Wednesday 7 May 2014

Candé and Cowslips

The Chateau of Candé, taken by Simon on 17 April, from a low angle on the wildflower lawn that slopes away from the house at the back.
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Can you help? : I've had an email from my friend Jean Claude Jacques, who is a retired ecologist working on a project to publish a photographic pocket guide (un Livre Rouge) to the threatened habitats and species of the Centre Region of France. He tells me they are still looking for photos of the following:
  •  Spengler's Freshwater Mussel Margaritifera auricularia (la grande mulette)
  • a water, bicoloured or lesser white-toothed shrew (Neomys fodiens, Crocidura leucodon, C. suaveolens) - in French les musaraignes.
  • a stoat (une hermine)
  • a genet (une genette)
  • an Edible Dormouse (un loir gris)
  • a water vole (un campagnol aquatique)
  • a pike (un brochet)
  • a European smelt (un éperlan)
  • a spined loach (une loche de rivière)
  • an eel (une anguille)
All photos must show the animal in its natural environment.

Email me if you think you have suitable photos and I will put Jean Claude in contact with you.

3 comments:

Tim said...

Can do Southern Water-vole swimming [only Arvicola sapidus in this region.]
My brother has plenty of good pix of A.terrestris [the only species in the UK] which are much better... see posts on "Ratty"... and in a book, no one is going to see the differences!! I know he would be happy to supply.

I also have Neomys fodiens... swiming [actually in the act of diving]...
that is on slide, but I can scan it at high resolution.

Disturbed a very large, probably white-toothed shrew while planting spuds on Sunday...
[Crocidura suaveolens or C. russula]...
jizz said the "beak" was too long for Sorex sp....
also the bum was very square...
much squarer than I've seen on any S.arenus [the only one I am familiar with... our local species not being a UK beasty]
also the owl pellets found here have, thus far, yielded only white-tooth jaws.

Have only record shots of pike, eel and spined loach from the river surveys. [So not in habitat, sorry!!]

And would also like to know when the book is out!!!

Susan said...

Tim: I've already mentioned to JC that you would probably supply Water vole pics :-) and sent him link to your blog post.

Your shrew in the veggie plot was probably C. russula. That's what I've had (and have good photos of). A good diagnostic is that russula has some hairs that are longer and stick out from the pelt on the back.

The book was supposed to be released in the spring, but has only got to the galley stage. Lauch is now planned for September. It will cost €30 I believe.

Tim said...

"A good diagnostic is that russula has some hairs that are longer and stick out from the pelt on the back...."

As it was moving across a 3 metre wide black bache...
with a shrew's usual alacrity...
all I can tell you is it had the usual velvety shrew pelt...
it vanished under the bache on the farside...
when I reached it and flipped it off...
it had burrowed out of sight...
I could see where, but thought I'd leave it be!!

We are still duckling-less....
mother returned to the nest at 6:44AM today...
and Pauline's just blogged about Myrtle [the Moorhen]...
but the "Rattycam" arrives soon...

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