Mosses

Channel wagtail, Little Woolden Moss

Today I thought I'd give the hay fever a run out so I had a stroll across the Salford mosses. It was a bright, hot day with heavy cloud cover that brought a lot of mugginess but no relief from the heat or glare.

A goldcrest singing in a tree as I got off the train at Irlam seemed a good omen. Walking down Astley Road there were a lot of noisy goldfinches and greenfinches, the house sparrows and chaffinches were a lot quieter, and if it wasn't for the sudden movements of leaves against the wind I'd have missed the blue tit and great tit families completely. Every so often a song thrush would belt out its song. I suspect this is why I wasn't heard by the Jack Russell that usually rushes out to eye up any passing strangers and see them off beyond the farm gates.  Blackbirds fed quietly on the road margins, along the cut verges of the farm paths they were meticulously spaced out every three yards.

Greenfinches, Irlam Moss

The local swallows were busy hawking low over the turf fields. It's odd how they can find plenty to eat low over these fields but nothing seems to find anything on them, they're bereft of birds save the occasional carrion crow rummaging round the margins. The pied wagtails either hung around the horses in the paddocks or lurked around the farmyards picking up scraps from the bases of the freshly-rolled turf.

There'd been the usual whitethroats in hawthorn bushes and the occasional blackcap in the roadside trees but it wasn't until I was nearly at Four Lanes End before I heard the first chiffchaff.

Avocets and black-headed gulls, Little Woolden Moss

The trees by the entrance to Little Woolden Moss were busy with goldfinches and willow warblers. Walking through into the open moss I disturbed the first of many small family parties of linnets. Meadow pipits did their parachute song, launching themselves from the tops of stunted birches and landing deep in the cotton grass.

Large skipper, Little Woolden Moss

Latticed heath, Little Woolden Moss

There were surprisingly few dragonflies about, all four spotted chasers as far as I could tell. They were made up for by the large skippers that seemed to have claimed territorial rights of every heather bush. There were a few day-flying moths around, including a couple of very lovely latticed heaths. (I have to admit I had to look them up when I got home, I could pin them down to family but no further in the field.)

A couple of dozen lapwings were feeding and idling round the pools, easily the most I've seen here. A pair of oystercatchers were being very noisy but I didn't see any signs that they were watching over youngsters. The black-headed gulls have managed to raise a few young and these were loafing at the water's edge. To my surprise they were accompanied by a couple of sleeping avocets.

Little Woolden Moss

I walked round, heading for Moss Lane and thence Glazebury. The seedheads of the hare's tail grasses had mostly been blown away, the swathes of white in the landscape now mostly being provided by the cotton grasses.

I was quietly lamenting the lack of dragonflies when a pair of hobbies flew in, made quick inroads on the numbers and went along their way. Their arrival upset the curlews I'd been hearing since my arrival and they flew up, did a circuit of the pools and only settled when the hobbies had moved on. This, in turn, unsettled a couple of yellow wagtails which flew from the pools and settled to feed in the cotton grasses nearer the path.

Mosslands Farm, Little Woolden Moss

A very welcome cooling breeze picked up. It looked like somewhere over Westhoughton someone's garden was getting a shower.

For two years running this time of year I've heard a quail singing from exactly the same place in the barley fields. I'll have to come back soon to see if I can make it three years on the trot.

Channel wagtail, Little Woolden Moss

Much to my surprise the Channel wagtail flew into the same bush by the poly tunnels I saw it in last time. This is obviously its favoured look-out post. Each time I see it I have a crisis of identification, convincing myself the grey head must be a trick of the light. Luckily the bird is very obliging at allowing the collection of photographic evidence. It's a bonny bird, I'm glad it's around.

I finally added tree sparrow to the year list when one flew down to feed in one of the potato fields. I've seen a few round here before but they're vastly outnumbered by the house sparrows that hang around the farmyards. I was worrying that tree sparrow was going to be this year's bogey bird. (That just leaves corn bunting and whooper swan to get ticked off for this year's list to look reasonably normal.)

Glaze Brook was very low, providing plenty of mud for a grey wagtail to investigate.

I'd been doing OK with the hay fever up to then but the effects of walking through the barley fields finally kicked in and my eyes were streaming when I got on the bus to Leigh. The driver must have thought there's been a bereavement. I got the bus back to the Trafford Centre from Leigh.

I dropped in on my local patch on the way home. Good to see (and hear!) so many goldfinches. Also good to see the first (I hope) of the young whitethroats.

• Black-headed Gull 2 overhead
• Blackbird 5
• Blackcap 1
• Carrion Crow 1
• Chiffchaff 1
• Dunnock 2
• Feral Pigeon 10 overhead
• Goldfinch 30
• Greenfinch 4
• House Sparrow 5
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 1 overhead
• Magpie 5
• Song Thrush 1
• Starling 13
• Whitethroat 5
• Woodpigeon 5
• Wren 1

Hogweed, Barton Clough