La Brenne Visit Report

Neil Croton from Axminster
Kathy Henderson from nr Sherborne
Simon Hosken from Shaftesbury
Mel Jones from Milton Keynes
Gabriel King from nr Gillingham
Alison Looser from Cornwall
Colin Middleton from Verwood
Nigel Spring from nr Sherborne
Alex Wood from Ferndown

Total 9 with 5 of the group under 30, one aged 35, and 3 over 50! One of the group is in full employment in conservation, one is a longterm volunteer with the National Trust, two are students at Kingston Maurward College one fulltime, the other parttime, two are selfemployed in conservation activities and environmental education, one is fully employed in local government and two are unemployed. All are involved in voluntary conservation work in their home areas, six of them in Dorset.

The Dorset Branch of Butterfly Conservation and everyone involved in the visit would like to thank
The Colin Reid Countryside Trust and The Shekinah Trust for their financial support for this enterprise, enabling us to offer five concessionary places.

La Brenne is a fabulously rich area of lakes and fishponds southeast of Tours in central France, renowned for its wetland birds, flora and insect fauna. 1660 km2 were declared a Regional Natural Park in 1989 and of this area, 1400 km2 is a Ramsar internationally important wetland site and 480 km2 is an IBA (an Important Bird Area, a non-statutory European designation). Some160 hectares form the Chérine Nature Reserve, one of only three fully protected sites, although there are other areas where hunting is limited. The 2240 lakes of various sizes have been artificially created in the poorly drained soil, surrounded by a mosaic of woodlands, reedbeds, wet meadows and pastures, fens and other habitats. The wealth of wildlife there is staggering: over 270 species of birds have been recorded with good numbers on passage and substantial winter populations; 26 species of reptiles and amphibians; 60 species of Dragonflies and Damselflies, and a very good variety of other insect groups.

Friday February 16th

Drove from Kingcombe to Portsmouth stopping in Blandford and Ringwood for pick ups, and arriving at the pub near the Cathedral in Portsmouth for supper at about 8pm. Drove to the Brittany Ferries quay in time for embarkation at 10.15pm. Those of us who had a cabin had a very relaxed night’s sleep. The rest in reclining seats were not so comfortable!

Saturday February 17th

Arrived in Caen at 7am: a dry day with broken cloud. Headed off down the road towards Argentan and Le Mans with the other British 4x4’s and the builders’ vans on their way to do house renovations for ex-pats. Birds en route included Kestrels, Magpie, Buzzards, Rooks, Robin, Canada Geese. Left the autoroute at Ecommoy to find a café to buy coffee and hot chocolate (Kathy and Alison fetched the croissants and the pain au chocolat from the boulangerie opposite) and went to the little grocery shop to buy provisions for a picnic lunch. Very nice little town, must be greatly improved since the autoroute has opened. There was an old lady in pyjamas sweeping her step.

Back onto the autoroute, stopping in a rest area just north of Tours where there were flocks of Greenfinches and Chaffinches, a Pied Wagtail, a Song Thrush in song and two singing Skylarks. Further on we saw several substantial flocks of Lapwings.

We sped along the autoroute past Tours where the river Loire looked huge and swollen.

We stopped in the very pretty town of Beaulieu les Loches just east of Loches, founded in 1040 by someone called the ‘Black Falcon’. We spent some time exploring it, with a picnic lunch under the cover of the bandstand in the square by the remains of the abbey, surrounded by recently pollarded limes. Very tasty cheeses and paté de campagne with proper french bread! At least one of the ancient buildings there had links with the Templars. We met an Englishman who told us that we must visit the church where an archaeological dig to exhume the remains of the ‘Black Falcon’ to commemorate the 1000th anniversary of his death had stirred up local controversy! The abbey church was very peaceful and had two small beautifully bright stained glass windows and large numbers of newly restored rush/grass seated chairs.

Birds there included Blue Tits and Great Tits everywhere, Dunnocks, House Martins’ (old) nests above the impressive window of the abbey where the tracery work looked like flames, Jackdaws, Nuthatch, Green Woodpecker and a very good view of a pair of Cirl Buntings spotted by Neil beside a farm on the way back to the main road after lunch, close to where the road passed a cave with a massive pillar leading in under the ridge – if we had understood the Englishman in the village correctly, this cave was where the pale coloured stone for the buildings had been quarried.

Between Chatillon sur Indre and Mézières-en-Brenne we stopped at a small lake where there were a Great Egret and a Mute Swan. When we arrived in La Brenne, we visited the ‘pond tortoise’ hide, but unfortunately as it was winter, all the Pond Tortoises were under the mud hibernating! And the lake had been drained.
However, we did see 4 Little Egrets, 3 Great Egrets, Mallard, Grey Heron, Cormorant, Cetti’s Warbler, Blue Tits, a pair of Reed buntings, and a Green Sandpiper. We had a very good (though rather brief!) view of two Wild Boar crossing the road.

Several of the lakes had Tufted Duck, Pochard, Shelduck, Mute Swans and Great Crested Grebes, and at Gabriau we saw several Buzzards.

We were not too sure what to expect when we arrived at the Maison Blanche, but it couldn’t have been better. Guy (not sure who he was as we never saw him again!) showed us round the building, and even more enthusiastically showed the polytunnels and gardens and the flock of Suffolk ewes and their plump lambs in the barns, all part of the enterprise which is run for and by adults with learning difficulties.
We had a quick trip to Le Blanc to fill up the van with diesel and to buy wine and beer for the evening, then back to the Centre for supper and bed. Wonderful frog calls in the dusk, including the creaking shoe frog, which turned out to be the Parsley Frog.

Sunday February 18th

It was a fine morning when the chef, Jean Charles, arrived at 8am with one of his helpers. Neil had been up for a little while checking the moth catch in the light trap he had set up. Continental breakfast quickly materialised as did the picnic once we had made it clear that we did not want to return for Sunday lunch of roast chicken. We left for work and arrived at the Maison de la Nature at La Chérine reserve at 10am as promised, despite several potentially distracting birds on the way! The very smart centre at La Chérine is a fine new building with displays, book sales and a wide screen tv that Simon really liked, and birdsong recordings featuring mainly Nightingales.

We were met by Christian one of the wardens who led us into the woods, through a padlocked heather screen and along a maze of wet paths through sallow carr to where the reedbeds meet the woods. We had to clear the fenceline of scrub and young trees so that it can be taken up and moved further into the woods, to enable the wet grassland to be grazed. Kathy operated the brushcutter and Nigel, Gabriel and Neil used chainsaws. Not forgetting Alex and Colin who became experts with the billhooks! It was a really productive morning and we achieved a very satisfactory amount of work. Neil found an owl pellet and harvest mouse nests. Alison was brilliant at finding frogs (including a Tree Frog). It seemed that every step we took close to the ditches produced a succession of plops and splashes. And we saw elm in flower and squirrel eaten acorns in a dilapidated hide.

We spent the afternoon in the bird hide watching the duck, grebes, and many other birds (list below). One of the most exciting moments was when a large, very distant skein of slow flying birds appeared over the trees on the horizon. Almost certainly Common Cranes! Julian in the Maison de la Nature later told us that they were now wintering in the Brenne and showed us on the map where they feed – south of Douadic at a farm called Marcheval. As the weather was becoming so favourable for migration, they were expected to move north any day now! So off we went to Marcheval to look for them, stopping at the Maison Blanche to drop off some of the group (good views of a very orange-toothed coypu sailing across our lake watched by his friend). It was a beautiful clear evening with a perfect sunset as we parked under some trees and looked out across the fields for the Cranes – and there they were, several hundred of them, with small groups coming in to join them, causing bursts of that wonderful trumpeting. We walked up a track to get a closer view, but only managed to see the tops of their heads, before something caused them to take off, calling noisily, and the entire flock flew off towards the NE.

We returned to the Maison Blanche to find that Colin had taken a fantastic video on his phone of the huge Starling flock coming in to roost in the reeds behind the farm. Lasagne and chocolate pudding for supper – the wine tasting experience plumbed new depths with the opening of Kathy’s bottle of red bought at Leclerc in Le Blanc for less than one euro! We had two sightings of a Barn Owl and heard a Tawny Owl and two Water Rails.

This morning’s moth trapping:

1 Lead Coloured Drab, 1 Oak Beauty, 5 Small Brindled Beauty, 2 Clouded Drab, 2 Small Quaker and a Great Diving Beetle.

Birds seen on La Cherine reserve:

Marsh Harrier female
Lapwing several hundred
15 Ruff
Stonechat female with young male
Fantailed warbler (aka Zitting Cisticola)
Blue Tit
2 Great Spotted Woodpecker
Chiffchaff in song
Dunnock
Mistle Thrush
A few pairs of Pintail, Gadwall, Shoveler, and Teal
Tufted Duck, Pochard
Great Crested Grebe including 2 displaying
Great Egret – previous rare in La Brenne, now thought to number over 500
90+ Cranes flying NE
Coot,
Blackheaded Gulls
Little Grebe calling
Song Thrush, Wren, Robin and Skylarks in song,
Grey Heron
Meadow Pipit
Greenfinch
Chaffinch

Monday February 19th

A fine morning with the mist hanging over the lakes as the sun rose. There was a Coypu paddling across the water and Coots squabbling but no sign of the Starlings. They must have left earlier. Maison Blanche was getting very busy as mopeds and a white minibus and cars arrived bringing people to tend the sheep and to help Jean-Charles make our breakfast and picnic lunch.

This morning’s moth trapping:

2 Spring Usher, 3 Early Grey, 6 March Moth, 2 Pale Brindled Beauty, 5 Small Quaker, 2 Clouded Drab, 1 Dotted Border and 3 Great Diving Beetles, Dytiscus marginalis.
It had been a good night in spite of the fact that the temperature had dropped drastically so that we had found a frost on the ground when we had got up.

We drove to the Maison de la Nature to meet Tony Williams who had returned from his Naturetrek trip to Tanzania. He gave us a brief introduction to the region and the reserve. It was good to see the interest that our visit had aroused and Tony obviously appreciated our support in active conservation. We were introduced to Jacques Trotignan, Tony’s colleague and the chef of the reserve.

We returned with Tony to where we had worked yesterday and looked at the area that had been cleared in previous years, a very patchy habitat apparently good for butterflies where the attractive brownfaced ‘Solognais’ sheep had grazed the grass very short and the Tree Heather grows tall. We saw another Tree Frog, a Praying Mantis pupal cocoon and several of the delicate Winter Damselflies, Sympecma fusca, one of the damselflies that overwinters as an adult and can emerge very early in the year. In the distance a Woodlark was singing.

We drove to a wide verge beside a small lake, Étang du Sablon, where we sat lake eating our picnic lunches watching the Great Crested Grebes, Mute Swan (there was a dead one too) and a Great Egret, while the Charolais cattle showed a great interest in Colin and Alex. It had become very warm and we saw several Brimstones along the lanes.

After lunch we met Tony Williams and Joel, the local warden, at the Étang de La Touche reserve, a lake and area of wetland owned by the LPO (Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux), which supports a strong population of Alcon Blues along the drier margins. We saw a Peacock and 2 Large Tortoiseshells in the fields on the way (Tony saw 5 Large Tortoiseshells on his way back). In the water on the edge of the reedbed, we found the egg clump of Agile Frog and heard the creaking shoe call of a Parsley Frog. Our task was to clear the invading blackthorn and some Alder Buckthorn from the edge of the marsh, the habitat of the Alcon Blues (and their ant partners). A combination of the brushcutter, several bowsaws and loppers cleared the area very quickly and the brash was piled into the hedge behind.

Birds at the Étang de La Touche reserve:

Great Egret
Fantailed Warbler
Marsh Harrier
Reed Bunting

We returned to La Maison Blanche at Douadic via the sleepy little village of Rosnay (where Tony is the Deputy Mayor!) and bought drinks, cards and other provisions at the local ‘épicerie’ (grocery shop). They probably had not seen this many people for a long time! Back at Douadic we spent some time watching the amazing spectacle of the Starling flock coming in to roost. Neil noticed that several Sparrowhawks were there too, taking advantage of the ready meals. (it must be quite difficult to pick off a single starling from a flock of over 100,000!).

Tuesday February 20th

Neil was up in time to see the Starlings leave as a swirling mass at about 7.30am. The workers arrived and were busy in the barn grading potatoes and leeks for sale locally and tending the sheep and lambs. It was a clear sunny morning with another frost.

We went to work at the Chérine site again with Christian, lit four bonfires to burn the brash and finished the job of clearing the fenceline. Gabriel and Neil used chainsaws, while Nigel and Kathy alternated with the brushcutter. Mel and Simon worked their way along the fenceline to finish the cutting while Alison, Colin and Alex produced very effective bonfires. Very good picnic again, this time with pommes de terre baked in the fire by Kathy. As we ate lunch, we could hear a Woodlark singing and a Black Woodpecker calling. We finished off the job in the afternoon and Christian returned from lunch with his colleague Rémy and seemed very pleased that the task had been completed.

Birds seen at La Cherine reserve:

Skylark Mistle Thrush
Stock Dove Raven
Fantailed Warbler Dunnock
Lapwings x40 Tawny Owl calling
Longtailed Tits Stonechat
Sparrowhawk

We also saw a very fine Sallow Nycteoline moth, a species not found in the UK, a Dotted Border Moth, a Shoulder Stripe Moth, and photographed a superb green spider.

We called in at the Maison de la Nature to pick up the Wild Boar’s leg that Tony had promised us and which Jean-Charles had been persuaded to help us roast for Friday night’s supper. Several of the team came back with a selection of poles to be whittled into walking sticks of varying shapes and sizes. Alex later produced a particularly impressive one with two spiral points. We went to Mézières-en-Brenne to get some money from the bank and to buy more provisions (mainly liquid) and some smoked carp produced from one of the fishing lakes locally. The same shop also sold all sorts of bits of pig in suspicious looking pots (Kathy’s words!) and had nice photos of happy black and white piglets in a field.

We returned to La Maison Blanche at Douadic to find the Coypu we had been watching two nights earlier had been hit by a car and disembowelled in the road, with its mate swimming about nearby looking lonely. We were particularly amazed at the size of the dead animal (as well as its orange incisors and enormously thick and bristly rat-like tail).

We had a quick cup of tea before setting off in search of the lake where the Cranes were thought to roost during the night. This is one of the largest lakes in the area, the Étang de la Mer Rouge on the way to the Chateau le Bouchet. We saw a flock of about 80 Cranes flying over the road, but at the bottom end of the lake there was no sign of them (though we did see a Kingfisher, a fine male Hen Harrier, and a few Shovelers and a male Kestrel.) We drove further up the road close to the Chateau le Bouchet and could hear the Cranes in the distance, but it was getting dark and we could not get closer. We heard the strange Nightjar like churring of Natterjack Toads in the ditches beside the road, and in the distance a Roebuck called.

Wednesday February 21st

This morning’s moth catch included two new species, one a moth, a Hebrew Character, and the second another diving beetle, the huge Great Silver Diving Beetle. Alison watched the Starlings leave their roost at 7.30am, with a Sparrowhawk taking one of them, as the whole mass rose as one. They all flew off except for one splinter group which went back to the reeds again.

Today was a day without work, so we spent it exploring the area – Tony Williams met us at the Maison du Parc near the Chateau le Bouchet – another beautifully appointed building which is the centre of the ‘Parc Naturel Regional de la Brenne’. We watched a slide presentation about the area before setting off with Tony in the minibus for the Forêt de Lancosme to the east. We stopped at the Étang de la Gabrière to look for Blacknecked Grebes but there was no sign of them yet. We did get a good view of a male Goldeneye as well as the ubiquitous Great Crested Grebes.

We stopped at a number of places in the Forest: to see the rosettes of Man Orchids, to look at the Chapelle de St. Sulpice and the ‘magic’ spring there, the forestry activities and several other places of interest. We returned to the Maison du Parc for lunch under the beautifully built oak picnic area, then some of us walked the short nature trail close to the Centre leaving the rest to practise their climbing skills on the oak beams and to eat ice creams. We saw a solar powered electric fence being used to enclose the sheep grazing with bells round their necks.

Forêt de Lancosme: Man Orchid rosettes, Red Squirrel and dreys, Black Woodpecker, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Short-toed Treecreeper, Primrose in flower.

Nature trail at the Maison du Parc: Early Purple orchid rosettes, Pulmonaria angustifolia in flower, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker nesthole, Grey Headed Woodpecker calling (very uncommon in La Brenne but we have checked the CD of European birdsongs/calls and it was very distinctly different from the Green Woodpecker’s yaffle), also 2 Green Woodpeckers, Kingfisher, Goldcrests, Longtailed tits.

The afternoon was spent in the local town of Le Blanc, visiting the bank, looking at knife shops, drinking coffee and hot chocolate, and of course, going to the Leclerc supermarket for drinks, crisps and ingredients for the vegetarian’s supper. And to his relief, Mel got his earrings!

Back at the Centre, we had a quick turn round and went out to the area where we had heard the Cranes the evening before. The white lane on the map turned out to be a private track past a farm, Les Cornabilles, luckily with no one in when we walked through! We walked perhaps a mile from the farm round the boundary of the grounds of the Chateau le Bouchet and stood under some trees and waited for the Cranes to arrive. On the skyline we were able to see a small group of about 30 then a much larger wavy line of Cranes approaching, almost in slow motion. As they neared the reedbed, they veered off to somewhere out of sight, trumpeting as they went. An amazing sight and sound against the backdrop of the reedbeds, the woods and the red sunset.
I have attached 3 pdf’s of an article in celebration of Cranes by Simon Barnes from The Times of several years ago.

Thursday February 22nd

It was another beautiful morning. We set off to the goat farm that Tony had recommended at Le Bois Retrait, near lake Blizon. Some beautiful old brick and stone buildings which contained stalls where the goats may once have lived. Now they were all in a huge barn at the back, brown ones and white ones, being fed deliciously scented hay by a very silent man. The simple milking machine stood in the barn next to the goat pens. We were sold a variety of Brennois goats’ cheeses by the lady owner, some of them very fresh, others much older, drier and more shrunken. At or near the Goat farm, we saw Pied Wagtails, a Great White Egret and about 20 Cattle Egrets.

We then returned to the Alcon Blue site at Étang de la Touche near Lingé, clearing a lot more of the blackthorn, bramble and alder buckthorn before returning to the picnic benches in the centre of Lingé for our lunch. After lunch we drove to the farm at La Touche to meet Tony and two English locals who were keen to get involved in the work with us. We passed the time playing football with a very playful black Labrador and talking to the Charolais cattle in the barns there. Eventually we met Tony and the English couple and spent the afternoon cutting very large quantities of blackthorn, most of it growing on flooded ground. There was no fire so we stacked it in the area where we had cut it, for Joel to burn later. That was a bit frustrating as it was hard to get a clear picture of what we had achieved.

At La Touche, we saw 8 Cranes, a Fieldfare, 2 live and one dead Reed Bunting, Short toed Treecreeper, a Large Tortoiseshell, a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, a female Great Crested Newt, a Parsley Frog calling, about 20 Pochard, a few Tufted Duck, a female Marsh Harrier, Teal, Gadwall, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Coot, 8 Snipe, several Common Buzzards and several Kestrels, and a Great Spotted Woodpecker. Also webs of first or second instar moth larvae wrapped up in the dead leaves of the young elm trees.

We drove back to the Maison de la Nature at La Chérine for a drinks and nibbles party put on for us by Jacques and the other staff, which was very relaxed and friendly. A Coypu on the lake outside the window provided extra entertainment.

The evening meal consisted of an Avocado and Moussaka.

Friday February 23rd

The early analysis of last night’s moth trapping session revealed the first micromoth of the week, a common one called Tortricodes alternella, as well as some of the same species as found on previous nights.
We collected the leeks, onions and potatoes promised us by the chef of the vegetable business at Maison Blanche. We were also given some strange elongated onions, a cross between onions and shallots, called Shallions (?!).

Our first task today was to go to Rosnay to meet the local journalist from the paper La Belle République who wanted to interview us about our visit! The articles appeared a few days later with a front page colour photo and another inside on page 3. One of the people quoted in the article was someone called Mel aged 20! This just goes to prove that you cannot judge someone’s age from their looks! It is all good publicity. The frontpage picture is included on the disc of photos to accompany this journal.

Tony took us to another site to work on common land belonging to the Commune de Rosnay, an area which has an amazing list of orchids, some special butterflies including Marsh Fritillary, and is desperately in need of drastic management with brushcutters and a tractor and swipe, followed up by regular cattle grazing. We were able to make a start on the first stage! Nigel and Gabriel used chainsaws while Neil worked wonders with the brushcutter. We cleared bramble, blackthorn, poplar and oak from a large area and stacked it on the edge of the wood over the fence. In spite of the cool drizzly weather we had a lovely view of a Brimstone roosting under a bramble leaf. Another bit of entertainment for the day was Tony’s experience of getting stopped by the Gendarmes and breathalyzed on his way to take 3 of our group to say goodbye to Joel, the warden of the La Touche reserve. As a thank you to us, Joel gave us a mixed case of wine which we shared out to take home. Luckily Tony had not tried any of it so the test proved negative – and it was only 11am!

On Tony’s recommendation, we drove to the picturesque village of Ciron for lunch at a picnic site on the banks of the river Creuse, muddy and swirling at the moment after all the recent rain. On the other side was a mill on the edge of a leat from the river, with a huge chateau towering on the cliff above. Very dramatic. It turned out that this chateau is very private and has no public access. Alison and Kathy disappeared to look for signs of Otter in the mud on the river bank.

We worked on during the afternoon until about 4pm than returned to the Maison de la Nature to bid Tony farewell and to look at the newly created display featuring a mythical scientist using a balloon to follow the Whiskered Terns from Africa to La Brenne and to study them there. Very impressed with the artwork, the sound recordings and the aerial photos of the landscape mounted on the floor, a very effective touch.

Gathering up our presents of booklets and posters, we said our goodbyes and returned to La Maison Blanche at Douadic to cook the Wild Boar (sanglier) leg that had been marinating in red wine and garlic for two days. Jean-Charles had carefully embedded garlic cloves into the meat and laid strips of butter across it. The starling flock performed as dramatically as ever on this our last evening.

We all helped to prepared the vegetables and produced a delicious meal. Pascal at the Maison Blanche and Jean-Charles had each given us two bottles of red wine which went perfectly with the gamey wild boar meat. The pudding was a delicious white vanilla junketty pudding like a fromage frais. It was a great evening, very relaxed, with draughts, Othello and cards being played.

Saturday February 24th

It had been a very wet night and continued to rain into the day; this made us realise how lucky we had been with the weather during our stay. Our departure was slightly delayed while Kathy and Nigel popped into Le Blanc to find enough cash to pay for our stay at La Maison Blanche, but we got away by 1030am and made very good progress, stopping at Chateau du Loir off the autoroute north of Tours for a coffee and croissant and to buy things in the Saturday market. Kathy was not very impressed by the Horse Butcher’s stall but we bought all sorts of things including sausage, honey, and sweets.

We stopped for lunch north of Le Mans in a very new motorway service area – so new in fact that the picnic area had not been built. Our stop was rather rushed and we did not really do service to Jean-Charles’ lunch, but we had to get on as time was running out. Arrived at the ferry terminal with about 20 minutes to spare and had a fairly uneventful crossing although one or two of us felt the effects of the heavy swell! On-board entertainment included such attractions as a passé comedian from Lancashire cracking bad jokes while he twisted balloons into the shapes of sausage dogs and giraffes, and a TV theme tunes quiz for the all the family.

Back in England, Nigel remembered to drive on the left and everyone got home safely – Alison took rather longer than everyone else and reached Cornwall the next day late in the afternoon!

Many thanks to everyone who took part in this venture, for your company and hard work. Thank you also to Tony, Christian, Joel, Jacques, Julian, Jean-Charles and everyone else we met in La Brenne for making the visit such a success and for making us feel so welcome.

We would like to come again! (in autumn 2007 we hope).

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