A winter wonderland

ONE of my favourite ways to enjoy watching nature in winter is to take a ride on a ferry around Windermere.

On a lovely autumn afternoon (a rarity in 2004), I watched a number of black headed gulls begging for food. The chocolate coloured heads so prominent during the breeding season have now gone.

The heads are now white apart from a few black spots around the ear region. The red bill, however, is always prominent.

I stopped off from the launch at Ferry House and headed off into the National Trust Woodlands to watch red squirrels gathering acorns ready for the winter.

Squirrels do not hibernate but they do lay in stores in preparation for the bad weather to come. Both red and grey squirrels begin their breeding season in February when there may well be snow on the ground.

These woodlands lead up to Sawrey at Hill Top which was the home of Beatrix Potter who wrote so many children's stories.

She began life in London and was at one time an illustrator of fungi working for the Natural History Museum.

It is no wonder that her illustrations are so accurate and young naturalists can learn much from her books.

Any naturalist will tell you that winter watches can be wonderful indeed.

It's no hoot foraging for food

WITHOUT doubt the barn owl is one of the most beautiful species of bird in the world. It occurs on every continent except Antarctica!

And they are in the news at the moment because attempts to re-introduce them into areas of Britain where they were once common are meeting with mixed success.

Why should this be? It has obviously got something to do with breeding habitat and food supply.

As its name implies the barn owl lived in barns and obtained food for itself and its family by catching rats and especially mice.

Old farm buildings have now been replaced by purpose-built units which are kept clinically clean. Thus there are no holes in which the owls can nest and there are no food scraps on which rodents can eat.

Thus there is no point at all in releasing barn owls into this sort of habitat. There is, however, no shortage of young owls ready to be released 'into the wild.'

These days barn owls get brought in to refuges following road traffic accidents. Some have one leg, others have only one wing.

They could not survive in the wild but they are able to breed and produce healthy young. These will only survive if they are provided with good areas to roost and breed plus an adequate natural good supply.

The barn owl still occurs in East Lancashire but re-introductions need to be planned very carefully indeed. The species is too beautiful to be allowed to decline still further.