Whiskered Tern - Taken by Simon Lumsden
We found Tony Williams at Parc du Nature http://www.parc-naturel-brenne.fr/ and once again
got some useful information from him about the species in the area which we used during the
week.
Pond Tortoise
We found a pond tortoise laying her eggs in the sandy hedge whilst on a walk from here,
spotted flycatchers and golden oriole were also in the area and the dragonflies were
everywhere. It was going to be a challenge to identify them but digital photography is really
helpful. One easy to identify dragonfly was the scarlet, this brilliant coloured creature was
found in a ditch and most confiding. A trip around the route that Tony had given us in 2010
was different but just as good with us adding purple emperor at the little chapel in the woods
as well as the large chequered skipper. Beautiful and banded damselflies made a brilliant
picture in the sun over a small stream.
Heath Fritillary
A morning trip to Loche found us wandering around the local market. There were many stalls
of local produce which we didn't stop to buy at as we were being so well looked after at
La Confiance. We wandered around the old town and after a nice lunch stop set off for a short
walk south of Martizay at Le Budiniere. This proved to be the best place all week for
butterflies and it was a really lovely walk amongst meadows and mixed woodland. We found
the large tortoiseshell, woodland brown and ilex hairstreak amongst the array of fritillaries
and whites. A new fritillary for us was the marbled which was really common there.
To ring the changes a little, we went off to Le Sous early one morning. Finding the light
poor in the rain we went to a new hide at Etang Purais and here we sat with Pochard just in front of the window and the whiskered terns flying all around. This hide had been very good the evening before when we had really good views of marsh harriers, red-crested pochards and great crested grebes battling for territories. Also seen, a coypu swimming around and it was near here we found a greater butterfly orchid still out in flower. Another morning we set off in a different direction from La Confiance towards Le Grand Village and walked around the two lakes there, this gave us new species of birds including common redstart, savi's, cetti's and great reed warblers. Another morning found us with one of the other guests who had brought his moth trap and the magnificent array of moths that he had caught during the night, including two that we had seen at home...goat and white point. His comment about the sheer numbers of moths was that "he felt totally overwhelmed".
Another new site was Etang Bellebouche and the heronry. We spent the day in this area and
found different sites; one track gave us great views of hoopoe down to 6 feet. Etang Bouchon
was so good that we returned early next morning for photographs of the nesting herons in the
morning light. A wild boar was also seen trotting through the water - we all felt safer where we
were and glad that we had not met it face to face.
Purple Heron
Later in the day we returned to one of our favourite places, Etang Le Blizon, here a
night heron sat by one of the hoppers used to feed the fish, it was so intent on waiting for
its fishy meal that it let us pass by only a few feet away.
We had some different dragonflies here as well as other species of butterfly.
Once again we thoroughly enjoyed our time at La Confiance, the hospitality there is fantastic
and the food left us wishing we had taken clothes with expanding waistlines! It is a great place to stay with the whole area of La Brenne on your doorstep. It has its own varied wildlife in the garden to enjoy and walks from there give great views of some really rare species. Thanks to Sue and Chris once again for this opportunity to explore this amazing area of France.
More pictures can be found at Flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/nwsurreywildlife/
