Rural riddles
UNWANTED SQUATTERS
Jeremy Hobson solves more of your pastoral problems Mellow yellow...
to eventually move there permanently) our old, open- fronted ‘étable’ seems to attract all the feral pigeons in the area. They love nesting and rearing their young on the beams and in the various alcoves. On each visit, their droppings and debris is worse. Have you any ideas as to the best way of deterring them, please? Samuel Knowles
Q
At our holiday home in France (we hope
...and not as smelly as oilseed rape!
of sunflowers seen from the garden of our maison secondaire. Last year, the colours were just as vibrant a yellow, only this time it was from a crop of oilseed rape – the smell and pollen from which did my wife’s hay fever no good. Is it possible to tell what a French farmer might plant, or is his crop choice a bit random? Ronnie Lloyd
Q
Two summers ago, we enjoyed the views
A
The crops planted by French farmers (or in
any other country for that matter) are anything but random. In much the same way as you should in a vegetable garden, they follow a rotation so that various crops benefit or add to the soil quality (some crops remove a lot of goodness – which can be replaced naturally by another crop the following season). Also, government/EU edicts dictate, and sometimes limit,
AVIAN VANDALS L
ast October, FPN reader Andrew Simpson emailed
me with a photo attachment to ask whether I had any suggestions “…as to what might have done this to the lawn this afternoon?” The ‘this’ in question was
a series of holes caused by uplifted turf. While clear enough for me to be able to identify the likely culprit, the photo wasn’t good enough to be included alongside this particular Q&A.
what varieties can be grown, and in what proportion; the idea being to prevent any of the infamous surplus ‘mountains’ of unwanted/ unsold harvests of which we read several decades ago. As to your next likely
viewing of mellow yellow sunflowers from your kitchen window, as many farmers in France tend to work on a four-year rotation, hopefully you might not have to wait much longer!
A
Feral pigeons soon become very tame around
rural buildings, especially when they are not bothered by human presence. You could try something like suspending old CDs on threads from the beams. As they spin in the breeze, they catch the light and unsettle birds for a time – but not for long! Sound as well as sight helps as a deterrent but I’m not suggesting you play the CDs through a sound system! Sonic and ultrasonic sounds
The damage having
occurred during daylight hours, it was almost certainly the work of crows – or more probably rooks – who, with their heavy-duty beaks, were lifting up the grass in search of autumnal insects; quite possibly leather-jackets of which rooks are particularly fond. Had the damage happened overnight, I would have suspected it to be the work of badgers looking for similar insects or the homes
104 FRENCH PROPERTY NEWS: March/April 2023
have been used successfully by some. Sonic bird repellents use the sound of natural predators, while ultrasonic ones play noise at a high frequency. Both are, or so their manufacturers say, easy to install but they also warn that the sonic variations might annoy the neighbours – and are illegal in some areas. I’ve been told by someone
Stone the crows!
of one of the several types of ground-living bees. Larger ructions and disturbance over a bigger area could have been the work of wild boar – had it have been the latter, there would most likely have been little left of Andrew’s lawn!
with practical experience in their use, that imitation owls, equipped with a pest deterrent sound system and flashing eyes are effective against pigeons. Available at garden centres and farm supply stores in France (and also online) at a cost of around €20 or so, they might be worth trying.
© MARIE-LAN NGUYEN/CREATIVE COMMONS
© THAMIZHPPARITHI MAARI/CREATIVE COMMONS
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