ON MY bird table yesterday not one but three woodpigeons arrived with a heavy thump.

They are so greedy and clumsy that I wished that they had remained in their natural habitat – the nearby wood.

At 16 inches (40 cm) this is the largest of the British species of pigeon and it’s recognised by the conspicuous white pattern on its neck which accounts for its alternative name of ring dove.

The word dove and pigeon mean the same thing.

When the 2012 breeding figures are published I think the woodpigeon will have been the most successful and I think I know why it may have survived the wet weather.

Some have said that the bird is lazy because its nest is just a platform of sticks.

There are times when the two white eggs can be seen through the nest when you look up to it. This is not lazy but makes sense when it is raining.

The water just pours through and keeps the eggs and young birds from being flooded out. Woodpigeon have a very large crop in which they can store lots of food.

As the name implies when in the woods they feed on acorns but they soon adapted to living around farms and this is why they can be a problem for farmers who hate both wood-pigeons and crows.

Wild strawberries straight from the fields

The more I study nature the most puzzling it becomes.

This is why I enjoy it!

Here in the last week of July I was strolling around a wood in Clitheroe which is a limestone area.

I was carrying a small bottle of cream so that I could collect wild strawberries.

These are smaller but often sweeter than those found in gardens or supermarkets.

I drop these into the cream and eat them as a dessert after my bacon butties.

I love it when I find food for free!

I found plenty of fruit but also a surprise. 2012 has been confusing.

Like I also found lots of wild strawberries still in flower.

This is very late but I don’t care.

If we do get a spell of sunshine I will be able to get a free ‘pudding’ until early September!

Remember shrimp man with his basket of treats

This week I got wet. This is not surprising with the 2012 summer but this was a different sort of wet.

This was sea water wet as I was taken by a friend shrimping in Morecambe Bay.

The shrimps are caught in nets trawled behind a trawler on an ebbing tide.

Skilled fishermen do not get drowned because they know all about tides and the sea.

When caught the shrimps are grey in colour but when cooked in boiling water they turn pink.

After they have been topped and tailed they are dropped into melted butter.

They are eaten with brown bread and Morecambe Bay shrimps are one of the most famous dishes to be enjoyed in Lancashire.

I wonder if readers can remember the times when the ‘shrimp man’ toured the local pubs carrying a wicker bucket full of Morecambe Bay treats?