Category: Notes from the sticks

FOR a change, I am going to write about something I have never seen in the seven years or so we have lived in Lancashire. Before this we were in … Continue readingNo more brushes with foxes

I AM the proud possessor of a book called Historic Steam Boiler Explosions by Alan McEwen. It is a fascinating account of the death and destruction wreaked for decades of early industrialisation by … Continue readingHorror at Greendale Mill

THIS is my favourite time of year, when the buds are starting to burst and everything is still to come. I have just realised that it was exactly a year … Continue readingCome for a walk with me

WALKING along the road to the next village, I came upon an unusual and not very pleasant sight: a dozen or so mole carcases hanging on a barbed wire fence. … Continue readingThe great mole hunt

THERE is something not quite right about reservoirs which wildlife seems to recognise.  Perhaps it is the changing water level which presumably makes it impossible for vegetation to take hold … Continue readingThe drowned village

WHEN I woke shortly before 7am on Tuesday, the light on my bedroom wall was such a vivid red that I wondered for a second if the building over the … Continue readingSunrise over Pendle

ONE clear sign that spring is on the way is the sight of jackdaws peering into chimneys, prospecting for nest sites. Jackdaws (Corvus monedula)are smaller than their cousins rooks and crows, … Continue readingBeware, jackdaws at work

THE online BBC weather forecast is not at all reliable round here. One of the things that annoys me is that the summary at the top of the page is … Continue readingWithin these (two-foot-thick) walls

ANOTHER gap in my knowledge came to light this week when I read that mountain hares in the Peak District may be at risk from global warming. (This report, needless … Continue readingHare cuts

MOST birds are pretty quiet in the winter, but house sparrows (Passer domesticus)do not know the meaning of the word. They never seem to stop chirping. There are a lot of … Continue readingOf sparrow and butterbur