New Bat species for France - Myotis crypticus

Le Murin cryptique  Myotis crypticus   Feb 2019

A new species of bat has been discovered in wooded areas of Italy, France, Switzerland and Spain.

This brings the number of species to be found in France

To 35

It is very close to Natterer's bat (Myotis nattereri) and positive identification has so far relied on DNA analysis. Despite their closeness they do not hybridise. 

Reproduction colonies are usually in hollow trees but can be in artificial man made structures. Hibernation takes place underground in fissures. Much remains to be known about this species.

Chris

Hedgerows and Dry Stone Walls in France

As soon as we start to take a look at either Hedgerows or Dry stone walls it soon becomes clear that in France as in many parts of the UK it’s difficult to talk about one without the other.

Although there have been what could loosely be called hedgerows to some extent in France since before Roman times they really started to come into their own in the 16^th and 17^th centuries as the available land not already owned by the nobility or the Church was eagerly snapped up by the wealthy middle classes, the bourgeoisie urbaine. They used hedgerows to define their boundaries, to protect their crops and to prevent other farmers from grazing their land. Apparently hedge laying, (plessage), was widely used throughout France but has disappeared without a trace in many regions since the 1960’s and I have yet to see an example or a remnant in our region.  From the end of the 19^th century and into the first half of the 20^th century the industrialisation of agriculture started to change the face of the countryside only interrupted by the two world wars that France was subjected to. Following the second world war with mechanisation the changes to the nature of our landscape and the removal of hedgerows gathered pace, something that was given greater impulse with the land consolidations of the 1970’s and 1980’s and the move towards larger and larger fields when much of our hedgerow network was lost. All in all it is estimated that France has lost an astounding 2 million km of hedges and this is certainly not without its consequences.

Click on images to expand 

Above - Hedgerows take up farmers land.

Below - The convenience of removing them.

Throughout the same timescale we see the rise and literally the fall in the use of stone walls for enclosures, (murets de pierres) or sometimes a combination of the two, a dry-stone wall with a hedge. These can be found today in many parts of the region although the walls are often dilapidated and only partly standing other than when maintained around gardens. To most landowners they are generally at best of no interest or even a hindrance to their activities. Again the losses have been massive.

Above - remains of dry stone wall and hedgerow

Hedgerows come about in different ways, for different purposes and will contain different species. Leaving garden hedges aside from a strictly practical perspective for most farmers and landowners that meant making use of the most robust and abundant natural species that were probably growing there in the first place. Most people will know what they are, especially if they have a bit of rural land. Bramble, blackthorn, hawthorn, hazel, spindle, chestnut, oak, box, field maple, elm, beech, holly, ivy, dog rose and wild privet are all typically found and can provide a dense livestock barrier when managed correctly and do a rather good job of keeping people out as well.  Correct management, in this case, is keeping the hedge height and shape compact with a height of around 1.5 to 2.5 metres and a width of 1 to 1.5 metres. This will help prevent gaps appearing, something I see too often here where even newly planted hedgerows are simply left to grow into a row of closely planted trees with huge gaps and limited usefulness, however the occasional tree here and there that is allowed to mature as part of the hedgerow can be beneficial. 

 Above - Hawthorn berries 

   Below - Rosehips on Dogrose  

As mentioned there is little practical need for hedgerows by landowners anymore, indeed in my conversations with local agriculteurs they are often proud of the wide open landscapes with no nasty hedgerows to obscure the view and make life difficult. Where required the introduction and easy availability of metal wire, stock fencing and electric fencing has done away with the requirement for hedgerows. Whilst not wishing to blame them it needs to be understood that hedgerows and dry stone walls have a usefulness and long-term economic value both to farmers and wildlife that only too often hasn’t perhaps been considered or taken into account.

Hedgerows and Dry stone walls provide unique habitat structures that are completely different to anything else including woodland. Importantly they heat up and retain heat in a completely different way that provides protection and breeding habitat for birds, reptiles and mammals as well as a vast number of insects throughout the year. Another feature which will have been noticed by anyone that walks in the winter is that they provide fantastic windbreaks giving shelter from wind and driving rain on the lee side. This same wind break action helps to prevent the soil erosion that results from modern cereal production methods; in fact soil erosion now affects most of the main cereal growing areas in France and other major agricultural production regions and can amount to several tonnes per hectare every year. Given it takes around 500 years for just 2.5cm of topsoil to be created amid unimpeded ecological changes this is a resource we must conserve.

Good dense hedgerows will also build up a mass of living debris at the base, something that takes many years to establish and is of great value to both wildlife and maintaining the soil structure, somewhere for vast numbers of ground beetles and other insects to survive that will, in turn, provide food for hedgehogs and small insect-eating birds. As well as the bushes and trees that make up the hedgerow there will be numerous native flowers that find a place at the base, far too many to name here with native climbers such as Honeysuckle and both Black and White Bryony and White Bryony  provides food for the Bryony Ladybird, Henosepilachna argus, that eats the leaves. 

 Above - Bryony Ladybird

Below - Bryony Ladybird Larva eating Bryony leaves

Everywhere we look we find that all of the plants and the shrubs that are part of this structure will all have an importance to other species with many having unique or specific requirements.  Leaves provide food for specialist caterpillars, flowers provide nectar and pollen for different species of bees and other pollinators, broken hollow bramble stems are where the Small carpenter bee, Ceratina cyanea, a very small solitary bee species you may hardly notice lay their eggs. No article about hedgerows could leave out the importance of all those berries many of which rely on being eaten to be distributed far and wide having passed through a bird or a mammal. Blackberries are perhaps the most widely eaten of all our native berries, Birds, Pine and Stone Marten, Wasps, Hornets, and various other insect and fly species all have their share, not to forget humans. Hawthorn berries and Rosehips are sought after by the Thrush family, (Fieldfare, Redwing, Song and Mistle thrush), in winter when the weather is extreme and the ground is frozen. Hedgerows are also of huge importance to certain species of bat particularly Natterer’s bats and the two Horseshoe bat species, Greater and Lesser. Last but not least we will all have seen dead Barn owls by the side of the road and may even have been unfortunate enough to have collided with one in flight, I have and it isn’t a pleasant feeling. These collisions invariably occur where hedgerows have been removed for the simple reason that Barn Owls hunt by sweeping low across the land and a simple thing like a hedgerow pushes them up and over any traffic.

Above - Injured Barn Owl - one of the lucky ones

We have reached a point where although there is still a net loss of hedgerow each year the pace of removal is slowing; arguably it will be anyway because so much has already disappeared. Also there are land owners and sometimes communes that are planting new hedgerows and in the Vienne the LPO helps raise finance to plant hedgerows every year for a dozen or so small farmers that want to improve bio-diversity on their land.

In Poitou-Charentes the Association Prom’Haies provides a wealth of information and services to assist people in planting hedgerows located at :

Maison de la Forêt et du Bois - 79190 MONTALEMBERT - Tél : 05.49.07.64.02

mail : contact@promhaies.net

Web http://www.promhaies.net/  

Whilst welcoming all new hedge planting we do need to remember that a newly planted hedge will take many, many years to be anything like as useful as a hedge that has existed for 50 years or more so saving existing hedges should be a priority with continuity maintained wherever possible to preserve their role as wildlife corridors. Perhaps it’s worth mentioning that in December at Saint-Ciers-de-Canesse and Pugnac in the Bordeaux vineyards two 190 metre hedgerows have been planted to protect the school and its playground from spray drift following the 2014 poisoning of children in the Villeneuve School that resulted from spraying the adjacent vineyard. This type of planting is set to continue in other places where children are at risk.

As for the tragic loss of dry stone walls it unlikely that much can be done to redress this and it seems certain that most of those that exist in the open countryside will continue to disappear as they have no economic value. 

Chris 

Hunting in France and the decline in species

What role, if any, does hunting play in the massive species population declines we are experiencing across the board in France?

Hunting is one of those subjects that invariably divides people into being either for or against with both sides of the argument frequently suffering from the blindness and anger that comes with entrenched attitudes but the question that needs to be asked is how much harm results from hunting relative to other perhaps more acceptable activities when it comes to the declines in wildlife that we are witnessing? 

Looked at objectively it soon becomes clear that although the practice of hunting may be abhorrent to many people it doesn’t really have any impact on the populations of deer and boar, (gros gibier or large game as they are known), which is the main form of hunting in France. Many birds are specifically bred to be hunted such as Pheasant, Red-legged Partridge & Mallard and as such don’t really count, (see link at the bottom). Where we have bird populations that are already in decline resulting from other causes then clearly hunting these species must be considered as an additional factor.   Skylarks, Turtle doves, Black-tailed godwit, Curlew and Woodcock are just a few obvious examples of this.

It’s also the case that some species are persecuted relentlessly throughout the year being seen as vermin and this is not without consequences. Hunting may play a role in this where some species are concerned with Foxes, (with perhaps a million killed a year), along with Badgers topping the list. Although not strictly hunting as such the trapping and poisoning of other mammals has both a direct impact on the species concerned and also on non-target species that fall victim to the traps or poisons used.  Owls, Black and Red Kites and Hedgehogs are all well known to suffer extensively from non-target poisoning along with smaller birds that die after eating poison grain that is spread around industrial, residential and farm buildings for rodents to eat. Pine Marten, Stone Marten and Polecats are trapped and killed as well as being poisoned which is significant when taken alongside other causes of population decline.

Collisions with vehicles are a major cause of mortality for a number of species of birds, mammals, insects, reptiles and amphibians. What this amounts to is hard to gauge but some of our more threatened "common" species such as Barn Owls and Hedgehogs will be seen regularly dead on the road or by the roadsides as well as snakes and amphibians at certain times of the year. 

Given the above all of which have some degree of importance the greatest overriding cause of population decline for the majority of species is loss of habitat and the widespread use of pesticides, (fungicides, insecticides, herbicides, rodenticides, bactericides, molluscicides etc). Habitat loss covers a broad spectrum that removes or reduces sources of appropriate nutrition, sites for depositing eggs, nesting sites, adequate cover and shelter. It’s hard to find anywhere or any situation where these circumstances don’t apply with agricultural practices being by far the main cause but we need to see that habitat losses apply equally to our homes and gardens.  New or renovated buildings rarely leave places where wildlife used to thrive; eaves are sealed and walls are neat and smooth which removes millions of roosting or nesting places for birds, insects, bats and other creatures.

Where agriculture is concerned it would be hard to find any aspect of it that hasn’t had an extremely detrimental impact on our wildlife with many species being pushed to the edge. Pesticides, removal of hedgerows, the cultivation of every marginal piece of land all responding to greater and greater pressures for more animal feedstuffs and biofuels along with increased pressure to fill the supermarket shelves with a constant flow of uniform fruit and vegetables half of which is wasted. Add to this the mountains of cakes and pastry products all requiring evermore wheat production.

It’s also worth mentioning the impact that many of the introduced non-native species are having on our native species by way of predation or competition for available resources. Asian Hornets, Box moth, Louisana Crayfish and the American Bullfrog are well-known examples but there are hundreds more.

The effects of climate change are too difficult to quantify at the present but undoubtedly play a role that can only grow in the future.

So when it comes to species declines it’s quite clear that hunting doesn’t really begin to count and even from a cruelty perspective it’s no different to the rearing and slaughter of most commercial meat, fish and poultry for the mass consumer market.

For the record, my own view is that hunting and killing other species is rarely justified and that the killing of wild or native birds, in particular, has no place at all in the 21^st Century.

Species it is permitted to hunt in France  

Preventing hunting on your land in France  

Industrial breeding of species for the hunt.

Chris

Buckwheat and Phacelia late cover crop in France

8^th September 2018

It’s no exaggeration to say that increasingly the arable lands of France are becoming environmental wastelands as the same crops are grown time and time again, often on the same land with no rotation and an ever-increasing input of chemical fertilisers and use of pesticides. Manure from cattle and goat sheds is often added to the land in a raw form without being composted which greatly reduces its usefulness and in recent years with the growth in industrial poultry farming and egg production, the vast quantities of waste from these processes are often used. Even if we leave aside the manner in which livestock is treated these days the use of the waste in such a manner, whilst it may have apparent short-term gain, leads to imbalances in the soil that is already little more than compacted dust.

The main autumn sown crops of barley, wheat and oilseed rape tend to be harvested by the end of July with maize and sunflowers usually harvested in September and October. Other crops are grown in very much smaller quantities such as Buckwheat, Hemp, Tobacco, Sorghum, Fodder Peas, Field Beans, Alfalfa and others. A more concise list will be provided at a later date with their uses as well as any benefits or negative effects on the wider environment.

Click images to expand.

Photos above of dry August fields in France with not a flower to be seen.

A major problem is that by the start of August there are no flowers, or very few, and only vast expanses of bare ground or crops, (maize and sunflower), that are turning brown. Overall this leaves the environment seriously depleted of anything to provide nourishment for other species whatever they may be and we have all seen the reports of the decline in bird and insect numbers.

As a Beekeeper as well as being passionate about the environment and our native species I would be dishonest if I didn’t admit that I find the situation disheartening at times but this isn’t a groan or a moan, it’s about simple things that can change everything and in understanding that we can make things better, not ideal or perfect, just a bit better.

One such action took me by surprise 3 or 4 weeks ago when following the wheat harvest one of the local farmers sowed a field of around 20 to 25 hectares with a buckwheat and phacelia mix as a cover crop. This is something completely new around here and the difference it has made is outstanding and not just for my bees and all the other honeybee colonies in the close proximity.   

Photo above of field with buckwheat and phacelia

This mixture sown as a cover crop has a range of benefits and is ideal in this situation; both are fast growing and accept poor low fertility soils.

Buckwheat starts to flower in 3 to 4 weeks following sowing and continues for 3 to 4 weeks.

Phacelia is somewhat slower to mature and starts flowering in about 6 to 8 weeks following sowing and can continue for another 6 to 8 weeks.  

Photos above - Buckwheat on top, Phacelia beneath.

Both plants prevent nitrate leaching and take up useful minerals that are incorporated back into the soil when turned in and they both produce abundant biomass as well as acting as weed suppressants.  Of particular interest is the ability of Buckwheat to solubilise and take up phosphorus that is otherwise unavailable to crops and then release these nutrients to later crops as the residue breaks down.

The wildlife value when sown in late summer cannot be overstated at this critical time of year when little if anything else is flowering. They have incredibly high nectar and pollen production that provides for honeybees, solitary bees and bumblebees as well as hoverflies, butterflies and a vast range of other insects many of which provide valuable food for other species and of course the swallows as they prepare for their long migration.

If all arable farmers did the same with part of their land the cumulative effect could go some way towards helping prevent the continuing declines we have been witnessing in recent years. I will certainly be saying a big Merci to the farmer when I see him next in the hope he may continue or even expand this process in future years. 

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