THE 12th of August is when those who think shooting is good sport head for the glorious grouse moors.

To the naturalist, August is a wonderful month to explore the moorlands because the heather is beginning to turn a gorgeous purple and the rich deeper purple of the bilberries are ready for picking.

Last week, following a heavy shower of rain, I headed for the hills above Anglezarke and looked up to Winter Hill, which was just becoming visible as the clouds lifted over its summit.

The Lancashire hills are known throughout Britain for their rich fauna and flora. From August to October we can look forward to flocks of birds passing over on migration. If there are reservoirs in the dips of the hills, so much the better. Birds, especially wildfowl and waders, use the reservoirs very much like we use motorway service stations and roadside motels. Over Anglezarke I saw migrating shelduck, wigeon, dunlin, redshank and curlew, while my list of plants was also impressive. I found the red berries of rowan which is also known as the mountain ash because of the fact that it thrives in upland areas.

The leaves of rowan do resemble those of the ash in shape, but actually the tree is a member of the apple family. To prove this, all you have to do is to look at the berries, which look like tiny apples. The rowan, because of its red berries, was once used in an attempt to ward off witchcraft.

Other plants thriving in the area included the great bindweed, a white bell-like flower.

Its tough winding stems were used in medieval times very much like we use string - hence the word bindweed.

I also found foxglove, which also has bell-like flowers. These are purple and the whole plant is poisonous. In small doses it has been used to treat heart disease. It contains a chemical known as digitalis. Get the dose right and it can cure. Take too much and it causes death.

The moral is: Enjoy the countryside but take care not to eat or taste anything until you known what it can do.

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