French wildlife and beekeeping

(Roller  Coracias garrulus  Le Rollier d’Europe) The European Roller is a migratory species spending the winter months south of the Sahara. The first ones to arrive in France are noted at the end of April, but the majority of the birds arrive in May when breeding starts immediately, some years from mid-May, but the peak of egg-laying takes place at the beginning of June, late pairs often lay eggs until June 25. They are a cavity-dwelling species that often uses the cavities dug by Green Woodpeckers and any others cavities it can find in various trees (plane trees, willows, poplar, pine, oak, almond), at a height that varies between 5 and 10 meters. They sometimes will use holes in walls, sandy banks or can even use old European bee-eater galleries (Tron et al., 2008). They do not bring any nesting material into the chosen cavity. The female lays 4 to 7 eggs there, the incubation of which lasts 18 or 19 days. Breeding success is 73%, i.e. 3.6 fledglings per breeding attempt. Af...

White tailed eagles effectively disappeared from France as breeding birds some 130 years ago. They have not nested since 1959, having been subjected to hunting, poisoning, pesticides, water pollution, egg collections and theft of chicks along with the disappearance of wetlands and other human disturbance and since then we have only a few young birds that visit in winter from the east and north east. Earlier this year in summer four young white-tailed eagles were successfully released from a zoological park in Haute-Savoie in an already successful method of reintroduction. After disappearing for more than a century, the white-tailed eagle is once again taking its place in the skies of the Alps. This is the case of “Haute-Savoie”. This young fishing eagle - named after the Departement that sponsored the reintroduction program - measures 2.5 meters in wingspan and weighs about 6 kg. According to Jacques-Olivier Travers, the founder of the animal park and reintroduction center of the Eag...