Sunfink from the weekend

I spent a night camping on Ile de Re and visited the LPO refuge and managed to get a few shots worth sharing..................

Getting a good perch to watch the sunset

A Cormorant reflecting the red sky

A little Egrit fishing

A Marsh Harrier being mobbed by gulls

a supper time sunset

Dunlin feeding

The sun feflrcting off a Little Egrit

Lining up for bed


 

A Grey Heron going home

Saying its prayers....

While cutting the grass today I saw my little friend below and remembered that I had not posted these shots of a Praying Mantis devouring a fly.

Just after this it moved down the wall and caught a fly
 the strike was far to quick for me to catch.

Finished and now a quick clean up

White Coypu

I have known for a few weeks that we have a new guest in the pond but due to the fact it prefers to only come out at night I had not been able to get him until this evening. The quality is not great as it was getting dark but at least they are better than nothing.....................

This is a very rare white Coypu

This is one large rodent who steals the duck's grain by pulling a very heavy terracotta
container across the grass before eating. This is a new container as the two previous
were stolen by our furry friend.

They originate from South America and were introduced across the world by fur ranchers, we know them as Coypu but in France they are called Ragondin and are so much of a pest they must be killed by law - Oops yet more law breaking on the part of a Bociek because of our furry friends.

  

Here it is helping me cut the grass saving me a job

They have very large, very bright orange teeth as you may be able to see.

Great pink ears and nose

I got to close and just got this before he dived under the water

Miss Pinot

As most of you know I have not been posting much lately - one of the reasons is that Pinot our Greyhound has the big C, we had a big scare last night and thought she would be with our other dogs that have gone for the big sleep today - however she is tenacious and rallied round so we took her to the confluence of the Loire and Vienne rivers as it is the closest thing to her favourite place THE BEACH we have. The following are some of the shots I took to remember the lovely sunny hour we spent there.

The mark on her shoulder is were her wonderful doctor did an operation to ascertain the type of cancer she has....


  

Is that me

As she spends a lot time with me looking for birds she saw this before me........

if you look closely it is a Kingfisher on the stick

I will add more shots tomorrow - Pinot permitting

Futuroscope

Not wildlife but definitely wild a short visit to Futuroscope just down the road...................

below are shots of the night time spectacular

To celebrate the birth of my Granddaughter Georgia

To celebrate the birth of my new granddaughter Georgia Bociek today I have included below more babies from around the garden.

These are part of the twelve chicks that this young lady has been able to succesfully hatch.

This is the second clutch for her this year.

  This a very young melodious warbler

 

and finally a young Linnet

Outside the back door

A rather battered Swallowtail taking nectar from one of the flowers just by the kitchen door

      A caterpillar of one of the Fritillary Butterflies walking over my dry stone wall

A butiful daisy in the garden with a small white dot near the centre

        The dot is this little chap only a matter of a few millimetres across



    Our bird of the day is the Swallow here with three males two older and one juvenile.