A TELEPHONE call from a friend of mine who lives on the River Lune sent me hurrying off to my tool shed to find a hammer and a chisel.

Having found them, I set off to do a spot of bird watching!

No, I had not gone mad. I was off to help the birds along the edge of the Crook of Lune.

Several people were already there, banging away with hammer and chisel to break the ice to create an open area of water which would allow species such as heron and kingfisher to feed.

Dipper are not so badly affected. They feed in areas of fast-moving streams and waterfalls. These areas tend not to freeze except during long periods of frost. Nature seems able to cope quite well for several cold days and,, providing there are mild spells in between, it tends to be plain sailing.

I did, however, find a dead heron which was literally frozen stiff.

It had a ring on its leg and I have sent this off to the address carried on the inscription.

When I know the details of where and when it was ringed I will let you know.

It gave me a chance to look at the heron's foot, which is one of nature's most fascinating "inventions."

When herons feed they get their feathers covered in slime from the fish as they are killing it ready to be swallowed.

If the slime hardens it destroys the waterproofing of the feathers and the bird dies of cold as water penetrates through to the warm skin. One of the heron's toes has a structure which looks just like a comb and which it uses to scrape off the slime.

Nature's ingenuity never fails to astound me.

After an hour of hard work part of the river was free of ice and I had time to stand and view the beauty of the landscape.

The sky was clear and the sunshine seemed to reflect from the ice.

As I set off for home the sun was just beginning to set and I watched more than 250 pink-footed geese flying above the M6 motorway in the direction of Martin Mere, near Southport.

In weather such as this many thousands of birds roost at the reserve, owned by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust.

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