Wildlife Rescue in the Loire Valley

The not for profit organisation Sauve Qui Plume is the only dedicated wildlife rescue organisation in the Touraine. They are based at Chanceaux sur Choisille, just north of Tours and will take injured wildlife from anywhere in the Centre-Val de Loire Region. If you find an injured bird or mammal, please get in touch with them and be prepared to take it to them so they can care for it and hopefully release it once it has recovered.

Last year (2015) they took in 654 animals, up from the year before, when they received 597 animals. The most common birds to end up in their centre are Swifts (mainly in June and July), Barn Owls (throughout the year, but mostly in July) and Kestrels (throughout the year, with a peak in June). The most common mammals they get in are Hedgehogs (which outnumber all the others put together and can come in throughout the year, peaking in May, June and December), Common Pipistrelle bats (mostly in the summer) and Roe Deer (mostly in May).

The sign at the entrance to Sauve Qui Plume.

The office at Sauve Qui Plume.

If you are in Berry and need a wildlife rescue service, you can also try the Centre de Soins (Union Française des Centres de Sauvegarde de la Faune Sauvage) Vierzon, who will take injured birds if they are protected species from Cher, Loir et Cher, Loiret, Nièvre and Eure et Loir.

For information on what to do if you find an injured bird or mammal in France, Chris Luck's website gives you the basics.

Resources

A list of publications and organisations that can help if you want to learn about wildlife in the Touraine Loire Valley.

L'Association de Botanique et de Mycologie de Sainte Maure de Touraine: This small, friendly and expert group hold regular outings in the Touraine Loire Valley and welcome new members. €16 for a single annual membership or attend outings as a non-member for €3 per outing. Contact Susan for more details (I can be contacted by email via my profile on the right side bar).

Members of the Association de Botanique et de Mycologie de Sainte Maure de Touraine surrounding a small, rare specimen of Annual Woundwort Stachys annua on an outing near Panzoult.

Members of the Association de Botanique et de Mycologie de Sainte Maure de Touraine check out a Military Orchid Orchis militaris on a roadside bank in the Claise Valley. Military Orchids are rare, but there are two small colonies in the Claise Valley, both on roadside banks.

Christian Delusseau, President of the Association, carefully takes a moss sample at the lavoir (old public laundry) in Sainte Maure de Touraine.

A basket of edible mushrooms gathered on a fungi foray with the Association. The mushrooms are mostly Wood Blewit Clitocybe nuda, with a Bolet des Charmes (='Hornbeam Bolete') Leccinum carpini.

A crowd gathers around the fungi gathered on an fungi foray in the Forest of Loches. Expert members of the club will go through these and identify all of them.

The weather doesn't always co-operate on outings, but the members of the Association persevere.

The club's name may be 'Botany and Mycology' but that doesn't mean other orders are ignored. Here a remarkably relaxed Scarce Swallowtail Iphiclides podalirius poses for photos on the Puys du Chinonais.

Fungi Forays

Regular fungi forays are organised by the Association de botanique et de mycologie de Sainte Maure de Touraine. Their aim is to survey the Tourangelle forests (Loches, Larçay, Preuilly, Chinon, etc) and to educate the public. 

Gathering mushrooms in the forest remains a popular activity in France and many people are perfectly happy to eat wild mushrooms. Since there are poisonings every year due to people misidentifying species, joining the Association is one way of ensuring you know what you are eating. Theoretically you can take your mushrooms to the pharmacy and have the pharmacist identify them. In practice these days very few pharmacists have the knowledge to accurately identify mushrooms or pronounce on their edibility or otherwise.

Joining the Association on an outing is also a way of ensuring that there is no hunting scheduled for the day in the chosen section of forest, and that you have permission to gather mushrooms. Generally mushroom gathering for personal consumption is permitted on the weekends and holidays in publicly owned forests, but it can vary (there is usually a sign telling you what is permitted). To gather mushrooms in privately owned forests you need the permission of the landowner.

A fungi foray does not just concentrate on the dozen or so well known species of edible mushrooms. At the beginning of the outing you will be instructed to pick everything you see and bring it to the table for identification at the end of the outing. This is so lookalikes can be highlighted by the experts and because the Association is recording the species on each site visited. This information feeds into wider biodiversity records and helps form a body of knowledge about the forests that can direct their management.

The Tourangelle forests are rich in fungi species. They are old established forests which are managed with a light touch. Hundreds of different fungi make their home here.

The general public is very welcome on the Association's outings and there will be a brief announcement in the local newspaper with details of the next outing in the autumn months. In French this will be listed as a sortie mycologique or a sortie champignons.

A basket of edible* mushrooms gathered on a fungi foray. *The mushrooms are mostly ceps/porcini/boletes, but the large cream specimen being pointed at is a Clouded Funnel Clitocybe nebularis, which has an aroma that puts most people off.

A fungi foray group about to head off into the Forest of Preuilly.

Fungi displayed on a table at the end of a foray, ready to be identified. An expert is explaining the difference between two very poisonous species -- the Death Cap and the Panther Cap. He pointed out that you must check each and every mushroom as it comes out of your basket if you are intending to eat them.

Three expert mycologists from the Association de Botanique et de Mycologie de Sainte Maure de Touraine identifying mushrooms laid out on the table after an outing in the Forest of Loches. The club holds two outings a year in this forest and maintains a record of species seen over many years.

Identifying and Surveying Mosses and Lichens

The Association de Botanique et de Mycologie de Sainte Maure de Touraine has at least one moss and lichen focused outing a year.

Jeannine Demeulant, one of the Association de Botanique et de Mycologie de Sainte Maure de Touraine moss experts, sprays some moss on a tree in Sainte Maure de Touraine with water to revive it in a dry year. This aids identification.

Walking Trails

The whole of France is crisscrossed with walking trails and they form the backbone of a popular leisure activity for locals and visitors alike. There is a national network of long distance and short walks as well as local networks. The route signage uses a system of colour coded bars which are painted on trees or posts at points where you have to make a decision about which way to go. The walks go through villages, fields, forests and along rivers and canals as well as sometimes along roads. Cyclists and horseriders are allowed to use them but motorised vehicles are banned unless indicated (motorised vehicles are allowed on the chemins blancs, for example, but are asked to 'respect' them; farm vehicles will use the tracks through agricultural land for access to their fields).

A communal route marker at Angle sur l'Anglin.

Red and white bars mean a grande randonnée (long distance) route, red and yellow bars mean a grande randonnée de pays route with features of natural or historic interest along the way and forming a circuit. Single yellow bars mean a promenade et randonnée (short day walk). Local authorities (communes) generally use single blue or green bars and their walks are usually circuits, often overlapping with the national network for part of the walk. Two bars set like an equals sign ('=') means straight ahead, a bar on top of a sideways L indicates which direction to turn and an X indicates that you should not go any further along the path. You turn in the direction of the long (horizontal) bar of the sideways L, which is generally pointed at the end as a visual aid to indicate the direction you should go.

A local (communal) walking path through the woods at Angles sur l'Anglin.

You are best to use a map in conjunction with the route markers. IGN, the French national mapping agency, has produced a series specifically for the national randonnée network. These are called TOP 100 maps. For even more detail go for the TOP 25 maps, which mark every little path and stream. You can buy them online directly from IGN, from outdoor shops or newsagents. Alternatively you can go to Géoportail, the French government interactive online map website and create your own route using several series of maps for free. 

Cycling through the Véron, the triangular area of land near Chinon formed by the Vienne coming to meet the Loire River, on a chemin blanc.

If walking between mid-September and the end of February, be aware that you could encounter a hunt in progress. You may feel more comfortable wearing a hi-viz vest during these months.

If the trail passes through forestry land be careful not to mistake forestry markers for trail markers. They are often on the same tree, but forestry markers are generally larger.