Tag: Coypu

What to do with the Cornered Coypu?

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I have been out chasing it around the pond a bit. I have learned that Coypu do not like leaf blowers. It is a fairly humane way to move the critter around. It swam back to the pond side near the river and under the bank overhang. It seemed practiced and I have marked the bank where it went under. It sat there nose poking out for a while. It was sniffing the leaf blower. We had prolonged eye to eye contact.

I will check the bank for burrow entrance digging there…later.

In an ideal world the coypu will pop back into the river over night and not return. That is the win from my perspective.

I could try to stake it or batter it. But that is not humane nor to my taste. The French have suggested that we eat it.

We could call the hunters and they might shoot it.

I’ll stick the trail camera out later to see what it does.

I know its preferred hiding places now and how to flush it out with the leaf blower. So I can check if it is there tomorrow.

I don’t want to scare it shitless when it is cornered in the pond and by the electric fence. I just wish it would go away of its own accord. I have no plans to kill it….

I don’t want to bash its brains out…

I don’t want it eating our lotus shoots.

I don’t want to get bitten by those teeth…

Hmnn…

Coypu Saga – Next Episode

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On checking the electric fence I can see the point of ingress last night where it twisted the strands in shock..

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I walked around the pond to see if the little bastard was still here.

I disturbed it…see the bubbles…

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Fuck you human…centre frame…

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I walked around the pond for more evidence…

mid-sized adolescent Coypu turds.

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The little sod has eaten a lotus root

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I made a lot of noise and hit the bank with a rake near where it was hiding.

This scared it off into water….

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I left it hiding under the bank near the river. This is where they burrowed before.

After lunch I am back out trying to scare him back into the river.

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Daft Coypu

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Over the years we have had an on and off struggle with the  Coypu or Nutria which live wild as an invasive species here. The little buggers eat the lotuses and irises when the shoots are young and cause the pond to leak by tunnelling into the pond bank. They have damaged the normal fence.

I have a five strand electric fence running along our river “border”. I don’t mind papa Coypu eating the bamboo shoots on the far bank. In general they do not cross the bridge. In winter the Coypu come. Usually in spring and summer there is enough food elsewhere.

This morning as I was emptying the food waste from yesterday into the composters by the green house. I had the thought, “I do not need to check if the Coypu have tried to breach the electric fence…”

I looked over towards the pond and river. There, not more than four metres from me, on the grass between the pond and the greenhouse was a Coypu “hiding” in the grass. Usually when they see me they run and “plop” into the pond. I stood staring at the Coypu and it stared at me. It was sniffing the air. I was making a noise and whistling. It did not move. Was it on ketamine or GHB? Was it a daft Coypu? If I had a rake I could easily twat it.

I went inside to fetch the wife thinking that the little bugger would have moved by the time I got back.

No it was still sat there a couple of minutes later. We looked at it. I clapped and it turned towards the sound. Gandalf the stray cat joined us meowing loudly. The Coypu did not move.

Best guess is that it made it through the electric fence and got shocked in the process. It is now too traumatised to risk it going back into the river.

I don’t want the little bugger making home in the garden

So when I have finished my coffee I will boot up, put my boots on, and try to run the blighter off.

It is an adolescent near maturity, hopefully not female what with randy papa Coypu lurking.

I’ll take the camera with.

It is pretty weird to be close enough to a wild animal to see its nostril flare and stare eye to eye…

It is possible that it is somehow injured…or just frozen with fear…

If we call the hunters they will take a while to get here…with their guns…

Permimeter Defences – Coypu – Badger and Wild Boar

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The first of the shagging toads have arrived in the pond. The start of the annual toad migration. There is an electric fence between the river and the pond to stop the coypu getting in.

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One of the little buggers tried last night and disturbed the fence.

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They are after the baby lotuses and irises.

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Previously the wife blocked the badger hole in the fence.

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They built a small set in our garden..

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This is where the wild boars first got in…

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This is the repair of the second place they broke the fence. I am due to do more fence repair this afternoon.

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This is Gandalf the grey and white stray cat now a.k.a. Kidney because she leaves regular mouse kidneys and entrails for us as presents.

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The Lotus Eaters and a Logical If

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As the nights draw in and the temperature drops the occurrence of wildlife in the garden goes up, becomes more frequent. Already the badger is looking for roots, soon we may get deer grazing. For sure the “lotus eaters” aka Coypu or Nutria will return. There was evidence of an attempted perimeter breach overnight. The charge on the battery driving the electric fence has dropped. I had a shock off it yesterday, a tickle. Today I have replaced the battery. This means if any of the Coypu family come to snack on our tasty lotuses Thor may release a lightning bolt to discourage. Since we have installed the electric fence by the river our display of lotuses has flourished. This year was magnificent.

Om mane padme hum

If we take dream content as evidence and consider visions as non hallucinatory then we might conclude that I have had at least four and probably five lives in a priestly or monk like Buddhist incarnation. It is therefore not too much of a stretch to suggest that the term bodhisattva might apply to me, I can be considered as someone seeking liberation. In one of these “visions” I was told that this is my very last incarnation, a suggestion which is internally consistent with the aforementioned logical if.  

This may not sit entirely easily in juxtaposition with a brief career as a pukka scientist. It might seem odd to the class professorial. To me there is no jarring.

We then come upon the Garry Glitter question, “to whose gang do I belong?”

Am I Toltec?

Am I Buddhist?

Am I boffinacious?

One could perhaps draw a Venn diagram, if one could be arsed.

I am unlikely to fall into worship of anti-scientific superstitious conspiracy theories. I am not science-phobic. Nor do I believe in the whole saviour fallacy. Nobody died to save you; it is up to you. Confessing your sins will not remove karmic debt even if you pay the pope a cool million quid. You cannot bribe karma.

To follow on from the logical if. There is an addendum.

If you have treated a bodhisattva badly then that is karmically “bad” for you.

We then get quickly into splitting karmic hairs about degree of bodhisattva and extent of transgression.

The basic rule of thumb is try not to be an arrogant bell end to anyone. It does not need to be any more complicated than this. It is not a bad mantram.

“Remember to try not to be an arrogant bell end…”

Loose Ends

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Thematically the notion of loose ends has been active in the period of hibernal sleep, pralaya, before the post equinox activity.

“Pralaya is the period of sleep between cosmic revolutions as well as dissolution of the body and cosmos.”

The skirmish with the coypu is coming to a close, there is about 10 m more of fencing to repair on the northern boundary, the single wire, six conductor, five string electric fence, is offering deterrent. There has been no sign of coypu in the pond for a week now.

Finally, after an hour or so on the ‘phone and with an abortive attempt I have managed to replace the UK secure banking thingy. I have had a couple of nice chats with Indian gentlemen in the sub-continent. One of them had a nice sense of humour when I asked for a 50:50 or ‘phone a friend for one of his questions.

I await a replacement Carte Vitale; the current estimate is two more weeks…

I have asked for an HLA – B27 genotype test which will help to close /open one door concerning a diagnosis for my back pain. A telephone call to the surgery on Monday will see if there is a prescription waiting. Although there is an MRI appointment early April for an S5 – L1 investigation I am not sure there is a point to it, nor if it justifies the price. If I get a positive HLA -B27 test then I can ask the GP to change the target of the MRI to sacroiliac joints which can be diagnostic of ankylosing spondylitis. If no test is forthcoming, I could just go though the motions and let it all drop until next year. I asked, it was ignored, let it play. Do not inflict myself. Do not push or strive.

I have been following up on the Brisbane property title deed prompted by the recent dream. The title search reported four properties in the same full name as my father, two near Brisbane and two near Cairns. One of the titles fits my memory and there are two > $1 million Australian properties on the plots. I have asked for a historical title search from registry this morning. This is probably only for historical interest.

I get a Titanium tooth root drilled in in a couple or weeks to be followed by a crown in a few months. Three teeth are similar in price to an old style, non-computational, second hand car. First pass is to only get one done; the other side of my mouth can remain nonfunctional.

The tuner in our satellite TV decoder failed and we await a replacement from Ireland. I will tune the receiver dish to Astra 2 in geo-stationary orbit and we will have UK TV back, fingers crossed. Watching rugby with French commentary is not the same.

I know this is a dangerous thing to say. But there does not seem to be any actions on my part outside of these currently on my to do list. Nor does there seem any other than gardening or medical for the near future.

I may be a loose end for others, but I see no action required of me. This seems unlikely as I am not “in” (m)any other lives.

On the back burner there are noises that the French property market is starting to warm a tiny bit perhaps aided by the ECB interest rate decision last week. The chronic decision of house down-sizing may come onto the cards later in spring-summer.

Yep, there are curve balls, spanners etc…

Then on the horizon is the big-one. In March 2026 our right to stay expires along with our health rights, our bank cards. Everything French except my driver licence runs out on the same day. We may get booted out back to blighty.

Given the right wing nationalist rhetoric which can be found on many sides, our future here does not look as secure as it did two years ago.

Gee thanks Donald and Elon and Boris…

This residence thing needs watching, hopefully something is put in place in a timely fashion. Though it could be a lastminut.com lash up.

This morning, I was awoken by the dawn chorus, there are daffodils and primroses, the roses are budding. Spring is putting her toe through the threshold of the year…

Popa Coypu and the Five Strand Fence

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Two days ago we upgraded the electric fence to a cable with six cores and therefore lower resistance, higher energy shock. We also made it a single wire five strand fence with a smaller gap between strands. All the holes in the other fence are blocked and will be changed from temporary to fixed in due course.

The night before last we had a younger coypu get shocked and run. The witness sticks by the pond were untouched suggesting no ingress.

Last night popa-coypu came and decided not to try to cross the fence…

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Fingers crossed, we have deterrence again.

Assault on Precinct 13 – Coypu

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Yesterday afternoon I blocked the hole in the fence with a small log.

Around 9 PM CET moma coypu and the coypu twins arrived. Their ingress was thwarted.

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They hung around for ~ 50 minutes trying to force their way into the precinct. Check out the teeth on this little bugger!

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After some 50 or so captured videos of them trying to get in moma coypu and one of the twins went uphill, to the left, away from the pond in search of another way in. They found the next hole in the fence which had witness sticks and they came in. You can see that they have drained the battery in the trail cam.

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It is possible that the hunters from the commune will swing by this afternoon.

I know exactly where to place the trap!!

Coypu Saga – After 21 Metres of Fencing

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We have repaired the old and strimmer damaged fence with 20 odd metres of new fencing with a rectangular 5 by 10 cm hole. There is no evidence of ingress. However just uphill from the repair I found a new hole yesterday.

Here is the second on two younger coypu entering, last night.

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A little later moma coypu came in she had a tight squeeze. She did not let out a groan like someone trying on tight jeans.

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They did not leave by this hole. My guess is that they headed at speed, through the electric fence, to plop into the river near dawn.

This hole is easy enough to block, the temptation is to put a trap or snare here.

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Coypu and the Lotus Wars

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It is very important that the lotus grows out of the mud, the mire, and strecthes its radiant head above water to soak in the solar bounty.

Here is the Heron recorded after dawn. In the pond you can see the proto-lotuses starting to form. They are to the top middle of the video.

Turn the sound up to hear the birdsong….

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We finished reinforcing the wire fence yesterday. But, here is Moma Coypu coming from the left up from the river. She disturbs the witness sticks…

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She is joined by junior coypu, who heads off in the direction of the lotuses for supper…

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After dining junior comes back to Moma and she grooms the little bastard.

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About and hour or so before dawn Moma heads back in the general direction of the river.

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If you listen carefully you can hear an owl.

Somehow they are getting though the electric fence. I’ll put the camera out to observe and will probbaly make a five strander. The toad migration has started and unfortunatley we electrocuted a female toad the other night. I need to make sure there is good clearence at the bottom…