France in Focus

Yesterday about 1600hrs we noticed a Hoopoe feeding in the grass, we watched it for a few minutes, we said it was very early, then something must have startled it and it shot off straight into our patio glass door sad ending.

That is sad.

... poor thing. Do you know if stick-on silhouettes are available to buy in France?

It happened from time to time at our last house, the saddest being a pair of blackbirds who hit the window with a hell of a thump and didn't survive. In 10 years here, it's only happened a couple of times, fortunately, and in both cases the bird recovered.

In this house, there are windows back and front unlike our last house which was a longère with only a couple of small high-up windows on the back. I thought birds might be confused seeing daylight through the window, but it doesn't seem to have caused any problems.

One of the birds to hit a window at our last place was a bullfinch, a bird I'd never seen before. Naturally I took a couple of photos ! He was just stunned and I could hear his partner calling him, a very distinctive sound. He recovered after a few minutes and flew off. I've never seen a bullfinch since ....

A great reason for not cleaning your windows!

Stickers are available from Amazon… https://www.amazon.fr/Collision-Window- ... 0aWM&psc=1
They do not always work and do not deter from window cleaning.

A pheasant once killed itself on one of our windows in Winchester. My older son, about 8 at the time, told people that a "peasant" had committed suicide on our window.
Mt OH made me hang the poor victim for several days, so that I could then gut and cook it.