Drive & Stroll, with Ron Freethy - this week to Fairhaven Lake

WITH foot and mouth disease devastating livestock and threatening to spread even further, it would be wrong at the moment to walk in sensitive areas.

However much we enjoy walking, our hobby must be curtailed when farmers' livelihoods and our food supplies are under threat.

There is, however, an answer the dilemma and that is to enjoy a stroll along the sea shore.

One of the finest "flat walks" in Lancashire runs around Lytham's Fairhaven Lake. Whatever the season there is always plenty to see but it is at its best between September and May, when the birds can be spectacular.

Two hours should be allowed for the circular walk, on which are a number of benches with splendid views of the lake itself and over the Ribble estuary.

The lake lies on the line of the Lancashire Coastal Way, which is an increasingly popular long-distance footpath. For those wishing to extend their walk this path can be followed along the surprisingly large sand dune system between St Annes and Blackpool. In summer this stretch is full of flowers such as sea bindweed, rest harrow, hares foot trefoil, goatsbeard and evening primrose. It is the birdlife, however, which is the most dramatic feature of the lake. There is plenty of car parking by the lake side and the best route to follow is to start off keeping the coastline to the left. When I last followed this walk last month the tide was on the ebb but there was enough water for a number of cormorants and 10 common scoters to be able to dive for food.

Cormorants feed on fish but the scoter prefers smaller prey, especially shrimps, prawns, marine worms and cribs. Although never a common bird, the scoter is found in some numbers along the Lancashire coast. They are easily identified as they are almost totally black in colour.

As the tide continued to ebb large expanses of sand and mud were exposed surrounded by deep puddles left behind in the hollows. Wading birds fed on the worms which live on the mud banks. There were several thousand present including dunlin, knot, redshank, curlew, bar tailed godwit and sanderling. The pools were used as feeding grounds by several species of gulls and more than 200 shelduck.

The day was pleasant but daylight never lasts long in the winter and soon it was time to continue my tour and concentrate on the freshwater species on Fairhaven Lake itself. The weather inland had been foul and the snow and sleet had driven many birds to the coast. Present in some numbers were pochard, tufted duck, great crested grebe, wigeon, coot, goldeneye and goosander. Local people were greeted by the mallards and Canada geese which expect a daily visit from large numbers of folk laden with bread, stale cake and lots of other goodies. A grey squirrel totally ignored an angry Canada goose which charged at it but failed to prevent the cheeky beast from pinching half a slice of bread from right under its beak.

Those who think that the Fylde coast is all "action, vulgarity and with nothing to offer," the naturalist should think again.The area has been, and still is one of the richest areas of natural history in Britain.

"Oft cumdens" often refer to Lytham and St Annes as if they had always been connected, but care needs to be taken not to connect them too closely within earshot of the local folk. Lytham, situated on one arm of the Ribble estuary with Southport on the other, is very ancient and was settled before the Norman conquest.

St Annes was built as a rival to Blackpool by permission of the Cliftons of Lytham Hall, with the money mainly provided by shoe and cotton manufacturers around Rossendale.

Old Lytham and young St Annes joined forces in 1922 and became party of the new Fylde Borough which was set up in 1974. The reason that the name St Annes was adopted is that the new town was built around St Annes Chapel-of-Ease, which was governed from the main parish church of Lytham, the origins of which take us back to the Saxon time of St Cuthbert. Around about AD882 a group of monks from Northumberland carried around the North the bones of the saint to keep them away from the Danes.

The Danes did not want the bones but would have loved to have laid hands on the container holding them.

This was encrusted with jewels. Wherever the bones were hidden for a while, a church dedicated to St Cuthbert was set up.

Eventually the monks found permanent sanctuary at Durham, where the bones now rest.

St Cuthbert loved wildlife, especially seabirds and he would have loved the Lytham area, just as modern naturalists do.

The whole of the coastline is an exciting place for birdwatchers, but the best gem in the Fylde's jewel basket is Fairhaven Lake.