River Poetry

 
The Roeburn
The invisible river flows through the endless night

Cold stone and loneliness
Deer bark in the woods
Sleeping birds are startled

I sit on a mossy rock and become the stars.
By Paul Michael Fergus Wiggin

Ode to the Roeburn

Your pleasant glades and babbling course helped shape my early life
Our courses set without regret seeing turbulence and strife

You calmly flow but most don’t know the gift that you have been
With twists and turns forgotten like the things that we have seen
Your harnessed strength brought riches once along your flowing course
But in just one day unfettered you showed your might and force
We all forgive what you once did as you raged without control
But will you forgive what we do now as we erode your very soul
I hoped one day I would return to see you again old friend
Your sustenance to life around I thought could never end
With grateful thanks for rewards bestowed to generations gone by
Let the children now protect you and never let you die.

Robert W Marshall
Childhood resident of Wray

Richard Shilling's Film

Come and experience the beauty of wild Lancashire, the fascinating River Roeburn and the semi ancient woodlands at Backsbottom Farm see Richard's film:
 https://www.facebook.com/richardshillingslandart/videos/1112795642143501/

Dark Skies Workshop © F.O.B./ Robert Ince

Video © Robert Ince
The Forest of Bowland A.O.B http://www.forestofbowland.com/Star-Gazing is one of the few dark sky areas in Britain where light pollution is at a minimum so it is a perfect place to go stargazing and within this area there are 4 sites to choose from, the nearest being Crook O'Lune near Caton . The others are Beacon Fell Country Park, Slaidburn and Gisburn Forest Hub where this workshop took place.  Incidentally, Gisburn Forest  by day is a fantastic place to explore by bike with all the forest trails available. There's one more star gazing site that is nearer to home: Roeburndale just up from the cottage or Roeburndale West at the cattle grid where a 180° view of the night sky can be seen. For a list of Robert Ince's stargazing workshop He is also available for booking an event.
For more details about Dark Sky Discovery Sites here is the website

Doing Our Bit for Nature

The natural world needs our help so at Roeburnscar, we try to garden with nature in mind. That means not mowing,

weeding, tidying etc. as much as possible. We have put a small insect hotel in the flat garden,

 we leave brushwood piles

around for small mammals and insects to hide in and they will eventually rot  down creating another beneficial environment for soil microbes. Small mown patches

help insects that like smaller grasses and we leave mowing if the lawn has clover growing in it as bees love it. We don't like to kill wasps as they are beneficial to pollination so the waspinators you see hanging around are pretend hornet nests and hopefully deter wasps from settling in the wooden outside of the house.

From Tree to Door

 Some of the lovely conifers that were a potential hazard in fierce gales re the cottage roof had to be felled. Rod's father planted them in the early 1960's. We are putting the timber to good building use starting by replacing the old hardboard doors in the cottage with lovely pine ones.

Rod preparing tree felling

felled trees with Roeburnscar in the backgound

back of laundry shed -the trees have gone now

Ben up a tree removing branches before felling

the beauty in a tree slice

felled tree

the logs are taken from Roeburnscar to the saw bench on the farm

storing the planks with wedges in between to season the timber in the solar wood store drier

Ben pondering the task ahead

one of the almost finished doors

kitchen door in place showing the beauty of the grain

Silverdale A. O. N. B

Forest of Bowland Raptor Persecution

The North West Raptor Group are making an appeal to combat the illegal killing of Peregrine Falcons in Lancashire's Forest of Bowland, situated in the North West of England.

Classified as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, it covers 808 square Kilometers of rural Lancashire and North Yorkshire.

The Forest of Bowland is internationally important for its upland bird populations and under the Habitats Directive "Bowland Fells" are designated a Special Protection Area for specific birds of prey.

The Forest of Bowland may be an SPA, but raptors like Hen Harrier and Peregrine Falcon receive no protection.

In 2009 - 25 Peregrine territories in the Forest of Bowland were examined by the NWRG. 17 sites were occupied, 6 nests failed following the loss of eggs, chicks and adult birds. A total of 11 territories produced 24 fledged young.

In 2010 the Government’s Wildlife Adviser, Natural England, withdrew Peregrine licenses for use in the Forest of Bowland from members of the NWRG, following the group’s disclosure on social media of wide scale raptor persecution throughout this moorland region, where Red Grouse are shot. Other licenses issued to group members since 1974, covering additional raptor species including Peregrine for areas outside the Forest of Bowland remained unaffected.

By 2016, 99% of Bowland Peregrine nesting territories were found abandoned.

The loss of an entire regional population of Peregrines (18 pairs) from the Forest of Bowland is unprecedented.

To protect these Peregrines, the NWRG need your help to purchase the following urgently needed kit: Go-Pro camera - 2 mountain bikes - radio transceivers & infra-red night vision goggles.

Throughout the last 43 years members of the North West Raptor Group have self-funded their work.

If the killing of Peregrines continues, they will be lost forever, not only from the Forest of Bowland but also from the rest of England's northern uplands, where Red Grouse are shot for sport.

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