The Wild Side of Life #9
The Unadventurous Traveller
The Wild Side of Life
We enjoyed our lives and carried on adapting to French living. Outside of school, work and doing up the various buildings, we enjoyed the vast open space that many houses in France afford people. I had a vegetable garden - my ‘Potager’ - which I really enjoyed tinkering about on, planting vegetables, sharing in the delights of growing produce with the children and Dale, and eating the delights there and then!
Vegetable garden
Fresh peas, beans, lettuce, radishes, carrots, potatoes, and even aubergines etc! The kids would help me by digging up the potatoes or carrots and it was such a pleasurable activity for me, to wind down after work. It was also another way to get me into the sunshine and was a great thing to teach the kids where vegetables really come from and how hard it is to grow certain things we just take for granted. I loved being able to give away some surplus produce to our neighbours, gite guests and of course plenty for us to eat.
Proud of our produce!
While Dale wasn't doing up different parts of the property or gite, he was immersing himself in all kinds of photography. He has always been a very good photographer, and in England he took the plunge and became professional. As a wildlife photographer, and someone who specialises in high speed flash photography, animals and insects seem to feature in our lives a lot!
Dale at his favourite hobby
If we are not spotting them on our walks they find us somehow, as if they're begging for their 15 minutes of fame. Here in our small corner of rural France, with all the space and abundance of wildlife on our very doorstep, Dale rose to any photographic (and building) challenge he set himself.
Swallows
In the large barn nearest to our house, which had three sections to it all with doors, many of the doors were left open for ease of use. Given half a chance the swallows used to find these barns and loved making nests in the eaves. Once they had begun to nest we could not shut the barn doors and trap them out or in, so they had free rein over the barns, to swoop in and out at feeding time. Feeding became more and more regular the bigger the chicks got! The left hand barn was where we parked the bikes and other equipment like strimmers etc, but everything underneath the nests was covered in poop. This was the only downside to these beautiful birds sharing our barns.
They, of course, became prime photographic subjects for Dale, who set up ways in which to photograph them in flight - something which has become his ‘speciality’. He had to find ways in which to allow the flash to be set off, without getting in the birds’ way and ensuring a natural look to the photographs. This takes a lot of time and patience of course to get it right. The birds didn’t mind the flash photography, raised hundreds of babies in the barns, and came back year after year. Just to add, Dale never gets too close to the nests or the babies, he is too much a conservationist to do that, and held many licences in the UK allowing him to photograph licensed birds at the best sites. The swallows became so inquisitive, they regularly visited our house, to have a look around this 'new barn' and see if they could nest there!
Stroppy Swallow
One year we had a very stroppy swallow who just did not like Dale at all. He (I'm saying he, I have no idea if it was the male or female) used to dive bomb Dale if he saw him. Dale only started complaining about this after a few weeks, I hadn't noticed a thing, so we started to try to test this bird to see whether it disliked all humans, but no it seemed to be just Dale! Perhaps it was Dales’ tinkering in the barns, or his wanting to take the swallows’ photo, or just his ‘smell’ that was so offensive, but it made me laugh!
An Ornithological Spectacle
Many more birds nested in the garden and they all became special photographic subjects for Dale and therefore special birds for us to watch as they raised their young and we got to know their personalities.
Pic of Blue Tit in flight
Blue tits were found nesting in the bird box. Whilst they may not be rare, they were lovely little birds and Dale was able to practise capturing them in flight and getting the detail in their wings. If you have ever tried to do this, you will know the movement just looks like a blur, unless you have the know-how and right equipment plus a lot of patience.
Dale knew that there were red-back shrikes nesting in the Creuse Valley and they're not nesting in the UK any more, so he was delighted that these migratory birds came to the garden when they had young.
Redstarts
We had a proliferation of redstarts flitting about the gardens, from common redstarts to black redstarts. They are both a rarity in the UK but they nested yearly in our garden and are quite common throughout France. We often discussed the possible reasons for this, from reducing hedgerows and places to nest in the UK, to the overuse of pesticides and reducing food sources available to them. We cannot pretend that the French farmers did not use pesticides to protect their crops, and understand the need but the difference in bird numbers between France and the UK was very clear. Of course the UK is vastly more populated per square mile than France, and the need for housing adds to the destruction of woodlands and other greenbelt areas. There are probably many other factors that take their toll on the habitat and food sources available, but we revelled in the abundance of bird life in our French garden.
One hot summer’s day, I was wandering around watering and tending to plants. We had found a very large, metal cooking pot in a barn, which Dale thought it would be used to cook a pig in (it reminded me of a witch’s cauldron). We filled it with earth and grew flowers and, more importantly, strawberries in. This pot was at a perfect height for Brooke and Dalton to be able reach the strawberries and check for me if any were ready yet (and to scoff before they ever made it back to the kitchen)!
Little Birdie
One day, amongst the strawberry plants, I found a strange little ball of pink/grey something, barely moving and not making a sound. I brought it in to show my resident animal expert and very quickly our house became an emergency bird feeding and caring zone. Dale discovered that this was a tiny little black redstart who must have fallen, or pushed himself from his nest, at the top of the house. Baby birds can sometimes abandon their nests when it becomes too hot, and this was a super hot summer magnified even more up in the roof space. We looked around to see if there were any more, but none of the others had found such a soft landing - rather they had just fallen the 5 metres to the hard floor below.
Dale took on the role of 'mother bird' really well. We found some tweezers and popped to the local Intermarché for some mealworms (they have a special fridge in many French supermarkets for the fishermen to keep live bait). Birdie, as he became known, was so small we had to break the mealworms into small parts and feed him regularly. Dale was so good at this that Birdie grew and grew, with lots of feeding needed at the start.
Dale with his baby 'Birdie'
He became a lovely addition to our household. He flew around us, landing on the back of the settee, the table and sat on our hands. One day he seemed to have hurt his wing, and couldn't fly, but this didn't seem to last long. As he grew into a more mature bird, he started to stay out at night, then we wouldn't see him for a few days at a time. While this sounds sad, it was a pleasure to see the bird acting like a normal black redstart, roosting in trees and hopefully finding a mate to continue the circle of life.
Bats in the Barn
The barns were also home to many other different animals, including several different species of bat. When we first arrived there were horseshoe bats inhabiting the outside cellar, but they swiftly moved on when we moved in. It is probably because they have to have a particular temperature for their roost, and with us living upstairs we may have altered that temperature just a little (although it didn't feel like it in the middle of winter!). Dale was very sad about this, so imagine how thrilled he was when he found bats hanging up in the barn one day!
The more we left them alone, or allowed them the freedom to come and go as they wanted, the more there seemed to be. Dale was in his absolute element photographing these creatures, which are incredibly rare in the UK. There are protection orders which are supposed to have a worldwide reach, but here in France there didn't seem to be much protection or care for them. Still, we did our bit!
Photo of brown long eared bat in flight in the barn
Dale created a wonderful haven for the bats to stay in with free openings for them to leave to go to hunt when dusk arrived. In doing so, he was able to establish a great environment for them to be photographed, without disturbing them.
The different species we found inhabiting the barn were:
🦇 Grey long eared,
🦇 Brown long eared,
🦇 Pipistrelle,
🦇 Kaul’s pipistrelle,
🦇 Natterous,
🦇 Whiskered,
🦇 Barbestelle
🦇 Greater horseshoe,
🦇 Lesser horseshoe,
🦇 Daubenton’s,
🦇 Beckstein …
Checking out the new ‘Barn’
One summer's evening, we had gone to bed with the windows in our bedroom wide open, as it was extremely hot and we wanted any breath of breeze there might be to cool us. In the middle of the night I awoke to find several things flying around our room. ‘Oh my goodness!’ it took a few seconds for my sleepy brain to work out they couldn't be birds, as it was night, so they must be bats flying around and around our bedroom! What to do? I nudged Dale and asked him what we should do? But he just said to go back to sleep - they would find their own way out eventually. And they did! We all know about their echo locating skills, so I wasn't scared that they would swoop down and crash into us, but I still lay extra flat just in case! They must have been checking out the new large barn they had found, but no food was in there!
Wild Animals
It's the wild animal life that we are really interested in. Despite Dale being the wildlife photographer in the family, it's always me that seems to attract the insects and wildlife! Why? They can't all love to hear my screams when some insect has landed in my hair or jumping spider decided to practise jumping near me.
In the very beginning, the immediate garden behind the house was available for us all to walk in and play, whereas the garden to the right was more a cottage garden, also intact but without the box hedging and French kitchen garden that we had heard it used to be. However the bottom garden, the largest of the back gardens, was a wilderness. As the years had passed, the weeds, brambles, , bamboo plants and more besides had run wild! We could barely see a quarter of the garden that was there. Dale had managed to strim a path through the wilderness so we had an idea of what was there. We found some of the largest blackberries as they had been left for years, that were juicy and delicious for Brooke and Dalton.
New Animal Discovery?
One evening, I decided to go for a walk around the garden. As I was living quite a sedentary life, working at the computer all day, cooking dinner then putting children to bed, I wasn't getting much exercise. So getting out, even just to stroll around the garden, take in the tranquillity after the kids had gone to bed and to smell the freshness, was lovely. It was around June time, so it was warm and just beginning to get dark. I walked through the old metal gates entering into the bottom, wild garden, enjoying the buzz of the insects, watching the butterflies disappear off and the usual chatter of wildlife around me. I got to one of the apple trees and was unsure, but thought I had seen the trunk moving. So took a closer look.
Flying Crabs?
There were creatures walking up and down the trunk of the tree, large too - about the length of your finger and thick, but I had no idea what they were. They reminded me of thin crabs. Then, whilst staring in awe and thinking to myself that I must have made some great discovery of a brand new creature, its back opened up, flipped out some wings and it flew off! Flying crabs! Oh my goodness, I had never seen anything like it. Dale must see this!
Flying crabs? Are you sure?
I called to him to come, but he was too far away to hear me as I was right down the garden in the thickest part of the densely covered wild part. A little worried that if I left they too would leave, and he would never see these new creatures, I was not sure what to do.
But as all creatures seem to find me as a target, and knowing how much Dale loves to photograph wildlife and it seems to be my mission in life to ensure he has regular, suitable animal photographic models, I ran back to the house to go find him. I blurted out my find and to come quickly! He was incredulous that such a creature existed - after all what sort of a creature, with armour similar to a crab, existed in our garden, walking up trees, then flying? And why had he never seen them? I know it sounded ridiculous too… Maybe I had imagined it? We ran back to the tree, he with camera in hand, me just to prove that I wasn’t crazy and perhaps seeing something in the half light of the quickly oncoming night sky.
We couldn’t really see anything at first - which was incredibly irritating as he would love to have laughed at me for my stupidity! And then, flying through the sky they came, buzzing all around us, diving bombing a little and swooping high into the darkening sky. One or two were still climbing up the tree too. They were real, but what were they? Dale knew - and laughed at me so loudly!
Armoured Fighting Insects
They were stag beetles, and they do have armour-like protection, can climb and walk but also have wings to get themselves around quickly. This was their mating time, so they were flitting about trying to attract the females. The males fight with each other and, of course, I have some lovely examples to show you. Dale loved capturing these fighting stag beetles in action. I scarpered indoors to get away from these large, flying crab-like things, certainly too much excitement for one evening!
The Jungle
Changing the garden took quite some doing. The previous family had hired a gardener for some years, who had kept the grass down and tidy, but as the years had gone on he had been stood down. The garden had become a jungle by the time we took it over. We couldn't even enter the lower garden for the first 6 months as there were huge prickles, overgrown trees, a massive bamboo bush and so on!
We needed to get this land sorted out. Dale started to cut weeds and to take out random self-set trees and bushes,, but this took a long time, was backbreaking and left the roots in. The roots had to be dug out and again, even with me helping, we weren't getting anywhere!
We decided to employ a local farmer/gardener who came in with his tractor to continue the work Dale had started, to pull roots out, remove the remaining weeds and flatten the land. With his tractors and after many, many trailers full of garden waste, the man transformed the garden from literally a huge impassable bramble patch into a usable, flat space.
We had asked for the two apple trees to remain and the two ornamental quince bushes to stay as they formed a beautiful walkway and flowered with such vivid pink/reds that it looked like the bushes were on fire!
We kept the two very old apple trees in the centre of the space as I had dreamt of fruit trees and all the wonderful produce we would receive. It turned out that one tree was an apple but a very old variety, a kind of mix between apple and pear tree with fruit so rock hard it was impossible to eat. The other apple tree produced very small, incredibly sour apples, not even suitable for cooking. So we lucked out on the old apple trees! They did however allow the bees and other pollinators to cross-pollinate with other fruiting trees and when we later planted some new apple trees, it helped them to produce fruit.
We did find a plum tree at the very bottom of the garden that had been hidden through the years. It had three plums on it and I was so proud! However we never saw fruit on it again - I just hope the birds were eating them and getting some pleasure out of the tree before we got there.
To be honest we received so many apples and produce from the family up the road that I didn't miss our own apples!
Keeping things Wild
Not long after the farmer had made our inhospitable bottom garden all beautiful and accessible, Dale fenced off half of this new, large area and created a wild flower garden. In the other half he built a swing for the kids and he had plans for a pergola and dining area. I'll come back to this.
The wild flower garden was absolutely beautiful and allowed some wonderful flowers to grow and attract all kinds of butterflies, moths and some rare exhibits that no longer live in the UK due to changes in habitat.
Once this habitat was in place, it attracted fritillaries, large coppers (not found in the UK any more), swallowtails, and scarce swallowtails, amongst many other butterflies and moths.
There were grasshoppers galore, praying mantis and of course maybugs, to name just a few of the insect life attracted to the wild flowers.
It wasn't just Dale that got involved with the wildlife, Dalton loved all things 'outdoors' and so loved getting dragonflies, crickets in fact any of the insects or animals close to him.
Dalton with two dragonflies on him (look closely!)
Within this wild area, and in the additional section of pasture in the field out the back, we were also lucky enough to see some beautiful creatures. Dale spotted a baby roe deer hiding in the tall grass, awaiting its mother’s return. They are so well camouflaged if they don't move, and whilst we all came to see it, we didn't get too close. By nightfall the baby deer had gone, so its mother had come to collect it and they returned to the safety of wherever they normally live. We all came to see it, at a distance, and totally fell in love with it. We felt so relieved it was safely back with its mother. Well, Brooke had wanted to adopt it, but most of us were pleased it was safe and hidden.
Easter Bunny?
In the garden one morning near Easter, Dale spotted a leveret hopping through. Brooke was convinced this must be the Easter Bunny coming early, probably to check the place out to see where he could potentially hide the eggs, perhaps? We joked about the leveret coming for a chat with our rabbit that we kept as a pet.
Water world
In time, Dale developed this wild flower half of the garden and created a pond, thus inviting a whole host of different animals to reside there. The swallows would regularly dive and swoop to take sips of water from it. Frogs and toads lived there and sometimes made their way to the cool earth of my veg patch. One frog even came into the house.
There were also marbled newts in the pond, that used to overwinter in the cellar and tiny frogs that made the loudest calls every evening, echoing across the garden for all to hear.
Marbled newt
We've loved sharing our animal encounters that we have had in the garden, however, that's not all! I couldn't fit all the stories and funny tales in to one blog. The next edition is jammed full of deer, owls, pets, devastating natural events and more! See you soon.
If you would like to read more about our travels, adventures and happenings then you could join the Facebook page for updates: The Unadventurous Traveller or see our page on Instagram which shows work as it’s happening to the Chapel.Renovation and follow this blog.
All photographs in this blog are subject to copyright and owned by Dale Sutton (or me).
Please share this with your friends so more people can read it, thank you. See you next time!
Catherine
You can catch up on some of the previous blogs here:
#6 Finding Friends and Hidden Treasure
#5 Manoir Makeover - more doing it up - Part 2
#4 Signing and Doing it up - Part 1
#3 France - a new life, a new home
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