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In the garden 2022

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Vivienne14 said:
Last year box tree moths/caterpillars decided to descend on my garden and help themselves to my box hedging. Consequently this is the result. Gutted. It’s taken me 5 years to get the plants to this stage. So I’ve bought 2 box tree moth traps, you know the ones with pheromones. Anyone used these ? I’m sceptical, but worth a try. Otherwise I think the hedging will have to come out. Pity, as I can see new shoots starting. Any other tips welcome too as I’m a believer of attacking on all fronts. Viv.
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Its horrible isn't it?
3 years ago we had an infestation in the region, and they came back the year after in smaller numbers to finish the job. The traps you have will help a lot. If you see the caterpillars on the plants, kill them, dump them in hot water if you don't want to use your foot. Bear in mind that hairy caterpillars of most sorts can irritate the skin, sometimes badly, wear gardening gloves. (I'm sure you knew that). If it gets as far as turning into moths, then the ones to go for are the darker brown ones, they are the females. Show no mercy. They can fly a good distance, so get them when you see them. It is a bit of a manual process, but worth it.
If you have new shoots, take the rest out and leave them to grow, it might be dispiriting, but they will come back. They have round here, and quite quickly.
Just to lift your spirits slightly, it is a big walking area around here (Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle route) and the caterpillars were hanging from branches a bit like spiders on a thread, and brushing into the faces of the walkers. A bit like the effect in some fairground ghost trains. Reactions ranged from panic, arm waving, spitting out caterpillars.

All the above from Julie, my other half. I am still on a provisional licence in the gardening department.

Bonne chance, Andrew.
 
Brummie a long time ago said:
My wife went out this morning to top up the bird feeders, the sparrow hawk parked in a tree on the edge of the field stuck its tongue out at her and flew off. We used to have a goshawk do the rounds here, but despite being a bigger bird than the sparrow hawk it seems to have ceded the territory and we haven't seen it for a while.

Down by my shed
View attachment 167204View attachment 167205

We have a resident kestrel that spends a lot of time on a wire at the edge of the field surveying for small rodents. That is not a threat to the garden birds though.

We just had about 5 red kites circling the house quite low, (good job they are not vultures). My wife reckons they are migrating up from the south, but is hopeful that some may be thinking of nesting close by.

Now the ** mole in front of our window is another story. It has 5000 sq m to live in, and it chooses just there.

Andrew.
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So YOU get any black woodpeckers?
 
Nico said:
So YOU get any black woodpeckers?
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No. We do get the great and lesser spotted woodpeckers fairly often. The great spotted will hang off the post mounted bird feeders, and we have seen it on the window cill feeder. The lesser spotted tends to walk about over the field. The black woodpecker is out of our area, a bit more to the east of us. We do get quite a bit of woodpecker sound effects in the woods around us.
Andrew.
 
Brummie a long time ago said:
No. We do get the great and lesser spotted woodpeckers fairly often. The great spotted will hang off the post mounted bird feeders, and we have seen it on the window cill feeder. The lesser spotted tends to walk about over the field. The black woodpecker is out of our area, a bit more to the east of us. We do get quite a bit of woodpecker sound effects in the woods around us.
Andrew.
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They were in my partner's mum' garden such a mournful cry. With a red head. And red squirrels, her uncle had pine martens. And the boars were coming back. The French birds didn't like our Hovis wholemeal and the English birds won't eat the French baguettes we brought back. The French wrens were bigger too.
 
Nico said:
They were in my partner's mum' garden such a mournful cry. With a red head. And red squirrels, her uncle had pine martens. And the boars were coming back. The French birds didn't like our Hovis wholemeal and the English birds won't eat the French baguettes we brought back. The French wrens were bigger too.
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We have a very dark red, almost brown squirrel that runs the length of the field on top of the stone wall. We had a fouine (stone or beech marten) take up residence in our loft a couple of years ago over the winter. Saw him looking at me over the roof top. We are in a bungalow so his floor was our ceiling. Over the bedroom. He was bringing something back for supper, so crunch crunch, scratch scratch. I ended up putting a trap box up there. Didn't catch anything, but he didn't come back, so that counts as a success. We don't have boar in our field (touch wood) but we do have deer sometimes chewing plants. The robins here have totally different attitudes here to UK, eat out of your hand there, but stay well away here.

deer.jpeg

Andrew.
 
Brummie a long time ago said:
We have a very dark red, almost brown squirrel that runs the length of the field on top of the stone wall. We had a fouine (stone or beech marten) take up residence in our loft a couple of years ago over the winter. Saw him looking at me over the roof top. We are in a bungalow so his floor was our ceiling. Over the bedroom. He was bringing something back for supper, so crunch crunch, scratch scratch. I ended up putting a trap box up there. Didn't catch anything, but he didn't come back, so that counts as a success. We don't have boar in our field (touch wood) but we do have deer sometimes chewing plants. The robins here have totally different attitudes here to UK, eat out of your hand there, but stay well away here.

View attachment 167267

Andrew.
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How wonderful. When we were clearing out mum in law's house there a robin got himself in the stairwell.
 
Nico said:
How wonderful. When we were clearing out mum in law's house there a robin got himself in the stairwell
Brummie a long time ago said:
We have a very dark red, almost brown squirrel that runs the length of the field on top of the stone wall. We had a fouine (stone or beech marten) take up residence in our loft a couple of years ago over the winter. Saw him looking at me over the roof top. We are in a bungalow so his floor was our ceiling. Over the bedroom. He was bringing something back for supper, so crunch crunch, scratch scratch. I ended up putting a trap box up there. Didn't catch anything, but he didn't come back, so that counts as a success. We don't have boar in our field (touch wood) but we do have deer sometimes chewing plants. The robins here have totally different attitudes here to UK, eat out of your hand there, but stay well away here.

View attachment 167267

Andrew.
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Well they eat them don't they. Or they used to. Skylark pâté, I couldn't. It's the song, Alouette gentil alouette, a skylark plucking song I was told. As they pluck him from toe to head, a la tête, alouette! That's why they don't come near!
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In our garden in the UK, I could hold my hand out and a robin would come down to see if I was holding anything edible. My other half would have to wait before planting things while a robin came down inches away to look in the hole she had just dug. Over here, we know we have a few robins on the patch because we see them, but only from a distance. Very occasionally, we see one on one of the feeders. In the UK, dried mealworms were gobbled up instantly. Over here, we can leave them about, and nothing touches them.
We have just refurbished our bird boxes. A couple of years ago I had to put metal plates on to reinforce the entry hole because of the woodpeckers. One of the boxes this time, a bit remote from the house, so we couldn't see it regularly, had the bottom 'woodpecked' out, so a rebuild. We are trying some of the plastic decking board to do refurbishment, hoping that will dissuade the woodpecker.

wpecker1.jpeg wpecker2.jpeg

Ahh, pretty fluffy. How he gets in and out, magic ???
squirrel1.jpeg

Mr pheasant and girlfriend (wife ?) They have been missing this year, but we do have an active local hunt :(

pheasant1.jpeg

Andrew.
 
mw0njm. said:
pheasents come in my garden to hide:grinning: the season for shooting them has closed.so they are safe till next oct
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End of Feb or March here, depending on region and animal. I have a reversible baseball type hat, nice subdued nature green one way, bright orange when reversed. There is an undercurrent of outrage building up about the numbers of hunters shooting each other.
Andrew.
 
Mr pheasant is back this morning in the field, walking along the far wall. Julie thought his missus was with him, but by the time she fetched the binoculars they had moved away again. Might be different pair of course, but our faith in nature is restored, and all is well in the land. :D.
Andrew.
 
Brummie a long time ago said:
Mr pheasant is back this morning in the field, walking along the far wall. Julie thought his missus was with him, but by the time she fetched the binoculars they had moved away again. Might be different pair of course, but our faith in nature is restored, and all is well in the land. :D.
Andrew.
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Hi...
We usually get the odd pheasant looking for food in our garden.. but last year we spotted a white pheasant feeding on the dropped seeds from the bird feeder....
A beautiful bird , but with no natural camouflage , surely will not last long with the predators out there ....
 
A brambling on the window feeder this morning. Very rare for us, so a lot of excitement from the bird watching department. :D.
Sadly our yucca outside the window has thrown in the towel and the leaves have turned pale brown and drooped in the face of the frosts. :sob:. Now have to search out a healthy replacement.

Andrew.
 
jmadone said:
I spy MOLES!!!!!!!!!
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I know someone who can deal with that.
jesse james.jpeg

They are actually dead sedum heads badly placed in the photo. Julie has them scheduled for decapitation shortly. (This is France after all).

Pedrocut said:
It’s waiting for the band to take the stand !
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Funny you should say that. The 12 string was present from Julie for my 40th. The bass is a memory placeholder for times gone by.

bandstand.jpeg
mw0njm. said:
i has froze.:( mine went like that all soft in the stem,thats why i cut it off and left about 6". the rest i chopped up, that is the one in the pic and one of the bits that grew from the offcut. it worth trying init.best of luck
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Like this ?

yucca2.jpeg

Cheers. Andrew.
 
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