Mosses

Mayweeds, Chat Moss

A warm sunny Saturday and I wanted to avoid the crowds so I opted to go for a wander across Chat Moss, heading off West to Barton Moss for a change (I've not done this walk in ages). I made the mistake of starting to read a book when I was letting my breakfast settle so it was only once I'd finished it mid-afternoon that I set off.

It was a bright, mild afternoon but with a stiff wind which made birdwatching difficult — it's only when the wind rattles through my ears I realise how much I rely on my hearing small birds in hedgerows, and half the time the movements that caught my eye were falling leaves or passing dragonflies.

Cutnook Lane was mostly quiet birdwise, if it wasn't for the woodpigeons scattering each time somebody over on one of the farms fired a shotgun I wouldn't have seen anything at all before reaching the fishery. On the plus side there were lots of dragonflies, nearly all black darters with a handful of brown hawkers patrolling the roadside ditch.

I'd nearly arrived at the junction with Twelve Yards Road before I found anything in the hedgerows besides singing robins. A mixed tit flock with at least eight long-tailed tits accompanied by great and blue tits flitted across the lane. There were at least two other birds in there but they were directly between me and the sun and I lost them before being able to make any serious attempt at identification. The whole flock moved on quickly with the arrival of some loud walkers (the only such interruption of the afternoon). I'd moved to one side to let the walkers pass, a mistake as a gust of wind brought a shower of acorns on my head. ("An acorn falleth on my head. Discovereth not the law of gravity today. Went home.")

Twelve Yards Road

At the junction I turned right and walked on down towards Barton Moss Road. Unlike the walk down to Four Lanes bits of this stretch are lightly wooded and the hedgerows have mostly been superceded by maturing trees. On a less windy afternoon this would be quite rewarding, as it was the wind in the leaves even drowned out the noises of woodpigeons clattering out of the trees. There were a few chaffinches and great tits about but everything else was lying low. Plenty of dragonflies here too, mostly black darters again with migrant hawkers patrolling the last of the unharvested barley fields and a couple of common darters weaving round a patch of Himalayan balsam.

Buzzard hovering, Chat Moss

Out on the stubble fields there were scores of woodpigeons and a few carrion crows. Further out there was a buzzard hovering in the wind. Buzzards look ungainly when they're hovering but there's a subtlety to the way they work their wings which is nice to watch.

Chat Moss, approaching Barton Moss Lane

Then over the motorway and onto Barton Moss, pausing only to say hello to a daft friendly bulldog. At first I thought there were only a few woodpigeons and a small flock of rooks out in the stubble field to the west of the road but a mixed flock of small birds rose up above the high hedgerow halfway down. It took a while to unpick the throng: half a dozen each of swallow and house martin in a loose group that eventually floated over onto the aerodrome; a dozen or more each of goldfinch, meadow pipit and skylark. The pipits had a look of being a migrating party: the second time they rose up they carried on Southward. It would have been a bit more sporting if more of the birds had moved over across the lane so I didn't have to squint into the sun.

The stop for the bus back to the Trafford Centre is at the end of Barton Moss Lane so after ten minutes' wait I was back off home.