Nature Watch, with Ron Freethy

LAST week, between the periods of heavy rain, I took advantage of the odd burst of sunshine.

I set off to find out how the wildlife along our rivers was faring.

I first walked out onto the Lune Estuary and was rewarded by the sight of a glorious rainbow. I thought I had deserved this bit of luck, especially as I had to sit in my car because of the very heavy rain.

Eventually my walk was worth it because I saw lots of migrating birds, including swifts (which have mostly all departed) and swallows which are just completing their breeding and are now gathering on the telephone wires.

A rather surprising observation was a coltsfoot in flower, which is normally typical of March rather than the start of September. There is, however, no accounting for the whims of nature. Because of the threatening weather I had planned only one walk but it was such a pleasant evening that I decided to walk alongside the Wyre not far from the old mill weir at Garstang.

The last time I walked this route was way back in early April when I spotted a water vole but I was even luckier this time because I saw a kingfisher skimming over the weir.

On the banks, a fascinating plant called mare's tail was in bloom. Although very common by riversides, try rubbing your hands along it and you will see how useful it once was. It feels very rough and all of its cells contain silicon (sand). This is why in the days before we had soap pads, the mare's tail was gathered and sold in bundles as pan scrubbers.

To a naturalist it is true to say there is now't new under the sun!

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