Land/Water Wildlife

The thing is they will always tell you you have to grow native species to attract wildlife, its a small Brazilian tree, but the birds dont mind.

 

Guess it is like the fact we now eat "foreign food" and "exotic fruits". I never knew about these things in Luton in the late 50s/early 60s.

 

Hares in North Dorset, I don't see them very often.

 

I've never seen one.

 

I love bunnies. I don't eat them.

I have here. Also sadly part of one.

 

'Hare' is another!

 

Lots of hares around here this year, as indeed there are deer, boar, coypu and rats! I admire the pragmatic French approach to managing wildlife. Hunting is used as a method of maintaining numbers and healthy populations, as well as crop damage limitation and, of course, for food. It's strictly controlled and not the gun-happy free-for-all that a lot of 'townies' believe it to be.
The only exception to that is the release of captive-bred pheasants for the hard-of-thinking or terminally lazy hunters It doesn't take much intelligence or skill to pot a disorientated, dazed bird who's sat there wondering what's going on!

 

As France is much bigger than the UK I think it would be very difficult to eradicate Coypu as we have done here.

Do you still have these around the garden @noisette47
Wasp Spider with a tiny male possibly about to mate.


Raft Spider.


Emperor Dragonfly egg laying.

 

There was a little confrontation between Pierre and Shadow last night. Naturally, Pierre prevailed in the dispute even though he is much smaller.

 

Rosie, our resident fox, is looking so much better now. The problem is that the skunk has been getting the chicken containing her medicine. The wildlife rehab person said that Rosie is most likely completely cured, even though she has only had nine of the twelve shots I was supposed to give her. The darn skunk has gotten her medicine for the last two nights, so I expect that any parasites the skunk had are long gone now.

 

@hydrogardener I am amazed and in awe at all the lovely critters you have visiting ... well, I am sure they al think your home is their home! Thank you for sharing them.

 

Thank you Victoria. We also have a few feral cats but I don't show photos of them. Two days ago one had a confrontation with the skunk. Have you ever seen a cat walk backwards? I have.

 

Oh yes! There's a whopper guarding the courgettes in the polytunnel Haven't noticed any in the borders, but my eyes are so focused on signs of drought or distress that I probably missed them.

 

It's good to see Rosie looking bright eyed and healthy again Hydrogardener.

 

Thanks Sheal, a booster now and then should keep her that way, I hope.