French wildlife and beekeeping

In the autumn of 2018 several large fields where we live were planted predominantly with Field beans with a few other plants including fodder radish, mustard and phacelia. This has never happened here before and I was quite excited at the thought that these may be left to flower in the spring which would have been great for all manner of species including my bees. However it seems this is not going to happen. Yesterday when I was out with my dog I saw that one of the fields was electric fenced and had sheep in it and that the adjacent field was also electric fenced but had been grazed.   From both an agricultural and environmental perspective I can see the benefits in this. The crop as a green manure provides good winter cover, prevents nutrient leaching, adds nitrogen and other nutrients to the soil and the owner of the sheep has fresh early season fodder for their animals. I should explain that sheep aren’t pastured where we live as it is more profitable to gro...

People often ask which days are hunting days in France, and the simple answer is that no National law prohibits hunting on any day of the week during the open hunting season. However, various Associations keep petitioning for Sundays to be hunt-free. Part of the confusion where it exists is that there isn’t simply one type of hunting or la chasse and that la chasse is often erroneously thought of as being uniquely chasse en battue that involves a minimum number of participants with some driving or flushing through an area using dogs pushing any animals, (boar, deer, fox), out into the open to where one or more hunters wait with guns. Usually this type of organised hunt takes place on two or three specific days of the week that are agreed at the commune level (ours is Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays) and the people that participate in this like to call themselves La Chasse.   However, rough shooting for smaller creatures, birds, rabbits, hares etc. can take place on any d...

In the Pyrénées-Atlantiques the first photos emerge of a beaver after several centuries of absence for this species in this area of France . In February 2018, a naturalist on vacation in the Basque region of France discovered indices of beaver presence on the banks of the Nive at Ustaritz (64) in the form of cut tree trunks and debarked branches. Click on photos to enlarge - Credits photos  SD64  ONCFS This led to the realization of a joint research by the ONCFS, Thomas Ruys of Cistude Nature association, a representative of APPMA, (the angling federation), and a local naturalist. This investigation confirmed that the indices were indeed those of a beaver but didn’t provide any actual sightings of one. Following these observations of new cutting activity on fresh trees in November 2018, a photographic trap was installed which resulted in pictures of a beaver working on the trunk of a tree! For the moment only one animal has been identified that...

All the bird calls of France HERE Save & enjoy,  Chris

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 c...

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...

Up to 25mm in length this huge leafcutter bee is a relatively new arrival in France that is rapidly and literally making itself at home and is nicknamed the Squatter bee for reasons that will become apparent.  First observations of this bee in France were made in 2008 in Allauch, north of Marseille. Since this date they have spread a long way and in the space of a few years have conquered a territory that includes all the southern half of the country!  The main concentrations not surprisingly follow the Rhone valley as far as Macon in the north to the Mediterranean in the south spreading West as far as Spain and East into Italy , Switzerland and Germany becoming relatively commonplace in gardens south of Lyon . Map source - VigieNature It is thought to have first arrived in a shipment of timber into the port of Marseille from the USA where the species had been introduced at an earlier date, (first observed in 1994 in North Carolina ). Originally t...