Lancashire meander (with a bit of debatable Yorkshire)

Grey wagtail in the gloom and rain, Todmorden

The weather being utterly bloody awful again today I wasn't much inclined to go out and get drenched again but I was feeling a bit fidgety so decided to get an old man's explorer ticket and see what the possibilities are along the loop through Rochdale and Todmorden, through Burnley and Blackburn and back again. The way the trains were working it was easiest to get the Leeds train from Victoria, getting off at Todmorden then picking up the stopping train to Blackburn. That gave me an hour for toddling round Tod.

Just after the train passes through Mills Hill Station there's a flooded field by the canal that I always used to check out on my way into work. Time was there was just a dip in the field that flooded in wet weather (a lot of the new building work has wiped over a classic bit of "basket of eggs" drumlin topography round here) but about ten years ago it became a more or less permanent pond. Usually there'd be a few Canada geese and moorhens about, occasionally there'd be a couple of goosanders. Today there were forty-odd Canada geese and six goosander.

I wasn't inclined to move far from Todmorden town centre, though the rain was lighter than it had been along the journey. It was nice to see a grey wagtail skittering along the brook besides Water Street.

The stretch from Todmorden to Blackburn is new to me. The hilly country on the way to Burnley is lovely to look at and I'm wondering if some of those woodlands may hold a wood warbler or redstart or both. It was interesting to note that the train actually passes over Rishton Reservoir and a few more goosanders.

I then got the train from Blackburn back into Manchester, with a close past by an unusually empty Wayoh Reservoir just past Entwistle Station.