My little paradise

IT is not often that naturalists get the chance to explore a private woodland and can also help to design the area solely for the benefit of wildlife.

This chance came to me this week when a landowner invited me to vist his extensive woodland at any time. I am therefore going to visit once every month and report on the changing seasons.

Recently a new pond has been excavated using a mechanical digger and, because the ground is clay, there is no sign of leaking.

The water is obviously coloured deep brown but an application of lime has allowed the clay to flocculate. This means that all the tiny particles have been gathered together and have begun to sink to the bottom. During the excavation of the pond, great care was taken to remove any animals and some newts found in an old disused open air swimming pool have been put into the pond and have settled down very well indeed.

The edge of the pond has been landscaped and over the spring several applications of grass seed will be spread.

In the woodland itself, some of the numerous birch trees have been thinned out. This will allow more light to penetrate to the floor. This will increase the number of spring flowers. I am certain that winter has not gone and we will have to endure some rough weather in February. After that, I look forward to wandering about in my woodland and enjoying the sight and scent of the springtime flowers. Sometimes writing about the simple beauty of flowers is not easy. I think poems about flowers and trees capture the feeling best. I wonder if any reader has a favourite poem about our wildlife or about areas of natural beauty.

I once spent some time in the seabird colonies on the Farne Islands in Northumberland. Soon afterwards I read a poem written by Rachael Field which brought a tear to my eye:

If once you have slept on an island,

You'll never be quite the same.

You may look as you looked the day before,

And go by the same old name.

You may bustle about in street and shop,

You may sit at home and sew,

But you'll see blue water and wheeling gulls,

Wherever your feet may go.

I feel much the same about my East Lancashire woodland, which is a sort of island, a haven surrounded by busy roads. I shall look forward to sharing my regular visits with readers of this column.

I hope you will help me with poems about woodlands and flowers. Perhaps you may even be inspired to write your own.

Beauty in the shadow of a factory chimney (LETTER)

I LAST wrote to you in October regarding a pair of peregrine falcons that are regular visitors to a factory chimney a few hundred yards from our back door on Westgate, Burnley.

Since I wrote to you we have only seen them twice, so I thought that we would not see much of them for the rest of the year until a recent walk along the stretch of canal that runs in between our back door and the chimney.

My boyfriend David and I often walk along the canal to town or to feed the ducks. On Tuesday, a very bright but bitterly cold day, we were returning home along the canal about 4.30pm and passed the chimney from the opposite side to the one that we can see from our house. There, on the second "ring" from the top of the chimney, sat a lone peregrine. It was quite difficult to see her and we would have missed her altogether had we not looked knowing she may be there.

The previous day, Monday, she was at her usual perch devouring an unlucky pigeon. We heard but did not see the male. I wonder how many times we have missed seeing them because they are out of sight on the other side of the chimney?

Shortly before we spotted her, after passing Lambert Howarth's factory, I was dazzled by an irridescent turquoise streak that flew horizontally about four feet above the water line. David told me it was a kingfisher. I had never seen one, so we retraced our steps to see if we could find it. It sat motionless in a bush about four feet above the water. We watched it for about five minutes, then it rewarded our wait by diving extremely quickly at a very sharp angle before alighting on the bush again and devouring a fish.

A couple walking along the towpath disturbed it and with another dazzling flash it was gone. A fisherman a little further on told us that a pair of kingfishers frequent this stretch of canal. I enjoy your column immensely and have saved many articles in order to visit some of the places that you have featured. It seems, however, that there is much wildlife on my own doorstep.

I recall an article where the writer mentioned banded snails.

In the garden of the drug centre next door they are very prolific.

I have counted more than 40 on warm, wet, summer and autumn nights.

They have no difficulty climbing the three-foot wall that separates our properties and keep coming back to nibble my container plants.

HEATHER CROWE, Westgate, Burnley.

Ron replies:When people talk about East Lancashire being a mucky spot, I wonder how many other areas have kingfishers and peregrines within a few yards of each other.

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