Nature Watch, with Ron Freethy

THE next time you hear the wind and rain hammering on your window you should polish up your boots, dust off your binoculars, wait for daylight and head off for a day's birdwatching.

That's just what I did over the weekend and I was not disappointed.

In the morning I visited Pennington Flash near Leigh and during the windy weather I saw lots of Canada geese scrounging for food offered by day trippers.

The local sailing club was enjoying the wind and so it seemed were great crested grebes, little grebes, mute swans and lots of ducks, including tufted, pochard, wigeon, mallard and goosander.

At this time of year many readers write in and ask what is the best size of binoculars to choose.

Birdwatching requires a very special type of instrument.

Never choose the most powerful binoculars in the world. You do not need huge magnification because the binoculars will be too heavy and shake.

Colours will also be blurred so you cannot tell one species from another.

The best size to choose is 6x30, 8x40 or my favourite, which is 7x50.

Binoculars are cheaper than they used to be but be sure that you ask your supplier to sell you an instrument specifically for birdwatching. Pennington Flash is a stretch of water formed by subsidence due to coal mining.

The flash is now a popular country park. From Pennington it does not take long to get to Scotsman's Flash, near Wigan. This is another of Lancashire's best birdwatching areas and as the light began to fade, I watched a herd of around 20 whooper swans.

They were roosting and looked so tired that I guess they had only just arrived on migration from eastern Europe.

East Lancashire also has its share of bad weather sanctuaries for birds. Included in my list is Rishton Reservoir, Barrow Lodges at Clitheroe, Foulridge near Colne and Hurstwood above Burnley.

There are, however, others.

Why don't you drop me a line and tell me your favourite winter birdwatch.

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