| Birds and wildlife from La Ruelmain, Morbihan, Brittany |
Birds and Wildlife at La Ruelmain Almost the first thing you notice about La Ruelmain, after the quietness, is the birdsong and the wildlife. Your initial welcome is likely to be from pretty lizards that live in the stone all about and sun themselves on the south walls of the cottages. Three habitats exist side by side around the hamlet: the river, with its reedy banks and marais water meadows; arable farmland; and woodland. And the bird life is correspondingly rich. We or our guests have seen all the species mentioned here, within half a mile of the cottages. Without leaving the gardens you can enjoy watching les petits moineaux-the colloquial French word that covers all the garden favourites such as finches, wrens, robins, sparrows-as well as swallows and house martins. A variety of predators include Ruelmain in their hunting grounds: watch barn owls, buzzards, kites, sparrowhawks, merlins, kestrels. For the last two years an impressive pair of herons have made their home in a copse nearby and can be seen coming and going to the nest. Walk to the river and larks will rise to distract you from their nests, or a flight of pewits will be feeding next to the path. In the quieter corners we have caught sight of cetti's warbler, fan-tailed warblers and the white spotted bluethoat, and one or two pairs of hoopoos regularly make the trip to the wooded ridge above La Ruelmain. Butterflies (and moths) abound, including varieties now rare in Great Britain:-
Walk along the lane by the river and you are likely to see red squirrels. Pine martins and deer make the occasional appearance, and we are told there are wild boar though we have never seen them. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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