As we havn't had a discussion yet in this group I thought I would get the ball rolling!
Currently I am still living in the UK in Cornwall and one of the things we are looking forward to doing when we make the permanent move to France, which we are hoping will be this Summer, is to seek out some of the 'exotic' species of wildlife and plants which havn't made it across the water yet. Having said that in the last week our garden has finally started to spring to life and we have had some very interesting visitors. Among our normal residents of pigeons, collar doves, a robin, blackbirds, sparrows, blue tits, greenfinches and our least favourite the magpies, we have had goldcrests, gold finches, a lonesome swallow, an extremely large heron, a chaffinch who keeps trying to get rid of its reflection on our windows and patio doors and yesterday evening a sparrow hawk.
So my question is this, this time of the year what are you likely to see in your garden, France or elsewhere. We love our little visitors here but it will be good to get more of an idea of what we are likely to see once we have managed to re-home ourselves.
Hi Pamelas x 2!
I have not made it to France yet but we have a third viewing on our house tomorrow so fingers crossed. We will be living about half way between Poitiers and Angouleme when things eventually happen here. Hoopooes are one of the birds I am looking forward to seeing again. We had a brief glimpse of one flying across the road last time we were driving back home. Anyway, work won't wait so I had better get going.
Like Pamela M, we also see those animals here at this time of year (autumn). Lots of hummingbird hawk moths, the dark blue (carpenter) bees, our swallow family are out and about now (second nest of 4 babies, and the previous nest was 3) so it's been exciting to see them over the summer. For the last 2 years we have had the grues cendrées (grey heron) migrating overhead which is a fantastic spectacle, young snakes are on the move - we are seeing a lot squashed on the road.... squirrels, etc. But I am still getting to grips with some wildlife here, especially identifying birds, as I've lived in New Zealand for 36 years and identifying animals and insects there is so easy - here we try and describe what we've seen - smallish, greyish-brown with some white - could be 250 different birds! We try and take photos now as it does help with identification if you get a good shot ...
Other than that, we have a busy region with the vendange happening - it's just starting here, but at least 2-3 weeks behind the usual start date.
I see you posted your article in April - are you now in France?
Hi Helen
Im also from Cornwall and although I enjoyed the wildlife there rabbits, badger, headghog, slow worms, frogs, toads, and many birds, Here I enjoy different critters, the red squirrel, hoopoe, hummingbird moths .snakes, lizards, deer and wildboar... as well as all the edibles walnuts cheastnuts cepes and girolles ..... I was sat by the lac warching a heron yesterday so graceful.
Have you made the move to france yet ? Which area are you going to ?
Pamela