Chat Moss

Hay bales on Chat Moss

A long walk across Chat Moss to Glazebury, then bus-hopping the way back, just missing every connection along the way.

There were literally hundreds of jackdaws, woodpigeons and chaffinches in the fields and copses on Chat Moss. The jackdaws — and a few dozen carrion crows — were taking advantage of recent muck-spreading over a few of the fields. The woodpigeons, and a handful of stock doves, were mostly interested in the stubble fields while the chaffinches flocked about the treetops. It's been a quiet Winter for bramblings so I wasn't altogether surprised not to see any, though I was disappointed not to see any yellowhammers here today.

Little Woolden Moss

Little Woolden Moss was very quiet. Aside from the chaffinches and blue tits in the trees by the entrance the only birds about were a couple of robins, a wren and a reed bunting in the boundary ditch and a meadow pipit I accidentally flushed when I got to the exit onto the Salford Way footpath.

The year list is sticking resolutely at 98: there was a possible Siberian chiffchaff rummaging around deep in a holly bush by Glazebury sewage works but I couldn't get a good sight of it in the gloom. I could only ID it by the call and I'm not confident enough of that to claim it. My attempts to record the call were drowned out by duelling song thrushes.

It's probably as well I didn't get a good view, I'd have only been upset at not getting a photograph: at the start of the walk, on Cutnook Lane, a very obliging goldcrest posed for the camera against a nice plain background and I found I'd accidentally switched on the camera when I put it back in the bag the other day and the battery was flat. I'm quite upset enough at missing out on a nice photo of a goldcrest.