This enriching woodland walk
through the grounds of Lytham Hall
has become a real favourite
Lily Pond
Residents on the Lily Pond
include Mr & Mrs Teal
mingling with moorhens and mallards,
and high up in the treetops
nesting herons
Herons lay 4-5 pale blue eggs
Incubation 25 days
Fledging 50 days
Maybe end of April
to see/hear their squawking young?
Ramshackle boathouse
tumbling into
the Lily Pond
Another thing to look forward to –
the restoration of the boathouse
Wrea Green, a rural village with the largest village green in Lancashire and an impressive duck pond (The Dub), was the start of a soggy field walk. Wellies essential. The first field was full of fieldfares and redwings busy feeding. Two hares bobbled about in the next field. A flash of streaky yellow took off from a field of maize stubble. Yellowhammer or siskin or greenfinch? Binoculars couldn’t keep up with them. Then a giant hare broke cover and scarpered. A kestrel surveyed the fields from a lofty telegraph perch, and sheep nibbled lush grass.
The footpath took us through a farm. “Vermin Control,” said the farmer with a laugh as I took a snapshot. “How many?” I asked. He shrugged. “Too many to count.” I counted fifteen! The vermin control gang wasn’t doing much apart from grooming, snoozing and lazing in the winter sunshine. I imagine it’s a different story at dusk and long into the night.
On sentry duty,
sunning themselves outside the barn
(They do look a bit crotchety!)
The views along this enjoyable walk across the flat fields of the Fylde would have been very different back in the early 1900s. Just a few solitary farms and isolated houses linked by twisting lanes would have dotted the landscape. Today battalions of brick boxes have taken over the fields, spoiling the views, ruining the countryside. Such is progress.
Back home, Mr Pool went to put vegetable peelings in the compost bin. He signalled there was something of interest. I grabbed my camera and took a few chance snapshots of a magnificent sparrowhawk sitting on the garden fence, watching with caution. Possibly a juvenile female (male has orange eyes/female yellow). She swooped into the neighbour’s garden and then shot off. She’s a regular. She’ll be back.
An excellent day for winter-watching
(Rats! – last Winterwatch on the telly tonight)
The sandy beach
revealed a most unusual set of footprints
A deer?
On St Annes beach?
I followed the trail
and through binoculars
scoured the vast expanse
of the Ribble Estuary
There it was
A deer
On St Annes beach
It galloped towards the pier,
past the beach huts,
in front of the saltmarsh and Fairhaven Lake,
across Granny’s Bay then up the River Ribble towards Lytham
At the rate it was going
it wouldn’t take long to reach Freckleton
where hopefully it would feel more at home
amidst fields and trees
Quite a sight seeing a deer (roe?)
taking a day trip to the seaside
In these days
of doing the same old (delightful) walk
there are only so many snapshots
one can take of seabirds, big skies,
wide expanses of sea and sand,
and Mr Pool,
usually a dot in the distance
I’ve decided to embark
on a bit of self-education
These little squiggles
are dotted all over the beach
They’re lugworm casts
Never far from one of these squiggles
is a shallow depression
So what’s going on?
Each lugworm lives
in the bottom of a u-shaped burrow
Periodically the lugworm
wriggles backwards
to expel the indigestibles
that form those familiar casts
Earthworms do much the same
on garden lawns
Both animals swallow sand or earth,
digest the food material and eject the rest
New tides wash away the old casts
and deposit fresh sand, food and water
into the u-bend
where the lugworm can live for weeks
– unless Mr Fisherman digs him up for bait!
High tides and choppy seas
offer perfect conditions
for adrenaline junkies
A high tide leaves behind
wood, saltmarsh reeds,
plastic, other detritus,
and …
… Twirly, sister of Swirly
(research courtesy of the www!)
Washed-up and
looking worse for wear
she’s now clean and sparkling
and at home with her new friends!
The natural life never ceases to amaze
whatever the weather
Jackdaws
bustle about on the ground
searching for seeds and insects
Sanderling
I love to watch these little waders
scuttle along the sea edge
on the hunt for tasty morsels
left by the tide
Identifying fact:
they have forward-pointing toes
and no back toe
He’s been peering from this shed window on the edge of Derwent Water for some twelve years, longing to be reclaimed by his owner.
Teddy was once somebody’s very best friend. A comforter in times of anxiety. A playmate. A bed-time cuddle.
What happened? Did he tumble out of a pushchair as his family took a stroll around Derwent Water? Maybe the youngster had a snooze and lost his/her grip on Teddy? Was there an almighty uproar when young owner awoke to find Teddy had gone AWOL? Did mummy and daddy have to buy a replacement to appease a gribbly child?
Lost but still loved. Teddy receives countless postcards from all over the world from those who encounter him. They’re posted on all sides of the shed.
But he looks sad as he stares out of his cobwebbed window.
Will Teddy ever be reunited with his (now grown-up) owner?
I hope so.
A once glorious hotel reduced to rubble
Demolition – a fascinating spectacle
The demise
of a once successful hotel
is sad
It won’t be long before passers by
scratch their heads
trying to think of the name of the hotel
that once occupied the corner plot
It’s destined to be a car park
until planning permission has been granted
for luxury apartments
Hope they call them
The Chadwick Apartments?
Ssshh! It’s a secret place. People bypass this area of outstanding natural beauty on their way to other AONBs in the British Isles. (We’re lucky to have so many on our small island.)
This secret place might not be for much longer. A BBC crew has been filming a programme to be aired early in December. It’s about the River Hodder.
River Hodder at Whitewell
On holiday last week we were at the source of the Hodder, White Hill, in this secret place. We walked along its glorious river bank watching dippers dip in clear, sparkling water tumbling along its rocky bed on the way to join the Ribble near Great Mitton.
At Dunsop Bridge there were goings-on. A cameraman with some serious equipment had set up on the river bank. After a friendly chat with the producer and two ramblers, we continued our walk along the Hodder to the Inn at Whitewell, which, coincidentally, was the crew’s next port of call.
The Inn at Whitewell
Stepping stones across Hodder at Whitewell
We beat them to it, settled down with a couple of beers in a prime spot to watch the action. A great snapshot opportunity!
Enter Stuart Maconie, to interview the owner of the inn, Charles.
Stage right – Enter Stuart
Filming on the Terrace
Taking in the view
Stuart Maconie Inn at Whitewell
The crew moved on to continue filming at Great Mitton. We stayed awhile and after a fabulous lunch set off for the return walk along the River Hodder to our holiday cottage rental at Dunsop Bridge.
Looking forward to seeing this programme. Once it’s been shown on the BBC (around 10 December) there’s little doubt viewers will be flocking like sheep to visit the beautiful, unspoiled and unpopulated secret place that is the Forest of Bowland.
Baaaa!
It’s not a secret anymore!
This is designer furniture
fashioned from rubbish
washed in with the tide:
wood, a buoy, life-belt, rope,
the remnants of a Public Footpath sign
Table and Chair
Chair and Table
Friends of the Estuary
View across the Ribble towards Southport
Vertical/Horizontal/Curvy
Train lines
Fishing line
Rusty lines
Lined up
Infinity
Straight and curvy
Outline
mybpool 