I GREATLY miss the regular "Naturalist Notebook" feature that you used to have in the Bury Times. This area has an abundance of wildlife and much of it goes unnoticed.

I read with interest the recent article about deer in the Rossendale Valley. I often walk over Holcombe Moor with my friends and only last week we saw a lone deer on the hillside below Harcles Hill. I commute from Bury every day, via Edgworth, and several weeks ago my father and I almost ran down a roe deer that suddenly leapt over the dry-stone wall just in front of us.

Perhaps there are more deer in the area than we know about. A fellow nature lover reports several sightings around the lodge in Redisher Woods. Do any other readers have sightings to report?

It is sometimes hard to believe that we are a mere 12 miles away from the heart of industrial Manchester. On a quiet day in the woods, or on the moors, one is in a different world.

TIMOTHY MALCOLM DAVIES,

Summerdale Drive,

Holcombe Brook, Bury.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.