Wildlife at Chez Bouclier

This is a page to collect some of the wildlife that visits us here. We've seen many more species than we ever saw in the UK and have enjoyed looking out for new ones. We have seen deer, wild boar and hares, lots of rabbits, and several different sorts of game-birds all within a mile or two. We've had flocks of cranes flying overhead on migration, making a racket.  Within ten miles or so we've seen kingfishers, storks, herons, egrets and many varieties of small birds, though they're a bit difficult to photograph unless we spend hours stalking!

A recent visitor (in April 2017) is this tiny frog, seen perching on the fence by the chicken run.

We occasionally get pheasants in the garden. Here's one in February 2017 picking around the base of our bird-feeder, looking for a treat.

A hoopoe in our garden. They're quite regular visitors but usually don't stay around long enough to get a decent picture. This one was perched on the old grange wall but soon flew off.
 

Wild visitors from last year - a Long Eared Owl in broad daylight and a Common Toad (we think!)

 

We get a few small lizards when the weather's warm. They live in the holes in the old stone walls and aren't any bother to us, but Dusty likes to chase and catch them. They typically shed their tail and run off leaving her puzzled.

This red-legged partridge was one of a group of four that have visited us from time to time. They usually appear during the hunting season when they seek shelter in our garden on Sundays when the hunters with their guns and dogs are about. 

A kestrel that took to sheltering under our eaves on the telephone wire in rainy weather. There are lots of kestrels about here and a few bigger birds of prey, notably buzzards. And, obviously, lots of mice, shrews, voles etc. that they prey on.

Our red squirrel, who managed to stand still longer than usual to have its photo taken.

A white wagtail with slightly non-standard plumage on one of our spare timbers from the demolished barn

A coypu, or ragondin in French (Myocastor coypus), feeding on the roots of bigger weeds in our field. They look very much like a beaver and have a body nearly 2ft long plus an 18inch tail. The locals shoot them mercilessly so this one is very wary, though I got to about ten metres from it. This one lives in a burrow at the side of our little river and usually feeds on the roots of plants in the river.

This one's not very wild at all, but found a warm sunny spot under our hedge. We don't know who the cat belongs to but its obviously happy there ! We've only seen it once or twice since we got our own cat, Dusty.