Mastodawn

RE: https://piaille.fr/@ZsofiVarkonyi/116390695135444644

Merci @ZsofiVarkonyi pour cette belle chaîne youtube dédiée à la #cabrette , très honoré d'y participer !

❄️ La #neige fera un retour remarqué dans le #MassifCentral et les #Pyrénées ce dimanche 12 avril 2026, pouvant s'abaisser sous les 1000 mètres. Notre article ➡️ https://www.meteo-paris.com/actualites/la-neige-fait-son-grand-retour-apres-la-chaleur

Strider Longshanks 6d ago

Also found this today, whilst removing the dead pampas grass floral tillers, and slashing my arms in the process (Note to self, long sleeves next time). The egg is cracked, and there were definitely no birds nearby, the whole time I was up and down the garden today. Google is suggesting that it might be a blackbird egg, or maybe a thrush, and my last experience of approaching a brooding pair of blackbirds was a dive bombing sequence by the male, so I'm going to hasard a guess that it has been abandoned. Not sure what the pink things are, they look like seeds, but no idea which plant, or even why they're in the nest in the first place.
#birdeggs
#birdsofmastodon
#birdidentification
#massifcentral
#auvergne
#France

Strider Longshanks 6d ago

In today's #naturewatch France, I was raking over the massive mole hills before letting the mower loose, and uncovered this character. It was a bit slow to dive into the grass, and as I'd narrowly avoided spearing it with a rake tine, I thought rehousing it was the better option. This gave me the opportunity to take some photos. It has been very warm recently, so I guess they must have come out to warm up, along with the other lizards. Anyway, it didn't seem to mind wrapping itself around the warmth of my hand, much obliged! I set it down in another long grass area of the garden, but now it has started raining, with a possibility of snow overnight, so I might not see one again for a while!
#leglesslizard
#slowworm
#auvergne
#massifcentral
#France

Strider Longshanks Apr 8

Now you see me, now you don't.
I have tried in the past to get pictures of one of the black woodpeckers that live near us, and they are often heard, but quite difficult to get close to without scaring them off. Fortunately, this one obliged our trail cam while we were away. Even then, you have to look pretty hard to spot it in the second picture, before it took off, and the first picture shows it from the back, flying away, so is a bit too blurry.
At least the red crown is visible in part.
#auvergne
#livradoisforez
#massifcentral
#France
#birdsofmastodon
#birdsofthefediverse
#blackWoodpecker

Strider Longshanks Apr 4

I find that I'm using the Merlin bird identification app more and more often, just because it picks up bird song at a fair distance that I can't distinguish and sometimes can't even hear.

This morning's motley selection is a serin, a blackbird (plenty of those all around the garden), the cuckoo (only one for the moment), wood pigeon, blue tit, chiff chaff, and the raucous green woodpecker that has taken to shouting in alarm in the grass about 20 metres away.
Sound up for this one!
#auvergne
#livradoisforez
#massifcentral
#France
#birdsong
#birdsofmastodon

Strider Longshanks Apr 2

Different settings, different birds. Back in central France, in semi-open woodland, interspersed with moderately hilly grazing pasture.
Heard our first cuckoo yesterday, and managed to record it this morning (have a separate screenshot for that). It probably arrived about a fortnight ago when it was warmer, but we weren't here.

The golden orioles will arrive soon, usually around mid-April.

The sound of the woodlark is also usual for this time of year, they tend to sit on the wooden fence posts of the neighbouring field before they take flight.

The woodpeckers are also year round residents, including the black woodpecker, not recorded here, but separately yesterday, despite Merlin app's diagnosis as it being unlikely. Their plaintive cry is unmistakable and they often visit the garden.
#auvergne
#massifcentral
#France
#birdsofmastodon
#livradoisforez
#birdidentification