Exactly, I’ve seen a few here and some are really really vibrant green - gorgeous colour, and never seem afraid, not dashing when you get close.
Here’s a turn up for the books. I’d heard that there was a local population in the area, and thought I’d occasionally seen one by the side of the road in a state worse for wear, but this is the first time we’ve actually seen them alive and kicking and just doing their thing…climbing trees and probably raiding our compost!
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I collected him and carefully deposited him in the greenery… he wasn’t any trouble…
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Spotted the Coulevre leisurely making his way across the surface of the bottom pond towards me, there were a couple of splashes each time he paused, whether catching something or not I don’t know, when he got closer and was about to disappear from my line of sight I very carefull opened the door to go out onto the terrasse to get a close look, but, with one ‘bound’, he was gone.
No-wonder I never actually meet one when I am in the swimming pond, if they are that sensitive about sharing space. 
We saw this little monster on the road outside our house a few days back.
Rough crossing by Anton Ertl, on Flickr
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I heard Chris Packham on TV the other night saying that our hearing diminishes with age, such that, in his case, he cannot hear the high-pitched tweets of goldfinches , any more.
This reminds me of when I was a sub-teenager asking mum if she could hear the scissors squeaking, a very high-pitched tone, and she couldn’t, but I could.
He compared our hearing to a barn owl’s and said that relevant parts of our inner ear suffer a breakdown with age, and in our case, there is no natural repair renewal process, and although barn owls suffer the same breakdown & diminution in hearing as we do, the barn owl has a natural renewal process.
Maybe research on the barn owl’s hearing loss and renewal will lead to improving our hearing problems one day.
Thankfully I can still hear the goldfinches!
Really looking forward to being able to swivel my head to see who’s behind me then. 
More seriously though, he is dead right, I have an appointment with an audition specialist next month in Perigueux, not because I am going deaf but because I have more and more difficulty in separating sounds and thus speech. I love radio drama, but can’t listen to it anymore because I can’t distinguish one character from another much of the time. The one partial exception is The Archers, my podcast every night just before sleep, but that is only because I know most of the characters, although I get lost when new ones are introduced.
I also put this down to my difficulties with listening to spoken French, only slightly more serious than spoken English. Mask wearing has been a nightmare, thank goodness the animals I talk to have not been forced to wear them.
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Had no idea that racoons inhabited France. Googling shows them as being introduced and now invasive, and I believe there’s a move to eradicate them.
When will we learn to behave ourselves and stop messing about with nature?
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Indeed, ask Australians about rabbits. Also possibly cats and cane toads.
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It doesn’t help that in Europe at least, we’ve essentially removed the apex predators from the trophic cascade.
I could have added Europeans from 5 continents too, but didn’t want to appear controversial.
I understand @David_Spardo , I’m in exactly the same situation. I saw an audiologiste a few months ago. They did several tests, and he said ‘your hearings just fine’. I tried to explain my difficulties when more than one person is talking, and in a crowd … forget it. He just didn’t seem to understand the problems I have. I hope tou have a better experience.
So do I, that doesn’t seem like worth the long wait for an appointment. I’ll report back as and when.
Love your sense of humour!
When I first bought my workshop/forge at auction with its largish back garden, friends called the garden a flat open empty field - and it was!
The field has since grown into a little oasis for birds over the years, full of shady trees and lots of bramble! And lots of other wild vegetation - nothing much more because I was born without green fingers – and yesterday caught a blackbird feeding a youngster with blackberries on the garden cam.
Next door’s garden, and the one beyond that, have nothing but large expanses of close-cropped grass with just one tree each.
This leads me on to say that for the first time ever, a long-tailed tit appeared at the bird bath. I know they are common but this is the first one I’ve seen. The video’s brief and I can only assume this is a long-tailed tit at the moment.
Chuffed!
Haven’t had an A to Z of birds yet – still AEFIJKOQUVXYZ to go!
Barn Owl
Blackbird
Black Cap
Blue Tit
Brambling
Chaffinch
Cirl Bunting
Collared Dove
Dunnock
Gold Finch
Great Tit
Greater Spotted Woodpecker
Green Finch
Green Woodpecker
Hawfinch
Long tailed tit
Melodious warbler
Nightingale
Pied Flycatcher
Redstart
Robin
Sparrow
Starling
Tree Creeper
Tree Pipit
Turtle Dove
Two unidentified warblers
Wood Pidgeon
Wren
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I get longtailed tits in one of my lime trees, only one among the many, they avoid the others for some reason, they go in a little cloud calling to each other in their tiny squeaky voices. I think they are eating ants.
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Don’t forget to put plenty of fresh water out for the birds and other wildlife as they suffer too!
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no idea what it is, but steered well clear!
Another thing to think about is if you have open water butts drap à hessian sack or something similar so barn and other owls 
can climb up so not drown.
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