The other evening, Ray and I went to look for Red Squirrels in a wood alongside the Coach Road. This is the only site in St. Helens for this declining species, and one of the few sites in South Lancashire. On our walk down to the wood, we passed a field on our left, and my attention was drawn to familiar call coming from what appeared to be the center of the crop. And then there it was, a spectacular male Yellow Wagtail, with a caterpillar in it's mouth, which may have been bound for unseen young.  Suddenly there was another call, and then a third, and soon we had counted eight of these declining farmland birds in the same field. Six of them were males, perhaps indicating six pairs? With at least three pairs on nearby Reed's Moss, the species seems to still be around in good numbers in this area at least. 

The Red Squirrel wood is right alongside the Coach Road, but we didn't see any squirrels. We never enter the woods, and  I would strongly advise against doing so, unless you want to incur the wrath of the local gamekeepers, but it's not necessary anyway, because the squirrels have been seen on several occasions on the edge of the wood. I generally find that most wildlife is better seen from the outside looking in. Stick to the road. The wood is between Mossborough Hall Lane and the East Lancs. 

Close to here there is also a good site for owls. Last year, thanks to a tip off from Andy Stott, we saw Long-eared and Barn Owl in July, so we thought we may as well take a look since we were in the area. On this particular evening, we failed with both these species, yet still came away with three other species of owl under our belt! Little Owls breed in many of the farm buildings in the area, so we weren't too surprised to see one on a post, and then as it got darker we saw two Tawny Owls, one on a pylon, the other on a wire. But the star bird of the night was seen a good hour and a half before it went dark, quartering a field at the side of the Coach Road, a superb Short-eared Owl. What a bird that was! Normally breeding on the moors, especially in Bowland, it is usually a winter visitor to lowland, often coastal areas. With it's pale face, dark carpal patch on the upperwing, pale underparts and distinctive hunting technique, all at close range and in good daylight, there was no doubt about the identification. But what was it doing alongside the Coach Road in the middle of June? I believe they have bred on the Lancashire mosslands in the past, also on the Ribble estuary, and a friend tells me of a breeding site in Greater Manchester, so I suppose anything is possible.