Rats? Mice? We have walnut trees and I’m always surprised at the distance they get carried across the garden. I feel a bit sorry for them as they obviously use a lot of energy carrying them over night and then the next day I come and pick them up and clear them away (walnuts bad for dogs).
Rats come sniffing around the bird bath when I scatter food for the hedgehogs, so maybe it’s the rats leaving the stones in the long grass after supper!
I have seen crows taking walnuts from the garden and throwing them onto the garage apron to crack them open and then pick them clean - clever little things !
Plum saplings may be “suckers” (secondary shoots from the root system) from the old tree.
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I only found out I have a walnut tree somewhere along my perimeter wall adjacent to farmland, when I realised after many years reminding myself to clear up the walnut half shells left by some agricultural worker who’d brought walnuts for his lunch and sat on the wall eating them… was not in fact the case.
Which month do walnut nuts either drop from the tree or become ready to take off the tree? I’d like to find more than fresh empty nut-free broken shells along the top of my wall, some year.
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Sorry @AngelaR - I’ve only just seen your post. Could it be a Fire Salamander?
We have one who lives in the water meter régard. A handsome creature and a privilege to welcome him to our home.
This week I’ve seen two types of butterflies ( first I’ve seen this year)but only managed to get a photo of one. Also I popped down to the cellar this evening to get my first beer 
of the week and this little fellow was flying about, when it stopped I got a photo.
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Peacock butterfly I reckon and is that a Pipistrelle, difficult to make it out???
We’ve had a Pipistrelle come out of “hibernation” early this winter, due to the sunshine.
(we have various types during the warmer weather, Pipistrelle, Horseshoe and a large, ominous Dracula-type one…)
Peacock butterfly, yes that’s what I said it probabaly was to Mrs W as it saunteredd passed her head making her jump.
Not sure on the bat as I was more interest in getting a beer and then leaving it alone, by the amount of droppings I sweep up I think It maybe solitary and lives in my cellar most of the year.
This is one of our regulars… not supposed to come indoors, but some of them find a way… somehow. I don’t mind them in the cellar and the attics, but they make me jump when they appear in the bathroom or follow me along the corridors…
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SO SWEET you are so lucky I love bats
Yes, me too, when I took the plaster and rendering off the walls in the living room I found the vent chaft from the cellar to be bricked up, so I rebuilt stonework and put in a 100mm pipe for ventilation and left it for a while before I got the time to point the stonework. One evening I got a frantic call from Mrs W, saying she’s being invaded by bats and to put it lightly wasn’t happy, even more so as I was rolling around in laughter as I told her to open the windows and doors, "but, they are flying about they will attack’’! It took me a few minutes to explain that bats don’t attack and their sensory radars know exactly where she was even when moving so would advoid her at cost of hurting themselves. She gained courage as opened the nearest window and they flew out. Mrs W stuffed up the vent with a rag. I got the rest of the job finished on my return.
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That little pipistrelle is GORGEOUS!
If you want to make “brou de noix” (alcoholic drink or dyestuff) pick them while the green shell is still on them, July or August.
If you want to eat them, in the Auvergne, they are generally picked off the ground in October/November.
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Many, many years ago, I was thrilled when my Dad told me that… I renamed the huge nettle patch in our UK jungle as “butterfly sanctuary”…
We have 5-6 almost black squirrels here and it is a constant battle to see who can get to the figs or walnuts here, especially on the black walnut trees.
I have had them sit on top of the walls throwing figs and walnut shells at me shouting their heads off, when I disturb them cutting grass, it’s not the first time they have been thrown back 
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We’ve really enjoyed this thread and thought we would like to add some of our own photos that have been taken in our garden over the past few years.
We start with some baby swallows at feeding time:
A praying mantis with his beady eyes on us:
This is a polecat being released from the ragondin trap:
These two are waiting for St Valentine’s day:
A hoopoe bird with a lovely fat grub in his beak:
This is a holly blue butterfly:
Next we have a southern white admiral butterfly:
And finally a black veined white butterfly:
Hope you have enjoyed looking at them.
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