Casual Conversation

I live in a very urban area in France, in the Paris urban area. My apartment building has a small “gardeny” courtyard, with several trees and a bit of lawn, which my one and only window overlooks. I can see several balconies, but do not have one myself. Here’s a (probably non-exhaustive) list of what I can see from up here:

• two magpies whose nest is visible from my window, right at the top of a tall lime tree. They do their round from balcony to balcony every morning, looking for food or water I guess. They often get very noisy in the morning when...
• a crow tries to get close to their nest. It’s “not from around here”, we don’t get generally have crows in the building’s courtyard, but it’s been coming regularly since spotting the nest. (I’ve convinced myself that it’s always the same crow, but I don’t really know.)
• a blackbird who sings every day from the top of the building facing mine. I’ve seen blackbird nests in the courtyard in the past, but not this year.
• lots of swifts high up in the air — they don’t get close to my home unfortunately because it’s too modern for them to nest, I need to walk a few blocks to see them course each other over my head. I adore swifts and wish I could get a closer look at them.
• pigeons — of course ! Rock pigeons and wood pigeons... mostly wood pigeons. A pair of wood pigeons tried to build their nest on top of a set of shelves on a neighbouring family’s balcony, but the parents made them stop right away by removing the first few twigs and blocking the furniture with boxes. It’s a pity, I would have had a very good view on the nest.
• great tits. Like the magpies, they do their shopping from balcony to balcony from time to time… but not at the same time as the magpies.
• a redstart that I’ve only seen once from my window, singing on the opposite building, at the blackbird’s favorite spot. It’s normally in the next city block, where it can’t be heard from my house. (Unless it was a different redstart?)

A few birds that I can hear from my room, and see when going outside, but have never spotted from my window:

• robin
• garden warbler
• blue tit

Several years ago, there was a couple of jays that came every day in the garden, and toured the balconies like the magpies currently do, but not anymore. I wish they’d come back...

I’m too high up to have many insects visible from my window. If I see an insect from my house, it’s usually because it came in my house, but I won’t be listing those. I see the usual flies, of course, and moths — I’m afraid I couldn’t name them. A line of ants climbing the building’s wall; they actually “invaded” my apartment several times, but not this year. In the past, I’ve had mason bees nest in a hole at the side of my window, which was AWESOME, but it hasn’t happened in a few years. I’ve seen a few flying around this year too, they just haven’t chosen to grace my humble abode with their offspring.

Sometimes a cross orbweaver on the railing (not right now). Most spiders, I encounter inside the building.

Pets: a kitten on the nearest balcony, a large dog on the balcony below, which rarely barks, thankfully. A cat in the neighbouring courtyard, which is separated from mine by a great wall. I don’t know in which apartment the cat resides.

I probably forgot some animals, but I did my best, and let’s be honest, nobody’s reading all that.

I’m very fond of the magpies this spring, they’ve been giving quite a show, but I haven’t spotted any younglings unfortunately. :-(

Edit: I forgot the pipistrelles!