Horwich

Juvenile common starling (left) and adult rose-coloured startling (right), Horwich
The only record shot I managed to get of this bird

I decided I should have a go at seeing the adult rose-coloured starling over in Horwich, despite its being Saturday and likely to be a warm one at that. If I waited until Monday it would be gone. An early start to beat the crowds on the trains and buses, sunblock on and Vaseline round my nostrils to catch the pollen before it gets up my nose saw me getting the 575 bus from Bolton that stops by Pickup's Field in Horwich (not the 575 that goes straight through Horwich and off to Wigan).

I got off the bus and walked across the field, over the brook and past the football pitch to the far end of the field where a dozen people with binoculars and telescopes were staring at people's back gardens. I felt immensely uncomfortable; to my mind binoculars and big lenses are like shotguns: you don't point them at people or houses. Just as I arrived the bird had flew down into one of the gardens. I found a position where I could look down the length of the back fences without being able to see into any windows. Half a dozen starlings flew down into the gardens, a few juveniles jostled on the top of a feeder that was just visible over the fence. All of a sudden the starlings flew up onto the back fence, bringing the rose-coloured startling with them. I got good views and managed to get a record shot before they all rose and flew off over the houses. They wouldn't have gone far (I notice that the bird was reported as being back a couple of hours later). I'd seen the bird, my first adult, and nice it was but I was glad to pack up and move on.

Old Rake

I walked over to Brownlow Road then up to the path that crosses over to Factory Hill. I walked through into Winderswood and through to Georges Lane. There was enough cloud cover and a nice cooling breeze to make a nice walk of it. All the singing warblers were chiffchaffs or willow warblers, as I forked off onto an old pack road up the hill I had chiffchaffs singing to my right where the trees descended into Wilderswood and willow warblers singing to my left where the trees thinned out on the margins of the fields of sheep. A buzzard soared over Factory Hill, a couple of kestrels hovered over Georges Lane. Song thrushes sang in Wilderswood while mistle thrushes joined the blackbirds and lapwings in the fields. Textbook stuff, it's nice when it actually happens as clearly as this.

Wilderswood

I considered carrying on up to Rivington Pike but the clouds had faded away and the sun — and the pollen count — was getting high so I called it quits for the morning. As I descended a small flock of swallows arrived and fed low over the fields, disturbing pied wagtails, skylarks and meadow pipits in the process. 

Approaching Georges Lane

Further down there were huge log piles where the diseased pines and larches had been felled from Wilderswood. Strangely, it didn't look as if this had made much of an impression on the woods though it might have been a different story had I stayed the length of Old Rake instead of taking a detour up the hill. I'll find out next time I'm up that way.

Log piles, Georges Lane