Ron Freethy's Nature Watch

A READER asked me where my favourite bird-watching places in Lancashire were.

I would have to make a separate list for each season.

High on my autumn list would be one of old Lancashire's most under-rated and least-known places - the estuary of the River Alt at Hightown, between Liverpool and Southport.

The Alt is only 18miles long. Its source is in the Huyton Wetlands at Knowsley and then it flows through Croxteth Country Park in Liverpool before reaching the sea at Hightown.

As I reached Hightown on a dull autumn morning I could hear gunshots in the distance but this was no threat to the birds because Altcar Rifle Range uses targets.

This sound was drowned by the honking of pink-footed geese which flew low over the sea and skimmed the roofs of the houses before veering off - probably towards Martin Mere bird reserve, another of my favourite areas at this time of year. The tide was out and I was able to sit on the side of the Alt estuary and watch thousands of birds, including oyster catcher, dunlin, knot, bar-tailed godwit, ringed plover, redshank, widgeon and shelduck.

One of the shrubs which has long roots and therefore binds the sand dunes together is alder buckthorn.

From October until Christmas, the orange berries of the the plant are fed upon by birds such as fieldfares and redwings, which are tired and hungry when they arrive on migration from places as far afield as Norway.

The yellow flowers of evening primrose will also continue to bloom almost until Christmas and, as the name implies, the species opens its blooms in the evening.

The flowers add colour to the dark evenings of autumn and always make me think that spring is not far away.

In among the damp areas there are breeding natterjack toads but Britain's rarest amphibians have already hibernated.

This means that the dunes around the Sefton area, and especially Hightown, are now protected.

One of my favourite areas is, therefore, more than just an autumn day out - it is a venue for all seasons.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.