Thanks for these lovely photos… well done!
This creature was prowling around the back of the garden bordering on the wood the other night, we think it is a beech/stone marten (in French “fouine” (Lat: martes foina), but possibly some other mustelid ? Seems too big for a stoat, and the tail is too long.
Could be a fouine, or a pine marten.
I just noticed this on one of the tree branches in the garden - they appear to be ants, but no clue what the white fluffy stuff is???
The ants are harvesting sugary secretions from the woolly aphids (the white powdery stuff). A few drops of washing ip liquid in nettle tea will get rid of them, nit they don’t do much harm if tree is healthy.
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Great stuff - thanks alot, very helpful - I’ll get them sorted out tomorrow:+1:
fortunately the tree is very healthy starting to feel like a bit of a zoo here with the onset of the warm weather 
This bullfinch has been sat in our tree for hours now. It doesn’t look sick, and doesn’t have the telltale signs of food round it’s mouth that indicates trichomoniasis. But that’s not normal is it? We’ve not tried to disturb it, but fear the worst.
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The zoo continues to spring to life around me here I saw this earlier today, not a flinch, waiting to feast on bugs. It didn’t seem at all influenced by me being close by on the other side of the kitchen window.
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great camouflage
Exactly - I stood watching it for a while hoping to see it grab a bug. Something very large came hovering nearby which generated some interest, but alas, the bug won and got away with its life this time
Are they normally that fat/puffy?
He was a big lad, that’s true. But looked sort of proportional. He has now moved, so perhaps I was worrying for nothing (and the dog has been on cat watch). He was so beautiful hope I see him again.
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Maybe this little chap was just resting after a longish flight from further South. Unlike their UK cousins, a lot of European Bullfinches fly South for the Winter. Look out for the female they usally stay together.
Keep us posted.
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I keep looking out here in Shrewsbury for the return of swifts. Has anyone seen them in France yet this year?
@MichaelL I saw them this weekend for the first time this year, very late this time, almost a month later than last year.
Great news Dawn. I can’t see you on the map. What department are you in?
I’m in 23 (Creuse) Michael 
Wow, beautiful !
We already have a few swallows, and the house martins have been out, but not in their masses.
The orioles have arrived, as has the cuckoo. No hoopoes this year though so far, too cold in April, even the orioles came later than usual.