Whiskered Terns

You don't catch me in a bird hide very often, but on this occasion I was with my sister and her husband, both keen birdwatchers, and we had been recommended this particular hide by a young French wildlife photographer we had encountered on an earlier walk in the Brenne.

Whiskered Tern Chlidonias hybrida (Fr. Guifette moustac).

The League pour la Protection des Oiseaux (LPO) have set up a hide on the Étang de la Sous in the Brenne. We were told that it is one of the best places to see Whiskered Terns and raptors. It turned out to be full of Dutch blokes with huge lenses and motor drives, but it's a big hide, so we didn't feel squeezed out.

A Whiskered Tern collecting nesting material from the surface of the water (floating sticks and reeds).

The Whiskered Terns have black heads and dark grey bodies which make their pure white cheeks really stand out. Their beaks are dark red and they have a deep notch in their tails.

Success! and a dripping stick is borne away to the nesting colony.

They are the largest of the 'marsh' terns (species in the same family as gulls, Laridae) as opposed to Sterna spp terns, which have their own family, Sternidae. In French the vernacular names reflect this split, with marsh terns known as guifettes and Sterna spp terns known as sternes. Whiskered Terns breed in freshwater marshes, fishponds and other ponds with emergent vegetation.

View from the hide over the étang.

They are migratory, and come to the Brenne to breed in the summer. The Brenne is the second most important breeding area for the species in Europe. Like lots of our migratory birds in central France they overwinter in Africa. Once breeding has finished you can see them gathered together on the ground in large colonies. The next morning they will take off for their feeding grounds for the day. On the wing almost constantly, they hunt insects on the surface of the water. When they spot something to eat (a dragonfly, aquatic larvae or tadpole), they hover just above the water, then dart down and snap the insect up. They fly gracefully and rapidly.

The nesting colony of Whiskered Terns.

Widely distributed and not at risk globally, they are threatened in some areas by the usual suspects -- habitat destruction in the form of drainage of wetlands, canalisation of rivers, eutrophication of water (excessive nutrient levels in the water, usually agricultural runoff), disappearance of submerged vegetation and disturbance from tourism and aquatic sports.

The fence protecting the colony. There is a Coypu on the right.

The nest is constructed on semi floating vegetation, such as the water lilies shown in the photos. The nesting platform has been fenced off, I presume to protect the birds from some sort of disturbance. There is a Coypu cruising around in one of the photos and perhaps they could blunder through the colony and tip eggs or chicks into the drink. Coypus are vegetarian so I don't think they would steal the eggs or chicks to eat, and the terns seemed unbothered by the presence of one close to the colony. Mink would be a problem, but I don't think they occur here. The birds often choose to nest in the company of Black-headed Gulls. These noisy and bolshy gulls apparently provide a level of protection for the terns.

An artfully positioned dead tree serves as a perch for Black-headed Gulls.

There are three sub-species of Whiskered Tern, one of which occurs in Australia, so I have probably seen this species before in fact. The Australasian sub-species is paler than the one we get in France apparently. The colonies in the Brenne are closely monitored and chicks are ringed every year. They are delightful birds and worth stopping off to see even if you are not a birdwatcher.

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Dear Brits: Simon brought this blog post by a young Bosnian engineer to my attention. It's a polite version of a sentiment I am seeing from eastern Europeans in general about what they think of Britain's decision to quit the EU. The less polite version goes more like: 

I'm tired of reading about calls to emphatise (sic) with illiterate xenophobes whose position we must understand because they have been "left behind"... Tell it to their peers in Bratislava, Ljubljana, Riga, Warsaw or Zagreb.

I'm a European who lived through hyperinflation in the 1980s, a full scale war in the 1990s, pandemic corruption in the 2000s, endured an entire decade of my country's EU membership negotiations along with war crime tribunals, followed by six years straight of recession (a world record) and I am now looking forward to about ten years of austerity programs along with a happy little fascist revival televised live...

To say you people are spoiled brats, ...would be a[n] ... understatement...

... Perhaps Britain was once great. Yesterday it was just one European country out of many. But today it is even less than that. It's just a lonely little island with an inflated sense of importance. Take your 350 mil a week and choke on it.

The above is an extract from a comment on a Guardian article the day after the referendum, by someone who calls themselves SardinesForDinner and is presumably Serbian. It immediately resonated with me, as does the Bosnian post. I wasn't always an EU citizen. I was once a Commonwealth citizen living in Britain. Luckily for me, when my original 4 year work visa expired, my boss offered to arrange and pay for fast tracked British citizenship for me. An Australian colleague was not so lucky and she decided that she no longer wanted to deal with the annual phaff, expense and inconvenience of applying for permission to live and work in Britain. After 10 years in the UK she returned to Australia.

Brexit is a regular topic at the swimming pool where I go daily. Most French people are sympathetic to my views, but I have also been harangued by a complete stranger who couldn't see what the problem was. He felt his message was important enough to interrupt my conversation with an acquaintance (who is of North African descent). The arguments he trotted out sounded exactly like the Brexiteers (eg Britain has the Commonwealth...). His grasp of politics was such that he couldn't remember the name of the Chancellor of Germany though.

I've been through the standard gamut of emotions after the referendum -- shock, disbelief, anger, resignation. Now I'm just irritated at the thought of all the paperwork that will come and the appalling waste of time and money it all is, just because a certain sector of the British public continues to see themselves as victims of the Thatcher years and wanted to give the Conservative government a kicking.

Our property and business is in France. I'm an EU resident by choice. I won't ever go back to live in the UK (and will think seriously before I go back to visit in the future). The culture of envy and the conviction of many British that everyone else is richer and/or less deserving than they are that I first noticed when we moved to England nearly 20 years ago has become insupportable. Many of these people see themselves as the custodians of working class values but the reality is that their truculence and mindless anti-elitism traps them (and now everyone else) in a situation they are only too willing to be directed to blame on Europe.

Yesterday in the Chenonceau Car Park

A bevvy of beauties....

Above is a row of modern Aston Martins. Normally these would be the most exciting cars in any car park, but Chenonceau is different:

Talbot 105, a 3 litre sports car from 1931

Another Talbot 105 This car was built especially for the 1932 International Alpine Trial

And finally... a 1937 Bentley 4 1/4 litre "parallel-door" Sedance Coupé by James Young

Parallel Doors? Check out this beautiful arrangement!

There is much more about this car here (scroll down for the english). "The distinctive parallel-action door was dreamt up by G.H. Wenham—James Young's works director—who was knocked down by a car door suddenly opening on the Champs Elysées. The extraordinary design with its large central hinge mechanism kept a tight profile when open."

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This evening is the Retraite aux Flambeaux in Preuilly. Kick-off is 21h, then it goes long into the night with frireworks, and a bal-poplaire.

Purple Emperor

A few weeks ago when my sister and her husband were visiting we decided to have a day out in the Brenne. They are keen bird and mammal watchers and good all round naturalists, so the Brenne wetlands make an ideal outing for them. One of the places we went was the Chapel of Saint Sulpice, which is surrounded by a clearing in the Forest of Lancosme.

It is a known hangout for the Purple Emperor butterfly Apatura iris (Fr. le Grand Mars changeant), which is at peak adults flying in late June and early July. Perfect timing, and with all the wet weather, lots of mud. The easiest way to see Purple Emperors is when they come down from the tree tops to suck up minerals from mud (and fresh poo -- they aren't fussy...).

Luckily for us, one obliged and sat on the ground at our feet long enough for me to take sixty photos. Frustratingly, not one of my photos is that killer perfect shot, but I've chosen four of the best to show you. A combination of the angle I was taking the shots, the camera being hand held, and my excitement at getting such a good view of such an iconic butterfly means that every shot is slightly fuzzy.

They are not an easy butterfly to photograph anyway because of all that blue iridescence and because they spend so much time in the treetops. Still, these are better than my previous even blurrier photos of a male, even if it is just because this one isn't sitting on a pile of dog poo (which I didn't think our readers would really want to see, so have never published).

The Purple Emperor is localised and not very abundant but it is conspicuous so it is recorded surprisingly often. Butterfly fanciers like myself get very excited to see it, especially the lovely flashing blue males. The caterpillars feed on willows and the adults can be found in clearings in forests prone to flooding such as Lancosme. They can be distinguished from the Lesser Purple Emperor Apatura ilia, which also occurs in the area, by their lack of an eye spot on the upper side of the forewing.

Primus et Tercio

Mondays in Milan / Les lundis en Lombardie

To be honest I have no idea what these are or who they portray. I just loved these warts and all portraits of (presumably) the great and the good. They are ceramic I think (but might be stone), and can be seen in the Castello Sforzesco.

Our blog posts on Mondays celebrate the northern Italian city of Milan, where we spent our summer hols last year. To see more, click here.

Victorian Heath

Victorian Heath Epacris impressa, the floral emblem of the State of Victoria.  Green Cape, where this little lovely was photographed, is in New South Wales, but the border between the two States can be seen from here on a clear day.

On Sundays our blog posts have an Australian theme. To see more posts about Australia, click here.

The Works at Saint Savin

A couple of days ago CHM asked about the chateau at St Savin.

It is good to announce that restoration work is happening - maybe not as fast as some might like - but it's definitely happening. The building still has scaffolding, but most of the windows appear to have been either replaced or fixed (or even added!), and parts of the building have a fresh coat of render. Searching back through our archives I found a photo from September 2006 for comparison:

We were there mainly for the Tour de France, but we did visit the church. With any luck there will be Tour de France photos at some stage....

(photos by Nina, because we forgot)

Roses and Relatives at Rivau

Just recently my sister Kathy and her husband John came to stay for a week. They are now in Oslo but on 24 June we paid a visit to the lovely chateau of Rivau, between Richelieu and Chinon. We had lunch with Chris and Annie. They said they were really surprised to hear that the gardens at Rivau were looking magnificent. Apparently they had taken a beating in a storm not long before.

Peacocks occupying a windowsill.

John in front of the chateau.

Kathy in front of the chateau.

A magnificent drift of grasses, alliums and sage.

Perched Pussycat

So who knows where this is? It doesn't get a mention anywhere that I can find on the internet, despite it being on a very well known, much photographed and prominent building in the Touraine.

Botany at the Fishponds of Assay

On Friday 24 June the Association de Botanique et de Mycologie de Sainte Maure de Touraine had an outing to the Complexe Pisicole d'Assay (the Assay Fish Farm). It is 45 hectares of fishponds (Fr. étangs) near the village of Assay on the D26. There is one big pond, originally dug in the 17th century, and nowadays, 31 small ponds primarily used for breeding Pike (Fr. brochet). The complex has been owned by the Féderation de Pêche (a network of organisations that protect aquatic habitats and promote fishing as a leisure activity) since 1962.

The ponds are fed by a tiny stream called the Vivaron, which is directed around the site using a system of sluices and canals. Every autumn the main pond is emptied to harvest the fish. Every ten years the main pond is left dry for twelve months. The Féderation takes between 6 and 12 tonnes of live fish from the big pond every year, and the operation is managed sustainably. The fish are used to stock other freshwater locations around France. The fish are mostly roach, tench, carp, perch, pike and black bass. Whilst waiting to be transported to their new homes these fish are stored in some of the smaller ponds, which are carefully netted against cormorant predation. The other small ponds are designed to reproduce the shallow heavily vegetated waters that pike like to breed in. Three males and a female are introduced in February to each of the 1000 m² ponds and every May between 5000 and 20 000 fingerlings are produced.

The importance of the complex in botanical terms is that it creates what in English is called a fen, and in French is called marais ie a wetland on basic or neutral soil, fed by mineral rich fresh water. 

A malaise insect trap.

The Département of Indre et Loire currently has a big push on to inventory its biodiversity. The fishponds are an ideal site to set up a malaise trap to catch flying insects, especially those which have an aquatic stage to their lifecycle. I bet they are catching some great flies! There were plenty of lovely deer flies Chrysops spp and clegs Haematopota spp ready to pounce on the bonus warm human bodies that turned up on the day. This tent like structure is designed to be put in the flight path of insects, whereupon they hit the black vertical net. Their instinct is to climb up, which they do, and hit the sloping roof, which directs them to the front top corner of the device, where they fall into a bottle trap.

Common Meadow-rue Thalictrum flavum (Fr. Pigamon des rives).

'Common' Meadow-rue, as with so many species which bear the descriptor 'common', isn't common at all, although a century ago it probably was. Personally I think the word 'common' should be banned from the official vernacular name lists. This is a fen and wet meadow specialist plant which is now rare due to the usual suspects -- habitat destruction such as agricultural drainage and modern intensive agricultural practices such as much earlier mowing, for silage rather than hay. It looks quite like the somewhat more abundant but unrelated fenland plant Meadowsweet Filipendula ulmaria from a distance, but up close it is immediately obvious that the leaves are different.

A view over the Pike breeding ponds.

David wading in for specimens.

A hanging window pane flight interception insect trap.

This type of insect trap is used for monitoring beetle diversity on a site. They fly along all unsuspecting, then crash into the perspex panes and fall into the collecting funnel below. Bwah ha ha...

Marsh Woundwort Stachys palustris (Fr. Épaire des marais).

This beautiful and robust wetland plant is also not very common. Don't confuse it with the rather similar looking Purple Loosestrife Lythrum salicaire, which is very widespread.

Amphibious Bistort Persicaria amphibia (Fr. Persecaire amphibie).

An unidentified caterpillar (Fr. une chenille) on the willow Salix atrocinerea.

I am deeply frustrated that I can't identify this caterpillar, since it is apparently so distinctive looking. I suspect it is a Noctuidae moth, as there are quite a few species in that family which eat willow and live in wetlands (and there are so many Noctuids that any unidentified caterpillar has a good chance of turning out to be one).

Chantal examining Stonewort Charales which François has fished out 

of the pond on the end of his walking stick.

Stoneworts are a type of multicellular algae which photosynthesise and live in fresh water. They can accumulate a calcium carbonate crust which has led to their name. We found two different species.

Cormorant nets over a fishpond.

As usual my friends Louisette and André were way quicker getting their photos of the day up online. You can see me (in black, sunglasses) and my sister (pink top, binoculars) and her husband (hat, binoculars) in some of their photos.

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Guess what we did yesterday

The Disgorging Machine

Emile holding up a bottle to the light so we can see the sediment before riddling.

The other day when we arrived at Chateau Gaudrelle there was a large machine on a trailer parked outside the cellar door. I was excited to see that it was a disgorging machine, for removing the sediment from sparkling wine. I've never seen one of these in action. Unfortunately my hopes were dashed, as the technician was only setting it up and checking it. The real fun was to be the next morning.

The disgorging machine with technician.

Wineries here rarely own big expensive machinery such as the disgorger. They are a huge capital investment and they take up a lot of space for something that is only used once every month or so. Instead they hire the machine. That way it comes with its own technician, making it unnecessary for anyone at the winery to have to learn the intricacies of running the thing. Also if it breaks down, it is the hire company's headache and expense.

 This section does the actual disgorging.

The bottles of sparkling wine end up with a sediment of dead yeast which needs to be removed because makes the wine cloudy (less visually appealing) and spoils the mouthfeel (it's slightly sandy). The process of riddling, turning and inclining the bottles over a period of a week, gets all the sediment down into the cap of an upside down bottle, forming a soft plug. It is at this point that the disgorging machine is called for.

The bottles are put into the machine from the left. The first section slowly turns the bottles upright, removes the crown cap they are sealed with, and the bubble of air in the bottle (the gap between the cap and the wine) has enough pressure behind it to shoot the plug of sediment out.

Dosage section.

Of course, a little wine is lost when the sediment exits, so the bottle is quickly moved along to receive a dose of wine and syrup (or ideally just sweet wine). This dosage amounts to about a tablespoon of liquid, and the level of sweetness will dictate whether the sparkling wine ends up extra brut, brut, or demi-sec.

Corking section.

Then the cork is banged in and the wire cage tied over the top. The bottles go back into the cellar to calm down and relax after all this excitement. Labelling is left until just before sale, as cellar conditions are not kind to labels.

Maiolica in Milan

Mondays in Milan / Les lundis en Lombardie

Maiolica is a type of stoneware ceramic glazed with brilliant colours made from tin based glazes. It was an Asian art form that came to Europe via the Moors. It was initially imported to Europe from the Islamic world, but by the 15th century there was high quality local production established in Spain and southern Italy. Some pieces were also decorated in gold lustre. In French maiolica is known as faience, after the Italian city Faenza, which became the most celebrated for the intensity of its glazes and style of decorative platters. In the 19th century there was a revival of this style of ceramics, and works from this later period are known in English as 'majolica' to distinguish them from earlier pieces. Other languages do not have this distinction.

Crab, first decade of the 20th century.

17th and 18th century Spanish bowls.

'Daphne and Apollo', 16th century, Urbino.

'Dido and Aeneas', 1530s, signed Nicola da Urbino.

End of the 16th - beginning of the 17th centuries, Venice (left) and Urbino (right).

I suspect this one is 19th century, but I forgot to take down the details.

All of these pieces can be seen in the Castello Sforzesco in Milan. If you are interested in maiolica I can also recommend the Wallace Collection in London, and the Chateau of Blois for majolica.

Our blog posts on Mondays concentrate on the northern Italian city of Milan. If you would like to read more click here.

Disaster Bay

Disaster Bay, so called because 19th century trading ships plying the Sydney to Melbourne route hugged the coast, but if they turned into this bay, found it was almost impossible to sail out again.

Our posts on a Sunday have an Australian theme. To see more of them click here. 

Chocks Away

If this isn't one of the world's coolest bonnet ornaments I don't know what is.

Seen in the carpark at the Relais de Francueil.

Beeing Invaded

Last Thursday afternoon I was relaxing on the apéro terrace, listening to the radio. All was peaceful and calm.

I went into the house to get a drink and could hear a buzzing noise, which on investigation was coming from 3 or 4 bees trapped inside the laundry. I called Susan over to confirm they were actually bees; most peculiar, I though, and headed outside.

It was then I notice a large number (>100) of bees trying to fly into the exhaust fan for the downstairs toilet, and crawling around the edge of the vent cover. This is a problem at this time of year as bees leave their hives and investigate places to start a new hive. They had obiously crawled around the outside of the fan and into the cavity between the outer brick wall and the plasterboard in the toilet - exactly the kind of place you dont want a bee hive!

Even after taping the holes shut the bees were still trying to get in.

I called Susan, and we decided that while she kept them away using a feather duster, I would try to tape the gaps shut as a temporary measure (we are intending to have that wall rendered). This we achieved eventually - I am nervous around bees, not scared, but with no wish to be stung.

Unfortunately I wasn't wearing action doing stuff trousers, but a pair of linen drawstring pants. I could feel them slipping as I reached across the fence to apply the tape. Yes, I was wearing underwear, as anyone in the vicinity can confirm. I still felt rather vulnerable...

Persistant beasts!

Anyway - tape applied (and after taping up the identical vent for the upstairs bathroom) it took a couple of hours for the bees to disperse. Yes, I climbed a tall scary ladder in a cloud of bees wearing untrustworthy trousers, but that's what makes me a hero!