Painted Lady

Her thread legs test this hold
of woven fingers.
The only discernible weight
is that of her confusion:
tremulous wings try to lift
the weight of her want
to escape.
I unravel my hands - and she flies
over the hedge,
her leopard colours brighten
the meadows beyond. See,
how easily she claims her release.

The Contours of Spring

Combining navigation and nature watching was a bit of a struggle today - but let's hope I get better. Today I started at White Coppice where a spotted a pair of goosander on the lodge by the cricket pitch. Using Dean Black Brook as a handrail towards Great Hill, I spotted a dipper near last year's nest site, a pair of grey wagtails, a stonechat, and a newt making its swim across the brook look exhausting. It made it, you'll be pleased to know. These goosander were photographed by Dave http://www.holidays-revealed.com/

I overshot the spring (water) on the way down Great Hill but the rising skylarks and pipits were far more obvious as were a couple of early bumble bees. Across the A675 there were plenty of woodland birds, especially chaffinch and nuthatch, singing around Hollinshead Hall ruin.
Image of Hollinshead Hall copied from http://www.unitedutilities.com/FilmHollinsheadHall.htm

Another early bumble bee was seen on Darwen Moor along with a female sparrowhawk. By the time I'd got to Ryal Fold I had blisters on my heels - again. How long does it take to break in a pair of Brasher Superlites? They've blistered me every weekend since October....

Walking Group Leadership Training

I'm back. Great to see the curlew and lapwings back on the moors and that Chorley town centre has a pair of nesting peregrines.
I've spent the last two weekends on local moors honing my map reading skills by straying from the well trodden routs to locate wells and other features marked on the maps. And all that looking down to avoid breaking my ankles on rough grassland has provided ample opportunity to locate red grouse droppings! We even saw a few as they took flight.
Amongst the grass a toad was going about its business. A rabbit skull and other remains indicated raptors although the only ones I saw were kestrels. I had hoped to see a short-eared owl or tawny whilst on night navigation but it took all my attention to focus on the map. (Night vision is not one of my strengths....)

Hopefully, my map work will improve so I'll have more time to look out for the wildlife.

Thanks to Brian Rafferty for the photo of the curlew. His site is always worth a visit.

Crystals of Ice

Croston Finney was crusted with beautiful ice formations sitting on top of the snow like a wonderful species of sparkly moss. Many of the waterways were frozen so gone were the ducks and cormorant and in their place - meadow pipits and pied wagtails. Really. They were all intently hunting on the ice.

The barn owl is still finding it difficult and once again I saw it still out hunting at 11am. The snipe must be finding it difficult to seek out unfrozen areas; I flushed two this morning - I've never seen them on The Finney before. The lapwing had abandoned feeding in flocks today and only a few were spotted - all singularly. The corn bunting however were still staying together; four alternating between wire and stubble. The crows, jackdaws and woodpigeon were much less numerous than last week. Other sightings included 2 yellow hammers, a buzzard, 2 wrens, stonechat, fieldfare, 3 song thrush, 1 mistle thrush and other garden birds.

Speaking of which, the allotment area was a riot of chirruping tree and house sparrows.

Thanks to Chris Rae for sending the above photo of a corn bunting (a Spanish one).

Sparrows and Owls

A walk around Anglezarke (looking for brambling in Grey Heights Wood) did not bring many sightings - probably something to do with the weather.

Today's circular walk around Croston was much more rewarding. The highlights included finding a new location for tree sparrows (along with the two I already knew about) I hope they continue to increase as they have declined severly over recent years. It demonstrates how helpful humans can be be to wildlife - sometimes. I also saw a barn owl out hunting at 11.15am - obviously struggling with the weather. I hope it managed to find something.

Other pleasing sightings were 2 corn bunting on a wire, 7 yellowhammers, 3 red bunting, 1 skylark, 100 laughing jackdaws, 24 lapwings, c800 corvids (mainly crows), 1 buzzard, only 2 fieldfare, 1 mistle thrush, 1 song thrush, a fair few greenfinch, goldfinch and chaffinch, 1 wren, 2 cormorants perched on a high wire, 7 moorhen and other common garden birds.

I'm still working with my boots: flat walks ok but as soon as I start uphill the blisters begin....

The Neatness of Crows

In search of redwings, I decided to visit Healey Lodges but there wasn't much opportunity to scan the hedges as the icy paths demanded all my attention. I pressed on through Nab Wood towards Heapey Lodges - no redwing there either, nor in the fields on my return. So I began to contemplate the neatness of crows. It's that sleekness, like finley chiselled and polished jet, that makes them so easy to distinguish from shabby rooks. And just as jet is considered to ward off negative energy, crows too remove negativity from the fields by quickly removing carrion. Where would we be without such natural cleaners?

All photos of crows welcome - just attach to an email. Thanks.

And first up is a hooded crow from Peter Woodruff. This reminds me of my trips to the north. (We don't often see hooded crows in Lancashire.)

Cold Comfort

We really have to earn our way off our road this week. Layers of ice-snow-ice-snow have persuaded us into a one-way system: we crawl up the lesser incline to exit and gently slide down the steeper one to return home.
I saw a small flock of lapwings flying over this morning - a unusual sight for Euxton. I couldn't help but will them to find some snow-free field to dine in. And a first for my garden - a beautiful cock pheasant trying to scratch beneath the snow. He was searching my lawn for a good 20 minutes. The alders that border our garden are busy with gold and chaffinch; blue, great and coal tits bustle around the feeders until the nuthatch brusquely scatters them. Robin and dunnock are around all day and a song thrush has been arriving around midday. A wren might have taken up residence in a thicket beneath the dormer.
I've not seen a goldcrest in the garden this winter which is a shame. For the past few years one has wintered in / close to out garden. It has been a bad year for them but let's hope....

The goldcrest above was photographed by Phil Kirk of Chorley NATS - thanks.

And another photo of a goldcrest. This one is by Chris Rae also of Chorley NATS. Keep them coming guys.