Rural riddles Frog-march


IVY PROBLEM


Jeremy Hobson solves more of your pastoral problems


To cut or not to cut? Q A Why have the frogspawn returned to the old fishpond?


early February last year. Because we’d read that fish will eat the spawn and/or the tadpoles, we took the trouble to move it to a small natural pond (it’s not large enough to class it an ‘étang’!) where it produced tadpoles which successfully turned into froglets by the end of summer. This February,


Q


Frogspawn appeared in our fish pond in


the fishpond was full of frogspawn again – why have those frogs gone back to where their parents laid and not to where they themselves were brought up and knew? Tracey and Simon Fairbrother


A


Last winter a very tame nuthatch regularly


visited our garden. Trying to explain our visitor to French friends, I realised that I didn’t know the French name – and efforts to find out have so far failed. Can you possibly help? Roger Graves


The European nuthatch (Sitta europaea) is known


It’s a good question – and one which I’m unable


to answer with any degree of certainty. Perhaps a more


MUDLARKING Q


A in France by the delightful


knowledgeable Rural Riddles reader might know the answer. It could possibly be that, unlike salmon/trout/ eels, the offspring don’t have any affiliation to the place where they hatched and that the answer is more to do with the depth of your fishpond, its location, the amount of sunshine/shade it receives, or the naturally occurring feed which is available there.


We have ivy on our trees and also on the walls of


an outbuilding. Our French neighbour tells us to pull it off as it will kill the trees and damage the mortar of the building. A recent visitor from the UK says we should leave it as it provides a valuable home for wildlife. Pru Ross-Martin


Both are correct! Ivy roots and tendrils work their


way into the dry mortar of old buildings and eventually cause damage. It also restricts the growth of some trees (particularly young ones) – which is why, when it has taken hold, most foresters will chop it at the root – and is the reason you sometimes see dead, brown-leaved ivy attached to a mature tree. However, ivy is underrated as an essential plant for both birds and insects. Its evergreen nature provides roosting for birds during cold winter nights and is also a place of semi-hibernation for insects that have survived the autumn. Ivy flowers provide a source of pollen for both the latter and winter moths while the subsequent berries are enjoyed by birds at a time when there is not much else on offer.


moniker of ‘Sittelle torchepot’. Apparently, the latter part of the name comes from the word ‘torchis’ which roughly translates as the English word ‘cob’– the building material made from packed mud – and is given to the nuthatch because of its habit of adapting existing natural holes for nesting by the addition of packed mud around the entrance until it is of the size required.


104 FRENCH PROPERTY NEWS: July/August 2023


Nuts about the nuthatch


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