Nature Watch, with Ron Freethy

THE last week in October was a delight, with cold frosty mornings making way for glorious sunshine.

These are the days when the autumn colours of deciduous trees look their best.

This is also the time when birdwatching can be exciting.

I love Rishton reservoir at this time of the year. It is always a triumph to see how the wildlife lives in harmony with modern transport. The water is sandwiched between the railway line and the Leeds to Liverpool Canal, which extracts water from it in order to operate the locks through Blackburn. Almost on the banks of the reservoir is the road between Rishton and Blackburn and nearby there is a children's playground with seats for folk like me, beyond the first flush of youth, to enjoy their butties.

The walk to the reservoir is fringed with an assortment of trees including oak, which this year bear a rich crop of acorns. My attention, however, was directed away from the oaks towards a flock of long-tailed tits which were heading to a clump of alder trees.

Long-tailed tits need all the food they can get in cold autumn days and alder seeds are rich in fat.

For the benefit of those people who get depressed when the clocks go back, the alder tree should remind them of spring.

This is because the spring catkins are already forming. The male catkins are long and purple whilst the female cones are round and green.

The mute swans which use the canal as a motorway use Rishton reservoir in the same way that we use service stations.

Swans, coots, moorhens, mallards and tufted ducks were all taking advantage of the bread which visitors were providing in abundance.

I felt really guilty when I arrived close to the swans because I had just eaten all my butties, although I shared a few crumbs with a flock of chaffinches and house sparrows.

There is only one thing wrong with autumn days - they are too short.

A train clattered over the track and blended in with the hoot of a tawny owl waking up from its roost and preparing to go hunting.

The owl was roosting among the oaks and alders but it was given one more burst of bright sunlight which illuminated the shining berries of the guelder rose.

The berries certainly look beautiful but they are not good to eat and the crafty birds know that.

The soft red fruit is therefore usually left and adds sparkle to the late autumn and early winter hedgerows.

This little ramble around Rishton is just one more example of how wildlife thrives around the towns and villages of East Lancashire.

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