Flixton

Buzzard

I'd felt infinitely better after yesterday's long walk after feeling rough first thing so I've decided this week I need to fit a few two or three hour walks into the days. An hour or so is tiring but not long enough for me to get my second wind and start getting the benefit of the exercise. With that in mind I set off for Flixton at lunchtime for a wander round.

Along Carrington Road

The early morning snow was starting to thaw as I set out, making some of the pavements a bit tricky underfoot. By the time I got to Carrington Road it was mostly clear, with odd treacherous patches in the shade. I had a nosy over Flixton Bridge, the river was high still but a lot calmer than during last week's floods. The fields by the Mile Road were sheeted with icy pools. A couple of carrion crows rummaging round in the wreckage broke off to chase a buzzard away.

Buzzard

I walked down Mersey View and joined the path onto the open land, the first of very many encounters with very deep and partially frozen mud. There were a few goldfinches and a couple of robins about as I walked up the incline to the higher ground (the usual path looked damp). Just beyond the birch scrub a buzzard sat in one of the hawthorn bushes in the company of a couple of magpies and a blackbird. As I stood and watched it a woman walking her dog approached from the opposite direction. She stopped to look at the bird. The dog, an unusually quiet Westie, stopped snuffling about in the tall grass and stared at the bird. We stayed like this for a good three or four minutes before the buzzard shrugged and flew off to dig for worms in the horse paddock just over the river.

By Coniston Road

I walked around the ridge by the old lagoons, the willows being thick with magpies, and down by the railway. The path down was a tad icy and as it's been worn down to about ankle depth to the grass either side it had more than a passing resemblance to a bobsleigh run. Halfway down I abandoned it and walked sideways down the grassy slope. Down at the bottom the birches and alders were sitting in a good foot of water. They were thick with goldfinches and a fair-sized mixed tit flock, including a lone willow tit. skittered about the middle branches.

Kingfisher

The approach to the underpass over to Dutton's Pond involved hopping along a series of hedge trimmings kindly provided by some kind soul who'd laid them across the deep mud. Once through and on the other side of the railway line I bumped into another mixed tit flock which was predominantly great and coal tits. An electric bubbling device was doing a grand job of keeping half of Dutton's Pond free of ice, much appreciated by small bunches of mallard and moorhen. And also a kingfisher which hunted from the fence posts in the reeds.

The path from Dutton's Pond to Jack Lane

I walked down towards Jack Lane but didn't go down the path through the reserve, the main footpaths were quite muddy enough. One of the paddock fields was particularly busy with birds: a couple of fieldfares caught my eye and scanning round from them I spotted a dozen redwings and thirty-odd starlings. Singles of pied wagtail and meadow pipit flew over, I was surprised not to see more. Just before I reached Jack Lane the reason for the state of the path became apparent: I had to perch myself on the barbed wire fence to let a muck-spreading tractor past.

The hedgerows on Jack Lane were busy with spadgers, goldfinches and chaffinches. I walked down the end into Town's Gate and wandered off home.