Nature watch with Ron Freethy.

THIS week's Nature Spy is not so much a list as a question and answer session.

Let me first, however, deal with early sightings. This week swallows, and especially sand martins, have been reported despite the fact that the weather has been more like winter than spring.

That's the fascination of England in April -- it is totally unpredictable. April can even confuse the flowers.

On a bank in Chatburn I found my first cowslip of the year. A few years ago cowslips were becoming very rare but hey have made a very spectacular comeback and now grow in profusion on the verges of roads and even busy motorways. Also making something of a comeback, in my view, is the lapwing. A few weeks ago Ken Spencer of Burnley asked for records of lapwings roosting on buildings.

I wonder if other people have noticed these birds nesting on road roundabouts which have been landscaped.

I have noticed them on the Tickled Trout roundabout near the M6 and on the roundabout on the Whalley bypass.

Mrs June Walmsley of Whalley wrote in with the following query.

TWO days ago I saw the reappearance of what I think is the small common lizard on the front driveway of our house in Whalley.

I saw this same type of lizard on a couple of occasions in the back garden last year.

Is this fairly common or are we just lucky having such a visitor?

COMMON lizards like warmth and they seek out limestone rocks, especially with the sun shining on them. This is why lizards are found more frequently in the Whalley and Clitheroe areas than in the Nelson and Burnley side of Pendle. Ann Peters of Tockholes writes:

I HAVE heard a pair of skylarks singing over the pastures on Higher Hill, Tockholes, since last week. Native primroses are in full bloom in our garden and a single pied wagtail has also visited our garden.

I ALSO visited the area above Tockholes last week and was amazed to find hundreds of burrows made by short-tailed field voles.

These little mammals are related to lemmings and about every four years they seem to have a population explosion.

This is very good news indeed for birds of prey, especially owls and kestrels.

Even herons are prepared to leave the riverbank to enjoy a surfeit of voles.

COULD you please answer the following questions:

We have a single tadpole in our small pond.

Is there a reason for this so soon in the year?

It is quite a big one. Also, we have heard at different times of the night a blackbird singing, at 1am and also between 1.30 and 2.30am.

We are really puzzled by both questions.

DAVID AND SUSAN LANCASTER, Padiham Road, Burnley

IN the letter of the week I mentioned that the numbers of hours of daylight affected the breeding cycle of animals.

Many birds, including blackbirds, breed earlier in towns where household lights and street lights have the effect of artificially lengthening the day. Thus town birds sing more at night than country birds.

ON THE canal in Burnley at the Daneshouse Road end you will find a red-crested pochard. It swims with the other ducks and seems quite content. A lovely visitor.

MARIAN WILCOX (Mrs), Wellfield Drive, Burnley.

I SHALL try to find out more about the destination of the red-crested pochard, which is not native to Britain.

It really is a case of "watch this space" in a couple of weeks time.