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Exploratory visit to the Auvergne, central France, August 2017
EuCAN has been asked by a French friend to organise a team of volunteers to go down to a village in Central France where he lives, to work with the Commune to improve the area for wildlife. The village is called Taxat-Senat and is close to the river Allier and the lovely Val d’Allier Nature reserve.
Webpage (terrible english transation!) http://www. allier-auvergne-tourisme.com/ nature/espaces-naturels/le- val-d-allier-224-1.html
We hope this conservation work will begin during this coming autumn and winter, but in the meantime we would plan to visit the area with a group of six in August to take a look at it, meet the locals and assess what needs to be done. Our friend Arnaud worked with us on one of our very early visits to La Brenne with two other people from Paris funded by the World Wildlife Fund. He has recently bought a house in Taxat-Senat.
Queen of Spain Fritillary
August is not the ideal time to see the wildlife of the area at its best but we would hope to get an idea of what is there. We will check out the habitats and the butterfly and moth species flying and may see some interesting birds, bats and invertebrates other than Lepidoptera. Also hoping to see migrating birds using the River Allier as a through-route southwards.
We will be travelling down in a small minibus, taking the night ferry from Portsmouth on Sunday July 31st, arriving on the afternoon of August 1st, and returning on the night ferry of Sunday August 6th and back in the UK on the morning of the Monday 7th. Arnaud is providing accommodation but we will be paying for our meals, the fuel for the journeys and the ferry tickets including the cabins.
To see the programme and joining instructions for this project, click here.
We will have more information about our plans for future involvement in this partnership after we return in August.
