Mosses

Kestrel, Astley Moss

The aches and pains of the past couple of days having abated I slept through till six when I was woken up with a start by the song thrush banging out his song from the sycamores on the railway embankment.

It being what's looking like the last nice day of the month I decided to have a wander over to the Salford mosses, starting from Cutnook Lane and going down Twelve Yards Road for a change.

Along the way, I had a wander round Beyond and iFly to see if the Trafford Centre peregrines were around. Lots of goldfinches and magpies, three singing chiffchaffs and a greenfinch doing its singing display flight across a deserted road, but no peregrines.

Coltsfoot, Chat Moss

I got to Cutnook Lane, over the motorway bridge and onto the moss, stopping to chat with a motorist who wanted to tell me about the time he was attacked by a mistle thrush when he was a kid. While he was telling me this (and more) a buzzard landed in the field behind him and spent a couple of minutes eating worms before being chased off by carrion crows.

Cutnook Lane

The hedgerows down Cutnook Lane were liberally peppered with goldfinches, robins and wrens; chiffchaffs and great tits sang from hawthorn bushes and three mallards flew overhead from the fishery pond before wheeling round and going back whence they came. A very camera shy goldcrest accompanied me half the way from the fishery to the corner of Twelve Yards Road. I've decided that some day soon I'm going to carry on walking down Cutnook Lane to the end to see where it goes.

Lapwing bath time, Chat Moss

The field at the corner of Cutnook Lane and Twelve Yards Road was wet, which suited the pied wagtails and lapwings more than it did the woodpigeons and stock doves. The first of a long procession of skylarks rose from the stubble and sang on high. The fields to the North of the road were busy with carrion crows and woodpigeons, with a handful of lapwings hiding in plain sight. 

Twelve Yards Road

The telephone lines South of the road going to the farmhouse with the peacock were lined with starlings and a kestrel. The starlings didn't seem remotely fussed, which is odd as I'm sure a kestrel could and would take a starling down.

I got to Four Lanes End and spent a while picking out the birds in one of the goat willows: a singing male linnet was sharing it with half a dozen females, a robin, two meadow pipits, a great tit and a yellowhammer. The tree immediately next to it had a dozen goldfinches, just to confuse the noises.

Buzzard, Chat Moss

The original plan was to turn left and head for Irlam then make my way home but it was lunchtime on a nice Spring day, I had nowhere to be in a hurry and I've never done it before so I turned right up Astley Road. I'd not got as far as the end of the first field when two buzzards soared up from behind the farmhouse and a motley collection of small brown birds rose from the stubble field and scattered round the nearby trees and hedgerows. It took a while to work my way through the crowd once I'd worked out where they'd gone: there were a couple of small flocks of linnets and goldfinches, a few pairs each of chaffinch, reed bunting and yellowhammer, a few house sparrows, a pair of shapes fleeing into the distance that were tantalisingly suggestive of corn bunting, and half a dozen meadow pipits.

I do try to take photos of the small birds but on the rare occasions they strike a pose for the camera they always make sure the light's against me.
Yellowhammer, Chat Moss

Every so often I'd hear a quack and find a pair of mallard sitting in a roadside ditch. 

A selection box of Rindle Road pheasants

I walked down and turned into Rindle Road, over the level crossing and on towards Astley Green. The fields are less open along this stretch and there was less about. Pheasants being the exception: a silly number and variety of pheasants seem to have been released locally, every field had a few and I couldn't go far without seeing a couple of cocks chasing each other across the road.

Lancashire Mining Museum, Astley Green

Then on through Lower Green and Higher Green, avoiding lorries all the way, and into Astley proper. I didn't fancy a walk down the East Lancs Road so I headed for Manchester Road and went home via Boothstown and Worsley. It felt like a much longer walk than the one I had planned but it wasn't by very much, it might just be because it's the first time I've done it. I'm not sure I'd add North of the railway to my list of regular walks, though when things are more normal it might be worth getting the bus to Lower Green and walking down to Irlam to see if that works better.