Nature Watch, with Ron Freethy

ANYONE writing down their 1998 walking and watching memories must include rain, rain, rain and yet more rain.

It was not, therefore, a good year for butterflies, although in August I came across a field near Pendle which was full of thistles and knapweed and on almost every flower head was perched a butterfly.

The most common butterfly was the peacock but there were also lots of red admirals and small tortoiseshells.

It just shows what a rotten summer it was in Lancashire because I can only remember one day full of sunshine and butterflies.

On a damp late August morning I visited Waddington Fell and photographed several Emperor Moth caterpillars feeding among the heather. My favourite bird sightings of 1998 included a little ringed plover incubating four eggs in a quarry near Chatburn.

The little ringed plover can be distinguished from the more common ringed plover by the fact that it has a very prominent ring around its eye.

During late summer a hoopoe, a very rare bird in Britain, was seen around the Lune Valley between Lancaster and Kirkby Lonsdale. Its name is pronounced "who poo" which is quite appropriate because its nest is situated in a hole and towards the end of the breeding season it really does stink.

The hoopoe is seen in the warmer parts of Europe and Africa. I visited Egypt last year and saw lots of hoopoes feeding on small lizards but it was good to see one bird in Lancashire which was feeding on ants.

It is very pretty, with black, white and pink feathers and a very prominent crest.

In October I watched a water rail moving about in the reed beds around Lake Burwain at Foulridge.

The water rail is a very shy bird and is possibly more common than we realise, simply because is so skilful at camouflaging itself among the vegetation.

The birds of the uplands around Pendle during the breeding season always interest me.

The first lapwings returned to a breeding field near Barley as early as February 8 last year but there is no doubt that this is a declining species.

There is some evidence of a reduction even in Lancashire but in some lowland counties, where massive drainage schemes have been undertaken to provide housing, birds such as lapwings have declined alarmingly.

We need to give thanks for our moorlands, which provide a refuge for some threatened species.

Go to the hills this year and see if you can spot breeding curlew, snipe, skylark and, of course, the lapwing.

1998 was one of the wettest years on average,

We should there fore expect a drier year in 1999.

One thing I have learned over many years of birdwatching is that you can never predict what nature will do.

This is why studying weather and wildlife is so interesting.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.