Blooms, birds & balls of spiders

Summer's nearly here in France. Me rustic arch is covered in blooms...

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The resident Mistle Thrushes are busy looking for worms to feed their chicks...

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The spiderlings have hatched out on the water butt...

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And the asparagus bed is finally yielding up its treasure, after three years of waiting!

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Looks nice. Are those jumping spiders?

TWBryan said:

Looks nice. Are those jumping spiders?

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According to my tame expert (Lady CH), they're a species of garden spider called the Cross Orb Weaver. When they're all growed up, they look like this.

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Jumping spiders, or salties as they're otherwise known, are much cooler and look more like this. We have plenty of these around, too.

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I think that first spider is what we call a 'banana spider' here,they get quite large and make very large webs ,they are said to have a very painful bite. The jumping spiders here are rather small and come in various colors. I've actually seen one colored a brilliant blue. I kept one of the jumping spiders for a few months feeding him small grass hoppers .

looks great out there Coypu hunter , feel quite envious of your freedoms , I find spiders and photograph them too , I think peoples fear of them put them into fear and loathing ,bit like Marmite but imagine how many more flies ,bluebottles and disease spreading bugs there would be if there were no spiders .

Towards evening last night we had a couple whitetail deer grazing in our front yard. Sorry no pics,when I moved a curtain in the window they took off.

welshwizard said:

looks great out there Coypu hunter , feel quite envious of your freedoms , I find spiders and photograph them too , I think peoples fear of them put them into fear and loathing ,bit like Marmite but imagine how many more flies ,bluebottles and disease spreading bugs there would be if there were no spiders .

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Absolutely right. Lady CH is a bit of an amateur entomologist, and is pretty good (a lot better than me) at macro photography, and she's taken many great pics of spiders, bugs & general creepy-crawlies. She raised about 40 Swallowtail butterflies last year as well, so I guess she's got the bug (geddit?).

TWBryan said:

Towards evening last night we had a couple whitetail deer grazing in our front yard. Sorry no pics,when I moved a curtain in the window they took off.

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We see Roe deer around here from time to time. I saw an adult back in February, I think it was, at the far side of the field at the end of our property. Then we saw a couple of frisky young 'uns in the field next to our veggie patch in early April. Lady CH managed to grab a couple of snaps of them as they gambolled about. Our property is fenced, so they can't get in and consume all the veggies, although the coypus always seem to find a way in...

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Are the Coypu a native species in France ?

welshwizard said:

Are the Coypu a native species in France ?

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Well, they're certainly bloody everywhere!

No, they originated in South America. We have lots of Muskrats too (North America). They were both brought over here to be farmed for their fur, then (as also happened in the UK) released into the wild in the 1920s-30s when the farmers realised they weren't commercially viable.

In the UK, they started eating the Norfolk Broads, until they were eradicated in the 70s. Over here, no effort was made to control them, and since they have no natural predators (although a fox will occasionally grab a young 'un), they have spread throughout the country. They cause a lot of damage to lake and canal banks, and some French departments offer a bounty for coypu tails -- although my department doesn't, unfortunately.

Meanwhile, they're eating the Everglades in the USA, yet are almost extinct now in South America.

I think the people in South America are less fussy about what they eat. In the Everglades they are likely a common part of the diet of alligators,pythons,bobcats,and panther.

Never heard of Muskrats in UK , we still got lots of Mink everywhere and last year there was a body along side the A465 road about a mile from where we live and it looked like a Coypu , they still on non-native/pest list species , bit like grey squirrels don't think we will ever get rid of them , lots of wild Boar too not far from us in forest of dean .

Lovely Rustic Arch.


I France.

welshwizard said:

Never heard of Muskrats in UK , we still got lots of Mink everywhere and last year there was a body along side the A465 road about a mile from where we live and it looked like a Coypu , they still on non-native/pest list species , bit like grey squirrels don't think we will ever get rid of them , lots of wild Boar too not far from us in forest of dean .

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If it had big, curved, yellow teeth, then it was a coypu. If the teeth were white, then it was a muskrat.

It was on the verge so nowhere to stop and have a good look ,went back few days later to get a photo of it but it was gone , as the area is in a natural gorge there are lots of waterways and the sides are all wooded , its the first one I have seen in our area .

welshwizard said:

It was on the verge so nowhere to stop and have a good look ,went back few days later to get a photo of it but it was gone , as the area is in a natural gorge there are lots of waterways and the sides are all wooded , its the first one I have seen in our area .

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Sounds like you have an infestation... time to break out the camo gear and take one of your rifles for a walk...

Your gardens looking good there CH! It always amazed me how defined the seasons were out there, I was quite a bit south of you, we had bitterly cold winters that one day would change into blistering hot summer, at least that's how it seems, no real spring or autumn with changeable weather.

Tw, the banana spider that you mentioned, also known as the Brazilian wandering spider, your damn right about a painful bite, it causes a death erection in fatal bites!, thankfully, its not indigenous to Europe, but we do sometimes get the odd one in food shipments from the Americas.

tds123 said:

Your gardens looking good there CH! It always amazed me how defined the seasons were out there, I was quite a bit south of you, we had bitterly cold winters that one day would change into blistering hot summer, at least that's how it seems, no real spring or autumn with changeable weather.

Tw, the banana spider that you mentioned, also known as the Brazilian wandering spider, your damn right about a painful bite, it causes a death erection in fatal bites!, thankfully, its not indigenous to Europe, but we do sometimes get the odd one in food shipments from the Americas.

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We had seasons like that when we lived over by Geneva. Here in Brittany, it's much milder and less extreme, so we get a well-defined spring and autumn, with time to enjoy the spring bulbs and the autumn tree colour.

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You guys are making me want to hobble out with my camera to see what I can find..

TWBryan said:

You guys are making me want to hobble out with my camera to see what I can find..

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You never know, you might spot a Turtle Dove, like the two we have whirring away at each other in our garden...

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