France in Focus

A first for us ! We found him in a water butt but fortunately he hadn't been there long. I had no idea what it was and it was definitely a glove job getting him out of the water ! My phone revealed he was a Eurasian Wryneck, probably a juvenile due to his size.
Once on the ground, he made the most peculiar movements with his neck, stretched out and almost snake-like. This is apparently what they do when they feel threatened. After a few minutes when it seemed he had suffered no damage, we put him by some shrubs where he hopped off happily.

Wow! Well done

What a little poppet! Well done for being there in time to save it's life!

I took a video but it would be too big a file to post on the forum. So here is a Youtube video showing the extraordinary action it takes when it feels threatened. I thought at first he was injured until googled it !

wow, what a find.

I have never seen one. Well done for a successful rescue. Great pictures!

What an excellent thread Blaze. You learn stuff every day - thank you.

Thank you for all the nice words ! It was such an unusual thing to see - thank goodness I had a camera/phone or I'd never have known what it was.

Does anyone remember Chris Luck (Wildlife in France) ? I'd like to have sent him the photos but he's left FB and there isn't any way of contacting him on his website.

That’s amazing

I enjoyed looking at the wryneck and reading about the rescue, Blaze.

Today we had an email from the RSPB which highlighted the 6 members of the woodpecker family. The first three were those we see regularly in our garden - the Lesser Spotted, Great Spotted and the Green Woodpecker.

Numbers 4, 5 and 6 were a surprise, as I wouldn’t have expected them to be in the same family as woodpeckers.

4. Nuthatch
5. Treecreeper
6. Wryneck.


The email gives info about where to see the various members of the woodpecker family, how to identify each and conservation status in the UK.

It said that Wrynecks are a bit larger than a sparrow and feed on ants on the ground and migrate from Scandinavia to Africa, but have been seen inland in the UK and in some lucky people’s gardens.

Apparently in the past they have bern known as ‘twister’, ‘writhe neck’ and ‘snake bird’, describing what you saw, Blaze, their ability to turn their heads, which helps them to deter predators and the patterns of their plumage helps to camouflage them.

So we have numbers 1,2,3 and 4 in our good-sized suburban garden regularly (with a smallish ancient woodland adjoining our garden - the two reasons we bought this house), number five have visited maybe 8-10 times in over 40 years of living in this house/garden and I’ve never seen a wryneck. But according to this article, I can live in hope!