underground quarries in the first instance to provide the limestone that was used to build the châteaus and houses and most were then used for other functions, storing food such as cheese if part of a large property or used as champignonnières – commercial mushroom production. This was the principle means of commercial mushroom production in France during the 19^th century until the middle of the 20^th century thanks to the ideal conditions they provided, a more or less constant temperature, easy to regulate air flow and a good level of humidity. The process is quite complex and rather than make gross errors I have linked to a good site below in French with some interesting old photos but all methods required the use of containers filled with compost made with a mix of manure and straw plus lime.

Click on photos to enlarge.

These old underground caves or cavities are always on private land, often some distance from a road and sadly many have become blocked or overgrown. Of course overgrown or even partially blocked isn't necessarily a problem for over wintering bats providing they still have reasonable access but it obviously reduces the ability to record numbers effectively. Inevitably for us it meant drawing several blanks which is always disappointing however we did manage to find and gain access to several caves of varying sizes over the course of the day even when it meant overcoming a few obstacles.

It’s probably not a surprise to anyone that these caves are used by all manner of other species besides bats and in two caves there was the unmistakable and all pervasive smell of fox and even a brief glimpse of one as it ran away from our lights. Large numbers of Peacock butterflies and literally hundreds if not thousands of Herald moths Scoliopteryx libatrix hibernating all over surfaces of one cave and even a small cluster of Eristalis tenax hoverflies in a shallow hole in the rock face. There are always small clouds of lethargic mosquitoes and other midges waiting for spring and even quite large numbers of chocolate coloured slugs in one cave.

Not all bats favour caves to over winter with many species using houses, buildings or cavities in forest trees. The common pipistrelle Pipistrellus pipistrellus, one of the commoner bats prefers buildings and when found in a cave it will usually be near the entrance as will be Barbastelle Barbastalla barbastellus. The Large and Small Horseshoe bats are to be more likely found far from the entrance in the warmer air where they can sometimes remain moderately active even flying around sometimes and as they are often not actually asleep greater care needs to be taken not to disturb them.

Totals for the day.

Greater Horseshoe bat    73

Lesser Horseshoe bat      12

Brown Long eared bat     5

Daubentons bats             8

Whiskered bat                42

Geoffroy's bat                23

Natterer's bat                  6

Bechstein's bat                5

Greater mouse-eared bat  33

Although there was a reasonable number of Greater Horseshoe bats they weren't in substantial groups.

LINK FOR MUSHROOM GROWING IN CAVES 

Chris

Spring is in the air - well almost.

Not quite out of the woods yet with a sharp cold spell always possible ‘til mid March but today after all the rain the sun is finally shining, 11°C+ in the shade and life is emerging again even if perhaps only briefly taking a break from hibernation for some creatures.

I have to confess that this is always a somewhat nervous time of year for me waiting to see how many of my occupied bee hives are active. Even though activity in itself is no sure sign that the colony is OK and has a good Queen it’s quite a good indication if they are taking in pollen but even now if a Queen fails before the end of March there is no chance of a naturally mated successor. Most of the hives looked good, all were active and I even managed to get my first sting of the year right on the face, not too happy about that I have to say, never a pleasant experience however much it goes with the job.

Butterflies today were much as to be expected, all the common over wintering species, Brimstone, Comma, Peacock and Red Admiral but good to see them however common they are, after all it wasn't so long ago that the Small Tortoiseshell was a common species in our region, now it's getting quite rare. Also saw a Humming bird hawk moth a species that didn't over winter in our region at one time but increasingly some do now. Carpenter bees are always early risers on a warm sunny day and there were a few of them around “inspecting holes” although it’s hard to believe they could really be laying eggs at this time of year. Found this very pretty and immaculate Ground beetle with very orange legs.

Click on photos to enlarge.

Hazel catkins have been open a while now and many have been washed out with all the rain, none the less there are plenty that are fresh with pollen, goat willow is starting to show and will be open in a matter of days as is the wild plumb blossom.

Found some quite nice clumps of Agile frog spawn, perhaps a little early due to the mild wet winter so far……

…… and at 4.30 a few groups of Cranes totalling some 400 flew over chattering their way north east, (recorded on line with the LPO). All in all a pleasant day with the promise of the big spring rush just around the corner.

Chris

Winter work 2013 - 2014

Perhaps understandably many people I meet often have the strange idea that managing land for wildlife means doing nothing, just letting everything go and take its “natural” course. If only that was the case, which I suppose it could be if the objective was to allow everything to revert to woodland, but even there it would require managing in one form or another to maximise its benefits. Anyway there’s no shortage of trees in the general sense here – yet !!!

Where we live certain habitats have all but disappeared in recent years, the final nail in the coffin was the removal in 2008 of the requirement to put 10% of land out of production, a process known in English as “Set Aside”, (to leave fallow / en jachère). This has lead to just about every last piece of land that isn’t woodland and that can be used for cereals to be ploughed up as mentioned elsewhere. Even in 1996 when we purchased our house and three hectares things were bad enough leaving little choice for us but to at least try and create a little oasis of decent habitat and manage the bulk of it, (about 80%), as “rough meadow or natural grassland”. The remaining 20% was already trees or woodland which I have also been slowly changing aided by a couple of serious storms that helped with the thinning process.

This winter I’m trying to catch up on one particular section that has been neglected for a couple of years more than it should have been with a danger of some species being temporarily lost due to brambles, scrub and small trees swamping them.  

In particular there are quite a large number of Greater Butterfly Orchids that started to show after we had been here about 8 or 9 years on this part of the land and it’s a tricky balancing act with them. It’s quite strange that I haven’t found this Orchid anywhere else remotely near our property or the Loose Flowered Orchids that we have a couple of although they must have been around here historically. Bee, Pyramidal and Lizard Orchids that have also popped up on the land are to be seen locally in the area so not a surprise, but it does show what can happen even on land that has been intensively cultivated given a little time.

It’s also an area with a few different species of violet that need to be given a bit of light and space, all common species but important for the Fritillary butterflies we have here that use them - Weavers, Queen of Spain and Silver washed, all fairly common species as well but starting to struggle with the steady reduction of available plants. Many of the violet plants that do manage to survive are often by the roadsides that are constantly cut to the ground giving little chance for any eggs or caterpillars.

Masses of Lung wort, Pulmonaria, flourishes in this section as well and again although a common plant it’s just so important as a long flowering early insect food source, especially for Bumble bees when there is little else around in February. 

More of this later, Chris

Spindle trees and a sunny December day.

The sun came out and stayed out today, the cold wind dropped for the first time in weeks, nice enough to take time out from cutting and clearing this afternoon and just have a stroll to see what's about, maybe have a closer look at some of the birds that have been flocking in the last few weeks, many drawn in by the farmers plowing and exposing easy pickings. There are some quite large gatherings of Starlings of a thousand or more which may not seem a lot for this species but it's been many years since I've seen such numbers here. Mixed flocks of finches in the hundreds, predominately chaffinch, with smaller flocks of goldfinch which tend to keep to themselves. Occasional groups of Lapwing and Golden Plover moving around and some good size groups of Skylarks flying up from the wheat and oil seed rape fields. Otherwise nothing of any interest, a handful of Bramling, the usual groups of tits, (Great, Blue and Long tailed), the occasional Stonechat and the resident Buzzards, Wrens and Robins.

This is the time of year to look for the eggs of the Brown Hairstreak butterfly on this years growth of Blackthorn which it uses more or less exclusively. It's a butterfly that is quite common throughout the wider region but isn't that common where I am given there is still a reasonable amount of Blackthorn dotted around but maybe the eggs suffer destruction from the flail or cutters which are used to smash any remaining hedgerows back here in late autumn.

Anyway while I was doing this I caught sight of some Spindle berries catching the sun with the pink outer covers popped open revealing the rich orange seeds - simply stunning and I'm easily distracted !

Spindle trees are prolific where I live and can be found throughout the region wherever there is a bit of native hedgerow left. The wood of the European Spindle Euonymus europaeus is very hard and as the English name implies one of it uses was for making wool spindles in both the UK and France although the French name Le Fusain or Fusain d'Europe translates to "charcoal" another one of its uses and highly regarded by artists.

The caterpillars of the Spindle Ermine moth quite often cause panic for people that don't understand them as they will frequently strip a tree of its leaves in spring. Needless to say the tree recovers and grows new leaves and the following year it all happens again.

The Kidney spot ladybird Chilocorus renipustulatus  or Coccinelle des saules, (Willow ladybird), in French is said to be widespread but not common and today I chanced on half a dozen on the Spindle.  I assume this is because the Spindle tree hosts Black bean aphids in winter which would provide them with nutrition.

Some Hoverfly species are still finding some nutrition when conditions allow, especially on dandelions that we can often find flowering even in the midst of winter. The "Marmalade" hoverfly, Episyrphus balteatus is a common species that overwinters in its adult stage and is relatively abundant this year. It is among the very few species of hoverflies capable of crushing pollen grains and feeding on them which must give it an edge when food is scarce.

A couple of other species I spotted today that overwinter as adults providing they survive were a rather tatty Red Admiral and a Green Shield Bug Palomena prasinathe. It's a species that changes colour in winter to brown and often enter houses and other buildings for shelter. They are completely harmless and feed on tree leaves, this one is on Field Maple. 

Chris