Diary of a weekend gardener

Wildlife in the Ribble Valley

Yesterday we had torrential rain in sharp showers - 11m (half an inch of rain in about 20 minutes at one point. Gave up on gardening.

We escaped from work and drove to Ribchester - M6 to Preston and turn right - and spent a happy four hours walking a stretch of the Ribble Way towards Clitheroe. Highlight of the day was sitting on the river bank watching sand martins skimming the water and diving into the far bank, competing with swallows and swifts for the newly hatched flies. A few weeks ago the swifts and swallows would have been in Africa. Having lost the path at least four times through poor signposting, our luck was in and we hit a road 5 minutes before a bus arrived to take us back to the car. The next one was three hours later...

Other sightings included goldfinches, herons, chaffinches and lapwings. And we heard my favourite bird sound - the curlew, though we didn't see it. Hardly met a soul all day, though both of us spent a good half an hour on the phone to customers which took the edge of it a bit. Otherwise a great walking day, cool, some sun, light breeze, perfect.

posted by Sue Beesley @ 8:04 pm