Discerning1
New member
Hi,
I've joined today primarily to get help on how to get my vintage Leitz binoculars repaired.
I see there is a good outfit in the USA--but as I am in France, hoping perhaps someone in Germany or France does a good job too.
The Tarn Department (east of Toulouse) has a wonderful variety of birds.
Every year kestrels (falco tinnunculus) nest in the attic box-window opening.
We have hoopoes and golden orioles (I can hear one now! Beautiful song but so shy, rarely seen!).
This year the bird feeders have attracted collared doves for the first time.
The usual visitors are nuthatches, goldfinch (seasonal), blue and great tits, sparrows and the occasional hawfinch or green finch.
Even the woodpecker visits the feeding station.
There are Jays and crows bullying the others, and getting driven off by the kestrels.
I haven't heard a cuckoo yet.
Normally there are nightingales too.
Owls used to be much more common.
In the cow pasture behind our house we see many small white egrets who follow the cattle around.
Nonetheless, I'm concerned by the general diminishing quantity of birds seen.
Our garden is organic, but the French countryside around me is mainly cultivated fields of garlic, sunflowers, maize, grains--and definitely NOT organic.
I'm curious about what people here think about feeding birds year-round--rather than stopping in summer.
Oh, and I have two beautiful Wyandotte chickens--Peggy and Penny.
I've joined today primarily to get help on how to get my vintage Leitz binoculars repaired.
I see there is a good outfit in the USA--but as I am in France, hoping perhaps someone in Germany or France does a good job too.
The Tarn Department (east of Toulouse) has a wonderful variety of birds.
Every year kestrels (falco tinnunculus) nest in the attic box-window opening.
We have hoopoes and golden orioles (I can hear one now! Beautiful song but so shy, rarely seen!).
This year the bird feeders have attracted collared doves for the first time.
The usual visitors are nuthatches, goldfinch (seasonal), blue and great tits, sparrows and the occasional hawfinch or green finch.
Even the woodpecker visits the feeding station.
There are Jays and crows bullying the others, and getting driven off by the kestrels.
I haven't heard a cuckoo yet.
Normally there are nightingales too.
Owls used to be much more common.
In the cow pasture behind our house we see many small white egrets who follow the cattle around.
Nonetheless, I'm concerned by the general diminishing quantity of birds seen.
Our garden is organic, but the French countryside around me is mainly cultivated fields of garlic, sunflowers, maize, grains--and definitely NOT organic.
I'm curious about what people here think about feeding birds year-round--rather than stopping in summer.
Oh, and I have two beautiful Wyandotte chickens--Peggy and Penny.
