About Moulismes

< Moulismes

Moulismes, village population c400, lies on Route Nationale RN147 between Poitiers and Limoges, in the departement Vienne (86). An hours drive east is the Brenne, departement Indre (36), an area well-known for it's diverse wildlife, but much of the same flora and fauna can be found around Moulismes; and a few species are more easily found here. The southern Vienne countryside is subtly different from that of the Brenne, but in both areas farms are mostly non-corporate and small by UK standards. Sheep, cattle, maize, sunflowers and vegetables are the principle produce, along with cereal production. There is much woodland, many small etangs (lakes), and plenty of marginal land, unimproved meadows and pasture. Most etangs are too small to be of any wildlife interest, but older more established ones, and the few larger ones, are prime habitat here. The Brenne has many large etangs, and fish-farming is a major source of income here. Most woodland is privately owned, but some larger ones belong to local authorities and have public access. The maize prairie provides habitat for finches and migrating cranes, as the stubble is often left until spring. In the unimproved meadows, many butterfly and insect species can be found, and an established etang may hold up to 20 odonata species

Location of Moulismes click here

< St-Savin, Vienne

This website

On the following pages are some of the species that can be watched within an hours’ drive of the village. A few have specialized habitat requirements, for example calcareous-loving species, but most are widespread.
Hopefully this website will be of use to visitors and local residents alike, as a guide to what you can expect to see. The emphasis throughout is to encourage people to explore and find their own delights - this is only meant as a guide
Even if visiting for a week, using IGN maps Cartes de randonees, and local sentiers (footpath) maps, free from the local Marie (Mayors office), many species featured here can be seen. I know of various residents near here who've seen species I've not yet seen - which just makes the learning curve more enjoyable. If there are any mistakes with identification, they are entirely mine, much as I'd like to blame my wife! Please let me know through the Contact me section

The website is optimized at 960 pixels page width - a compromise, with many people using both larger and smaller hardware these days. Netbook users may find some problems with non-aligned text, etc, for which I apologise. Horizontal scroll bars are a real pain, but sometimes are the only solution - playing around with zoom settings, normally on the browser toolbar, can resolve the problem.

Images, concept, etc.

I make no apologies for not creating a ‘photographic website’, this was never meant to be one, rather an info resource for those living or staying in the area. But gradually I’ve built a collection of images all taken locally since January 2006, which to be honest are mainly for my own reference. Basically the collection is an on-line database of most of what I’ve seen since we moved here. Consequently there are far too many photos by ‘photographic website’ standards; these include distant shots of rare birds, digiscoped shots, and several images of the same species – Common Buzzard and Heath Fritillary being just two examples. Both of these show a great variety of colour and markings as do various other species I’ve repeatedly photographed. Virtually all images are simple 'identification shots', which I guess can make viewing a little tedious, but if it can help in the identification of, for example, a damselfly then mission accomplished. With ‘difficult’ species there may well be observational notes on the pop-up – I use these personally, but hopefully they can be of use to others as an aid to identification. Generally they are aide memoire-type comments gleaned from the main references, plus observational comments of my own.
It follows that all photos were taken in .jpeg format with fairly inexpensive equipment – see photo galleries section.

Acknowledgements

Thomas Williamson, Gregory Faupin, et l'équipe LPO Vienne, Poitiers

Indre Nature for their comprehensive website

Vienne Nature ditto

Martin & Rebecca, formally of Le Coudraie, Douadic, for initial info on the Brenne

Pete & Gill, La Chaume, Rosnay, for good company and sharing site info in the Brenne

Tony Williams, Rosnay, for help/info in the Brenne, and for the good work he does at LPO La Brenne

Dave Smallshire, Devon, UK, for help and encouragement with odonata