I always feel a bit sorry for Esox lucius – not an assassinated Roman emperor but a pike, by its scientific name.

Without doubt this is the most predatory fish that we have in British waters and is common in our area, as in most others.

People don’t like it because it is a killer but the pike has to eat – so I let it live and let live!

The pike can reach a weight of 75 pounds (34 kilograms) and some think that they are as fierce as a shark but of course they are not related.

They do have formidable teeth and grow very quickly and they can only do that if they eat lots of other fish.

Many years ago I caught a small pike – anglers call them Jack Pike – and a friend of mine told me that they should be eaten gently poached in milk and butter.

He was quite right. The Jack was very tasty indeed.

Pike are obviously expert hunters. They are found hidden among the reeds in shallow waters of rivers, lakes, ponds and some canals. They seem to lie in wait and then ambush their prey.

They start to spawn in February and has finished by May.

As you would expect with such a fierce predator Pike tend to be solitary except from the spawning period.

Well hello there Mr Toad!

Nature never ceases to amaze me: Here we are in the winter of 2013, one of the coldest for some time and with lots of snow.

I am convinced the increasing hours of daylight rather than temperature is the reason why wildlife sticks to its timetable.

If anything snow means that creatures come out of sleep mode earlier because the white covering makes it even lighter.

Thus it was then on February 9 I saw my first toad of 2013. Its scientific name is Bufo bifo and is found around most of our ditches and slow moving rivers.

Toads have their traditional breeding areas and tend to return to the site where they were born. This is why in spring there is a mass migration of toads and many are crushed on the roads they have to cross. Like all amphibians, toads spend their early life in water. They go from eggs, through tadpole stages before becoming adults and leaving the water.

Toad spawn differs in appearenace from frog spawn. Frogs spawn is produced on a huge jelly like lump whilst the female toad produces spawn ina long string which she winds round the stems of river plants.

I think we have more bad weather to come yet but at least the toad has given me at least a hope of spring!

Flowers that bloom in spring

Early last month I reported seeing my first drift of snowdrops for the year – and they really do earn their name of ‘The Fair Maids of February’.

Seeing these snowdrops set me off on my first flower hunt of 2013 and by the side of a Pendleside stream I found several flowers of the butterbur.

A member of the Compositae – or daisy family – it grows on our northern riverbanks and is often in flower as early as January.

Male and female flower heads are carried on seperate plants. The male flowers can be recognised by the fact that their little florets have five teeth like structures on it which protects the pollen.

These teeth are missing, in the case of female flowers. The flowers are rich in nectar and attract bumble bees which move from plant to plant and pollinate the flowers.

On the day of my riverside walk I saw a bumble bee going about its work.

Winter has not yet loosened its icy grip but at least some aspects of spring have sprung!

Why butterbur? The flowers of this plant appear before the leaves.

These are huge and shaped like an umbrella. In the days before greaseproof paper butter was wrapped in the leaves of the plant before being sent off to market and hence the name.