THIS week there were plenty of interesting letters, including the usual crop of sightings.

The spies included Mr C J Sutcliffe, of Oakfield Avenue, Clayton-le-Moors, and Mrs Greta Adamson, of Lyndale Avenue, Wilpshire, who had an interesting observation to make on sparrowhawks:

She wrote: "For the second time this year we have had a sparrowhawk on the lawn.

"The first time it caught a starling and the second time a blue tit.

"Each time it stayed to eat its prey."

Mr R Taylor, of Rudyard Drive, Darwen, also reported a male sparrowhawk in his garden. These and other records show that the sparrowhawk, at one time very rare in Lancashire and other counties, is making a spectacular return.

They tend to hunt in gardens during the winter and then seek out small woods in which to breed.

They are indeed beautiful birds but they do chase other small birds for food and one of my friends referred to them and to peregrines as "mobile slaughterhouses."

Sightings in the Rossendale, Todmorden, Burnley, Nelson and Colne areas:

BIRDS: Kingfisher (Padiham - Glen Pate); sparrowhawk (Towneley) ; long-tailed tit (flock of 12 at Cliviger); whooper swan (Hurstwood); brambling (Brierfield); great crested and little grebe (Foulridge); magpie busy building its nest amid the traffic of Brunshaw Road, Burnley (seen by Robert Fulledge). MAMMALS: Grey squirrel, hedgehog (Townley); roe deer (Roughlee); fox (Foulridge).

INSECTS: Small tortoiseshell butterfly (Roughlee).

FLOWERS: Lesser celandine (Nelson).

Sightings in the Darwen and Blackburn area:

BIRDS: Peregrine (Darwen); shoveler, great crested grebe, tufted duck, pochard (Rishton Reservoir); goldeneye (Abbey Village).

MAMMALS: Roe deer, bank vole (White Coppice); grey squirrel (Witton Park).

INSECTS: Small tortoiseshell butterfly (Lower Darwen)

FLOWERS: Dandelion, daisy (Darwen and Roddlesworth)

Sightings in the Ribble Valley:

BIRDS: Mistle thrush, pied wagtail, greenfinch, long-tailed tit, chaffinch and collared dove (via Mrs J Coughlin, of Whalley Road, Langho); Goldfinch, long-tailed tit, goldcrest, redwing, song thrush, treecreeper (Wilpshire).

MAMMALS: Grey squirrel building its drey in a conifer (Langho); badger in the Whalley area (Mr Sutcliffe, of Clayton-le-Moors); pipistrelle bat (Spring Wood).

FLOWERS: Pink butterbur (Whalley); white butterbur (Brungerley); primrose (one very brave bloom in Mitton Woods).

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