For our first outing of the new session we were going to
Brockholes Nature Reserve near Preston, which was somewhere different we hadn’t been before which is always interesting. It was also nice to have two new members in
Keith and
Tony who joined us for the first time. This is a new reserve that was only opened to the public at Easter 2011 by the
Lancashire Wildlife Trust. It is free to walk round the reserve but there is a charge for parking your car with an increasing amount the longer you are there. Here's a link to the types of habitat that can be found there:
Brockholes Habitats
One part of the reserve edges on to the
River Ribble where we were heading first but as we stopped part way to look at a
Reed Bunting perched on a small bush
Joan spotted a beautiful female
Roe Deer just quietly walking into the reeds and long grasses growing all round the bush. There wasn’t much on the river but while we were in this area we saw a
Buzzard in the distance being mobbed by six
Crows, a
Sparrowhawk flew past us and a little later we saw a
Kestrel. Later we saw two
Buzzards soaring round together over the trees and just after this we once again saw a single bird being mobbed but this time by a Sparrowhawk which would not give up as it went on for some time. On a few occasions we saw the Buzzard flip over onto its back so its talons were now pointing upwards to defend itself against the Sparrowhawk diving at it from above.
From here we made our way to a wooded area but just before we reached this we came across a sheltered corner in the sunshine where there was a
Blackberry patch with a lot of
Himalayan Balsam growing through it but it was attracting a number of dragonflies that settled on the leaves to enjoy the warm sunshine. There was
Migrant Hawker,
Brown Hawker and both male and female
Common Darter. These were also joined by the odd
Speckled Wood Butterfly at times and a
Blackbird, which was attracted by the ripening fruit. Once in the wood we had birds such as
Nuthatch,
Treecreeper, Goldcrest,
Coal Tit,
Blue Tit and
Wren.
In other parts of the reserve are two large areas of water with a few bird hides around the edges but there was nothing too unusual on these waters. We saw the usual
Canada Geese,
Mute Swan and
Mallard plus a few
Tufted Duck and
Teal. There was also a
Little Grebe, some
Cormorants and
Grey Heron but the only waders we saw were a few
Lapwing. On one occasion a small group of these birds took to the air and we noticed they had an unusual companion flying with them which was a single
Starling. The ducks on one of these waters had also been joined by a
Black Swan that must have escaped from somewhere. As we walked round
House Martins had been seen and as we arrived back at the cars a
Swallow flew over our heads.
The only other butterfly we saw was
Large White but we did get a good look at a caterpillar of the
Buff Tip Moth. Most of the flowers were now gone but there were still patches of
Bird’s Foot Trefoil in flower
Marsh Woundwort and the last remaining flowers on the
Purple Loosestrife could be seen. Another bush that was looking good was the
Guelder Rose that had clusters of its shiny berries starting to turn red which eventually will provide food for the birds.
This is still a young reserve so hopefully in time it will improve and maybe a visit at a different time in the year might give us more birds to look at, nevertheless I hope everyone enjoyed it, in particular Keith and Tony and we look forward to them joining us again for our trips out etc.
As always thanks to
Al for organising the trip and to
Joan and
Jim for my lift.
Jeff Hurst
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Lightshaw Meadows is an area of open countryside and a beautiful
mosaic of wetlands located in the heart of the Abram Flashes in Wigan. The landscape has been created over many years from mining subsidence and
is a stunning example of how Wigan’s industrial heritage has shaped the
local landscape. On a wider scale, Lightshaw Meadows forms part of Wigan’s Greenheart Regional Park, which lies between Wigan and Leigh.
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