A few years ago, my old diaries indicated that for a couple of years in the 1990s the levels in the River Ribble were so low that water crowfoot flowers were wilting.

The main problem in 2012 has been to prevent the water crowfoot from being washed away.

The plant, which is related to the buttercup family, has debveloped a clever way of dealing with this.

The white flowers can cover the surface of ponds and rivers and most have two types of leaves. There are floating leaves, which are large and lobed, while there are submerged leaves which have serrated leaves which are not damaged by fast moving currents of water. These prevent the whole planet from being uprooted.

A couple of weeks ago I walked an area of the River Ribble, near Paythorne, and the water crowfoot was handling the flood conditions very well.

BARN OWL NUMBERS GROWING

There is no doubt that in our area there has been an improvement in the population of barn owls.

Over the past few weeks I have been shown several nests.

In April, I saw a nest of nine white eggs in a barn.

The nest was lined with owl pellets, which is typical of this behaviour of the owl.

Later, I returned to find an owl looking after three young owls.

The main diet of barn owls consists of field mice and voles, and it may be that in the wet weather finding food might have been difficult but in situations like this they will eat earthworms which have been washed out of their burrows.

When they are hungry young barn owls may eat their younger and weaker siblings. This is possible because barn owls start to incubate from the first egg.

This means the first owlet to hatch may be nearly two weeks older than the last egg to be laid.

No wonder that the weakest owl is often eaten.

PLANT ONCE VALUABLE TO WOOL INDUSTRY

THE teasel is a family of shrub-like plants, the flower heads of which are covered in strong, hard prickles.

This was once a valuable plant in the North of England and was cultivated because of its use in the woollen industry.

The seed heads were mounted to produce a brush-like shape and these were brushed on to the woollen cloth and it raised the nep.

Much later, the teasel was replaced by a series of metal combs, but have been retained in some traditional crafts the old methods.

At one time, the fine quality of cloth produced from using teasels allowed it to be used in the production of billiard and snooker tables.

The plant flowers between June and September, and the seed heads can be collected as late as December.

Wherever you see lots of teasels growing in our area, you can be sure you are close to an old wool processing area.

There are plenty in Lancashire and Yorkshire, where the teasel is still common.