No Ordinary Bird Table

 I think I have mentioned before that a couple of weeks ago we heard an owlet calling from the top of the pigeonnier. Although it was hot at the time we were fearful that it/they had been hatched so late in the season that survival was unlikely. As it's cries for food each evening became louder and louder, and for longer and longer (dark at 7.30pm and still shouting at 6am the next morning) we couldn't ignore it anymore.

We follow a wildlife YouTube blogger "Robert Fuller" who has several barn owl nests (amongst many other creatures) on his property. From his videos we see that he regularly puts out supplementary food to help the owls. So we wrote to him for advice. His team kindly replied and said that additional food was essential if our little one was to stand any chance of survival. They suggested obtaining frozen day old chicks, a biproduct of the poultry industry. I think that rider was intended to make us feel less squemish!! Where on earth were we to find these, particularly as we had no idea of the French for day old chicks?

The first pet shop we visited we managed to establish that they are called "poussin" that is after I realised that I was asking for year old chicks. Just a slip anyone can make, no wonder the assistant looked thoroughly confused. He suggested we try a garden centre up the road. Eureka, no problem.  We had a choice of mice or chicks. Mice were crazily expensive so, as this was just an experiment, we opted for the chicks. In passing he asked what we wanted them for, Barn Owls we said (we know 2 different words for them in French but he seemed never to have heard of either. So I started "Twit a Wooing" as you do in the middle of a shop but he must have been a townie who had never heard an owl call).

Having secured the frozen chicks in the freezer (special drawer) the next task was to choose a place to put the feeding station (i.e bird table). In the past we have seen the adult regularly fly towards the big oak tree at the bottom of the front garden so we decided to put it in this vicinity. How do you teach an owl to look for dinner in a particular place? Sparrows are no problem they just seem to find where you have put it.

So darkness approaching, and trail camera set up ( to ensure that we are not feeding any old owls in the neighbourhood) we deposited the chick on the table. Disappointment the next morning when the chick was still there.

If you never hear anymore about this experiment assume it didn't work. We care and we tried!!

Differences

 As we have now lived in France for more than 17 years we rarely notice cultural differences and consequently don't comment on them as we did when we first moved here.

However yesterday John called me to look at photographs published in the UK Telegraph. 

To us it summarised the French attitude "if you don't like it do something about it". This usually involves very direct action.Well yesterday it became more than the wine growers of  Corbiere (Region boardering Spain) could take. They blockaded the toll booths on the motorway and ambushed lorries coming from Spain, destroying lorry-loads of Cava and Rose wine. They maintained that Spanish wine was being sold at half the price of French (the fault of some Government levy) and argued that Spanish producers were allowed to add chemicals that were forbidden in France. Whatever happened to EU regulations?

Wine growers are having a bad time at present. Locally much of the harvest has been lost to mildew. We recently saw a programme about vintners in Bordeaux and Burgundy who are struggling to sell their red wines as it is not the drink of choice for younger people. They needn't worry we are doing our best to keep them going!! All joking aside it must be difficult to see this previously revered liquid unceremoniously being sent off to be made into industrial alcohol and bio-fuel. Furthermore these vineyards have often been tended by the same family for generations and it must be very hard to make the decission to grub them up for a one off compensation payment. Having no expertise in agriculture but a little knowledge about soil I assume that vines were planted in this stoney and impoverished ground as nothing else would grow. I assume that eventually it could be used for grazing but meat eating is being discouraged so they see no future. Presumably their children have seen this coming for a long time and have sort employment in up and coming industries.

So this is one of the major differences between the English and the French. The French are not prepared to just moan and, even though their actions yesterday were oviously illegal, there was no sign of any police in the photos.  Vive la Revolution!!

We're Trying

 ....... but it's very difficult with the weather staying so hot and no rain. Whilst we abandoned watering most plants in early September we feel obliged to water trees and certain perenniels to keep them alive for future years. This takes a good portion of the morning leaving just over an hour to attack the rest of the garden before it gets too hot to work in the full sun (still regularly 30C). However it is not all bad news, we are still enjoying a beer in the alley at lunch time and sometimes a glass of wine on the top terrace before dinner. We were even sitting out in the dark at 8pm the other night waiting for the barn owl to fly out of the pigeonnier. We had heard owlets calling for food the night before. However we are fearful that they will not prosper, despite the weather, as it is so late in the season. 

Whilst conscious of the prevailing limitations we are aware that it will change, probably very suddenly, when we wake up to an unforecast frost (the morning temperatures have dropped to around 6C). So I am splitting irises, potting pelargoniums, taking cuttings and moving some plants despite the lack of rain. We have already redesigned the Iris Walk and the plants arrived a couple of weeks ago but the conditions are not conducive to planting them out.

It is the time to scalp the prairie and John has been manfully battling on with the task. As usual I have planned some slight changes and we intend to plant tulip bulbs rescued from last year in the grass. But that will have to wait.