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Mary & David Braddock and Sue & Simon Lumsden visited us in June 2010, below is the Report of their stay with us in The Brenne. Thank you Mary for your beautiful photographs of your stay, which can be seen throughout our website. Here is a link to Mary's Blog where you can keep
uptodate with her photographs and activities http://marybraddock.blogspot.com/
Orchids, Butterflies and Birds
La Brenne … 3rd – 8th June 2010
The Lumsdens and Braddocks had a leisurely start from Stansted, starting the day off right with a good travel style breakfast. Courtesy of Ryanair we soon found ourselves in Limoges where we picked up our car and headed northwest towards La Brenne. After about an hour and a half we turned off the main road and found ourselves in the land of Etangs – French lakes! Deep in La Brenne National Park we made quick visits to Maison de la Nature and Maison du Parc to collect information. We also found a Pond Tortoise crossing the road at one point which we failed to stop and photograph...sadly as it turned out to be our closest view of one. We then made tracks to our home for the next few days, La Confiance, www.laconfiance.net/ where Sue & Chris greeted us with a pot of tea.
La Confiance has the most amazing versatile accommodation. Sue and Chris have their own house which has a large communal dining room for all guests taking B&B and/or evening meal. Guests stay in a separate cottage in en suite bedrooms, all very comfortably furnished. This cottage can take various combinations including being a Gite for those wishing to be self catering. The large garden provides not only fruit such as cherries and plums but also green veg and we were to sample both daily. We had booked for evening meal with our B&B and we were not let down! Chris’s cooking was a delight and he and Sue made us very welcome serving a beautiful meal every evening. As the weather had changed and was very warm we sat out for a couple of evenings watching the numerous garden birds including Hoopoe as well as the local Red Squirrels chasing around the garden.
Our first morning found us taking a short pre-breakfast morning walk around Champ d’oeuf where the trees were dripping in Turtle Doves, Nightingales and Blackcaps. After breakfast we walked to the nearest town of Martizay being serenaded by Skylarks, Golden Oriole and Crested Larks and having sightings of Honey Buzzard, Short-toed Eagle, Common Buzzard, Serin, Cirl Bunting, Melodious Warbler. We noted how little traffic there was on the main road and indeed this came to be a feature as we saw very few people or cars on our five day visit. We had collected our lunch in Martizay, and Sue L found herself struggling with the sticky alcohol leaking from Dave’s Baba! Our hosts had arranged for us to meet another Sue at Preuilly sur Claise that afternoon, a botanist with a particular interest in wild orchids and with her help we found 13 different species of orchids, some in her own orchard, others on a limestone escarpment at Bossay and some at Chaumassay. She had also pointed out numerous butterflies and a Lesser Stag Beetle that she found in her own orchard
Temperatures during the afternoon reached 36° and we were grateful to get back to a gentle relaxing evening of wining and dining.
Waking the next morning to the gentle sound of Turtle Dove right outside the window, Mary managed to get a photograph before the morning walk. We took a longer walk around the leafy unmade tracks on the area getting back just in time for breakfast. Corn Bunting, Red backed Shrike and Grey Partridge put in an appearance this morning as well as the other regulars. Even at this point we knew it was going to be hot and indeed temperatures soared to 39° that afternoon, at one stage setting off a small “Twister” that spun hay several feet into the air.
We left straight after breakfast for the Etangs of La Brenne stopping first at Foucault and then moving on to Le Blizon which gave us a shady walk alongside the water’s edge with great views of various dragonflies and dozy Charolais cattle that paddled in the water obviously deriving some comfort from the coolness of the water. A Black Kite joined us for lunch making a plunge at the lake in an attempt to catch lunch; it seemed quite skilled at this obviously having practiced before. Moving onto to Etang de Neuf, Mary and Sue took the opportunity to rest their eyelids whilst inside the small somewhat beaten up old hide as the Whiskered Terns built their nests on the massive lily pads in the centre of the Etang. It was time to move on… very slowly in the heat, to Le Sous. A fantastic green lizard stopped in our path to the new hide where we then sat for a couple of hours taking in the great views of all sorts of birds including Whiskered Terns, Purple Herons and Black necked Grebes in the evening sun. A Muskrat swam across the water busily feeding as it went fooling us to start with as it looked very otter like.
We decided to make Le Sous our spot for our pre breakfast sortie the next morning. The light was fantastic as there had been a complete turn-around in the weather and the clouds were most atmospheric. Sue and Chris had fixed us a picnic for lunch and we set off for a different type of day looking at some of the local villages. We started at Neon sur Creuse where we found a couple of pairs of Bee-eaters nesting in the river bank. It was quite cool the temperature today just 19°! So we moved on to a village Angles sur L’Anglin where we wandered around the town enjoying a coffee in the square and finding a large bank of Lizard Orchids and a Silver Studded Blue butterfly near the ruined chateau. Driving onto Le Petit Pressigny for the bank of Pyramidal Orchids that botanist Sue had told us about, a Montague’s Harrier gave us a fantastic fly-by and we watched this bird for a good 20 minutes.
Our last day was to be a “mop-up” day. We started off by visiting the Maison de la Nature where we met Warden Tony who gave us sites for more orchids and butterflies. We set off on a “twitch”. Warmer than Sunday we were hopeful of a good day. First stop was for the La Brenne orchid found at just one site on the side of the road. These orchids were at their best boldly holding their own in what seemed to be an unlikely spot. Alongside were pristine Marsh Orchids one with a sleeping Black veined White butterfly. Our next stop was a cross roads where wild flowers including Marsh Orchids abounded. Listening to Western Bonelli’s Warbler we watched a Broad bordered Bee Hawkmoth feeding on Ragged Robin while Hawfinches fed in the treetops above. Next up was another crossroads where we were to find the rare Woodland Brown butterfly, usually seen floating around the treetops, one came down and gave good views. We stopped for lunch at Rosnay with House Martins nesting above our heads before moving onto Rosnay Common renowned for its orchids. There were 1,000’s of Tongue, Lesser Butterfly and Loose Flowered Orchids in this meadow of wild flowers, we didn’t even check out the birds here as we didn’t have the time! Next stop was alongside a working quarry. Once away from the dust we began to see Adonis Blue butterflies freshly emerged as well as Baton Blue. We then found more Orchids including the Burnt and the elusive Violet Limodore. A Pearl Heath butterfly and a Cream Spot Tiger Moth floated by amongst all the blues. Our last stop was a peaceful spot alongside a river and we just enjoyed the views whilst watching a white-legged damselfly before turning for home. The journey for home was broken by a brief stop for a colony of Bee-eaters found very unexpectedly on the edge of one of the villages. Once home and enjoying another leisurely meal, the family of Hoopoes came for their supper on the garden lawn. What a finish to a great holiday.
Butterflies Seen:
Wall Southern White Admiral Black veined White
Swallowtail Meadow Brown Woodland Brown Grizzled Skipper Small Heath Red Admiral
Small White Chapman’s Blue Baton Blue
Silver Studded Blue Adonis Blue Common Blue
Heath FritillarySpeckled Wood
Flowers seen: (courtesy Simon Lumsden)
Orchid Species
Pyrimidal Orchid – Anacamptis pyramidalis
Long leaved Helleborine (Sword Leaved) – Cephalanthera Longifolia
White Helleborine (Large White) – Cephalanthera Alba
Red Helleborine – Cephalanthera Rubra
Fragrant Orchid – Gymnadenia conopsea
Early Marsh Orchid – Dactylorhiza incarnata
Twayblade – Listera ovata
Birdsnest Orchid – Neottia nidus-avis
Bee Orchid – Ophrys apifera
Fly Orchid - Ophrys insectifera
Early Spider Orchid – Ophrys sphegodes
Lady Orchid – Orchis purpurea
Monkey Orchid – Orchis simian
Burnt Orchid – Orchis ustulata
Loose Flowered Orchid – Orchis Laxiflora
Lesser Butterfly Orchid – Plananthera bifolia
Violet Limodore – Limodorum arbortivum
Tongue Orchid – Serapias lingua
Flowers
Yellow Rattle – Rhinanthus minor
Spreading Bellflower – Campanula patula
Cross Leaved Heath (Heather) –Erica Tetralix
Spring Vetch – Vicia lathyroides
Vipers Bugloss – Echium vulgare
Ragged Robin – Lychnis Flos-cuculi
Oxeye Daisy – Leucanthemum vulgare
Red Clover – Trifolium pratense
Meadow Clary – Salvia pratensis
Nottingham Catchfly – Silene nutans
Trefle etale - Trifolium Patens (can’t find an English name)
Wild Tyme – Thymus polytrichus
Primrose (not flowering) – Primula vulgaris
Oxlip (not flowering) – Primula elatior
Round headed rampion – Phyeuma orbiculare
Tassel Hyacinth – Muscari comosum
Broad Leafed Speedwell (Large Speedwell) – Veronica austriaca
Cow Wheat – Melampyrum pratense
Dog Rose - Rosa Canina
Cornflower - Centaurea montana
Bird List
Black necked Grebe Little Owl (H) Blue Tit
Little Grebe Swift Long tailed Tit
Great Crested Grebe House Martin Nuthatch (H)
Night Heron Swallow Short toed Treecreeper
Cattle Egret Hoopoe Red backed Shrike
Little Egret Kingfisher Magpie
Great White Egret Bee eater Jay
Grey Heron Great Spotted Woodpecker Carrion Crow
Purple Heron Middle Spotted Woodpecker Jackdaw
Mute Swan Green Woodpecker (H) Starling
Mallard Skylark Golden Oriole
Gadwall Crested Lark House Sparrow
Pochard Tree Pipit Chaffinch
Tufted Duck White Wagtail Linnet
Short toed Eagle Yellow Wagtail Goldfinch
Black Kite Wren Greenfinch
Montague’s Harrier Dunnock Serin
Common Buzzard Nightingale Hawfinch
Honey Buzzard Black Redstart Corn Bunting
Kestrel Stonechat Cirl Bunting
Hobby Blackbird Yellowhammer
Grey Partridge Mistle Thrush
Pheasant Garden Warbler (H)
Quail (H) Blackcap
Moorhen Whiethroat
Coot Sedge Warbler
Black winged Stilt Reed Warbler
Lapwing Great Reed Warbler
Black headed Gull Cetti’s warbler (H)
Common Tern Savi’s Warbler (H)
Whiskered Tern Melodious Warbler
Black Tern Chiff Chaff (H)
Wood Pigeon Western Bonnelli’s Warbler (H)
Collared Dove Firecrest
Turtle Dove Spotted Flycatcher
Cuckoo Great Tit
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