3rd March, Avenham and Miller Park.
Mind you, if Spring is off to an early start it's likely to be because this Winter has been exceptionally mild, and we've seen far more of this...
Winter 2006-07
than this...!
Last Winter, 2005-06, Preston Junction Local Nature Reserve, Penwortham.
There are already birds singing in full voice everywhere - and they have been for a good few weeks now...
Blue tit in the Willow catkins
The new shoots on the riverbank, and in the meadows and woods are definately springing...
Aconite...
and Bluebell shoots are well-established, and the daffodils are bursting with colour...
and our local Goose found herself with a visitor this last week - a Canadian Goose dropped by and they spent a good while together by the riverbank...
Although she's on her own again now, waiting for the right guy to call by...
Her friend the young swan is more than happy to reflect on her own image, mind you, obviously well-pleased with the transition !
The rains this Winter have often meant that even low tide has been leaving less of the mudflats exposed for less time, but enough have been exposed for enough time between tides that the Ribble's super-rich silts have ensured between 250,000 and 350,000 over-wintering birds have survived the Winter...
Silt-laden waters, the life-blood of the Ribble, rush downriver at low tide to replenish the mudflats which line the river.
From the Old Tram Bridge through to Old Penwortham Bridge here, to Broadgate and Penwortham, to Priory Park, and beyond to the Estuary...
Low tide from Old Penwortham Bridge showing mudflats on the Penwortham and Broadgate sides, always busy with Black-Headed Gulls, Teal, Mallard, Redshank, and many other species all through the Winter months.
All the birds, local and migratory, rely on what delicious invertebrates and other delights that the mud and nutrients of low tide brings - not minding about the bicycles-on-the-side it seems...
The young swan on the Penwortham mudflats behind Margaret Road...
It's time both councils got together and organised a low tide clean-up once every few months or so as the rubbish mounts up.
The spring air and spring sunshine uplifts the spirits - let's hope winter doesn't have too serious a last blast over the coming weeks as the birds are definately nest-building now after so many mild weeks.
The elder buds are bursting forth...
and the spring wind blows through the willows...
... prompting a certain gentleman to do a spot of spring cleaning...
but 'spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house... It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly flung down his brush on the floor... Something up above was calling him imperiously, and he made for the steep little tunnel... and scrabbled and scratched and scraped... till at last, pop! his snout came out into the sunlight...
"Hang spring cleaning!"
and he found himself rolling in the warm grass of a great meadow...
...The sunshine struck hot on his fur, soft breezes caressed his heated brow, and... the carol of happy birds fell on his dulled hearing like a shout... "This is fine!" he said to himself. "This is better than whitewashing!"'
And the other local riverside residents are also called out of doors by the spring wind, sunshine and birdsong...
...which are joining in with the Ribble waters endlessly rushing by...
Low tide in Broadgate and Penwortham... click to enlarge the picture and see if you can spot the Redshank...
'..."And you really live by the river? What a jolly life!"
"By it and with it and on it and in it," said the Water Rat. "It's brother and sister to me, and aunts, and company, and food and drink, and (naturally) washing. It's my world, and I don't want any other. What it hasn't got is not worth having, and what it doesn't know is not worth knowing..."'
Reigh Belisama savetheribble@tiscali.co.uk
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