RECORDS were sent in this week by Carol Smith, Jacqueline Winstanley, V Southgate, Warren Houghton, John Clegg, Brian Connoley, Brian Barnes, Jenny W Lee, Mrs Horsfield, Harry Clough, Vera Brown, Peter Mason, Carl Jenks (who is eight), Sheila Clark (who is 10), and Alan Myers (who is 93 and saw a kingfisher near Whalley). This does seem to be a column for young and old alike.

Sightings in Rossendale, Burnley, Nelson and Colne areas:

BIRDS - Ring ouzel (Gorple Moor), swallow feeding the young of one brood on a telegraph wire and also incubating a second clutch in a nearby barn, short-eared owl (Roughlee), little owl (Nelson). MAMMALS - Mink (Barrowford), brown hare (Brierfield), water vole (Roughlee), fox, badger (Rossendale).

INSECTS - Brown aeshna, dragonfly, blue damselfly (Leeds to Liverpool Canal at Barrowford), common wasps - very active (Barden Lane, Burnley), cabbage white butterfly, small tortoiseshell (Nelson).

FLOWERS - Enchanters nightshade, wood cranesbill, red campion, hedge woundwort, greater stitchwort, ivy-leaved toadflax (Towneley), meadow cranesbill (Nelson).

Sightings in Blackburn, Darwen and Accrington areas:

BIRDS - Buzzard (Darwen Moor), dipper, grey wagtail (Sunnyhurst Woods, Darwen), peregrine (Darwen), great crested grebe, pochard, tufted duck (Haslingden Grane), heron (Oswaldtwistle), jay, treecreeper, nuthatch (White Coppice).

MAMMALS - Brown hare, roe deer (Pleasington), female hedgehog and three young (Rishton). INSECTS - Peacock, red admiral, common blue, meadow brown (Rishton).

FLOWERS - Dog rose, elder, rowan guelder rose (Haslingden).

Sightings in the Ribble Valley area:

BIRDS - Wheatear, red grouse, dublin (Waddington), green woodpecker, nuthatch, wood warbler (Gisburn).

MAMMALS - Sika deer, hedgehog, grey squirrel (Bolton-by-Bowland).

INSECTS - Six spot burnet, cinnabar and elephant hawk mohts, common blue, meadow brown, peacock, painted lady and red admiral butterflies (Waddington area).

FLOWERS - Self heal, betony, harebell, milkwort, bee orchid (Clitheroe).

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