French wildlife and beekeeping

  From January 1, 2019 , only plant protection and other gardening products of natural origin have been available to home gardeners in France . This was originally to have been from Jan 2022 but was brought forward as part of the French move towards reducing the use of products that are harmful to both humans and the wider environment. This follows the banning in 2017 of the use of Glyphosate, (Roundup), and other synthetic pesticides in public spaces including public roads, parks and cemeteries. (The term Pesticides is used generically these days to cover all “cides”, herbicide, fungicide, insecticide etc. to avoid laborious repetition ).      The use of synthetic pesticides continues to be permitted for farmers and professionals registered to work in the gardening business.   Synthetic pesticides are “a substance that is formulated or manufactured by a chemical process or by a process that chemically changes a substance extracted from naturally occurri...

So now it's warmed up a bit following that rather nasty period of cold weather there are the inevitable sightings of Pine processionary m oth, Thaumetopoea pityocampa, caterpillars and all the usual corresponding scare comments that we, our children, our dogs, cats and horses will all die if they so much as get near them and that the vets and hospitals all over France will be unable to cope. Let's face it there is nothing like a bit of shock and horror to lighten up our dull winter days. Of course this is not to say that the caterpillars can't be a problem and that due diligence is required when walking anywhere near Pine trees, equally that logic would normally dictate that if you have a Pine tree in your garden and knowing this potential danger it may make sense to remove it - there are very few parts of France where they belong naturally. 200 years ago in most places you would have been hard pushed to find one in most areas and it is another example of how c...

The Common Adder is not found in the warmer parts of France and is generally to only be found in the north and east. As such I thought this information about Adders in the Réserve naturelle nationale de la vallée de Chaudefour , France maybe of some interest. It certainly sounds like a great place to visit if nothing else. The Vallée de Chaudefour is a glacial valley in the heart of the volcanic massif du Sancy in the Auvergne National Park with a unique range of species many of which are unique to mountain environments. It has no less than 976 species ranging from mammals such as chamois, mountain sheep and marmots to the Apollo butterfly, ( Parnassius apollo ), rock thrushes ( Monticola saxatilis ), and a population of Common Adders, ( Vipera berus ). The Chaudefour Valley which is between 1137 and 1854 m above sea level has 820 ha of terraced landscape was classified as a National Nature Reserve in 1991. The syndicate of structures that manage the park together with t...

It may be 2013 but here in La France Profonde there are still shops that close for 2 hours or even more at lunch time. Then when they open you may well wonder why you bothered waiting because in many instances they don’t actually have what you want or perhaps they have it but it’s 5 times the price you can buy it for from the UK . Anyway, before I start moaning the point is that I spent about 45 minutes poking around by the river Charente near to Civray waiting for a shop to open. This wasn’t likely to be exciting in mid December but you never know what may turn up and it’s a lovely river. The alternative for killing time would be to look at Estate Agents windows or wander round LIDL and even I’m not that sad. It’s a spot near a sluice where there are always one or two Grey Wagtails,  Motacilla cinerea, (note to self to have a look for nesting activity in Spring-time), and sure enough there was one there on the bank-side – always a welcome sight. The river here can be qui...

This week it's  the 29th International Ornithological Film Festival at Ménigoute, Deux-Sevres, Poitou-Charentes and I'm really looking forward to spending some time there on Thursday. Festival runs from 29th October until 30th November and I s hould say right from the start it's a lot more than films and  however good the films may be  it's the other things that interest me, especially spending a bit of time looking, (drooling), at all the optical kit, cameras, field glasses and scopes I can't afford. Not that I can't get by with what I've got but it's like everything else, it would always be nice to have better things and there really are some incredible optics available these days.  Hmmm, best stop dreaming. I must mention before anything else that the first thing to grab my attention was this stunning old bee "hive" apparently about 150 years of age. I just love this type of thing however  impractical it may have been compared to...