Winter Hill

Wheatear, Hole Bottom

An early start to the day, occasioned by next door's builder getting the heavy power tools to work first thing. I decided to get away by having a walk up Winter Hill. The bright, sunny morning of eight o'clock became grey and gloomy by nine, which bode well for a comfortable walk on the moors.

I started off from Georges Lane, hopping off the 125 from Bolton. It was a quiet morning with just a few magpies and woodpigeons in the fields. A lone house martin flew over as I approached Wilderswood. I thought there were a few more over Wilderswood itself but it turned out to be 150 or more sand martins.

Walking up to Winter Hill

I turned off onto the path that goes up to the maintenance road for the Winter Hill transmitter. The only birds along this stretch were a couple of meadow pipits. I'd walked up the road as far as Hole Bottom when I noticed a wheatear flitting about on a bit of old wall. As I was watching it I noticed a couple of others further along.

Winter Hill, looking towards Manchester

That was the lot until I was almost at the transmitter station when a couple of red grouse shot up from the roadside and magically disappeared into the short grass not ten yards away.

Wheatear, Winter Hill summit

There had been reports of black redstarts around here so I had a close nosy round, with nothing for my efforts save a couple more wheatears. A circling figure on the horizon turned out to be somebody's model plane. 

I weighed up the options: I could carry on down to Belmont or I could turn back and wander towards Burnt Edge. The biting North wind had some wet about it, which didn't make the trek over to Belmont for a bus that runs every two hours very appealing. 

So I retraced my steps and bumped into a chap who told me he'd just seen a couple of black redstarts at the edge of the transmitter compound. Typical of black redstarts to select the only bit of industrial brickwork in miles of open country. I selected a block of concrete to sit on and have my lunch (a peanut bar and a Capri-Sun) while I kept an eye out for any small bird movements. Most of the small bird movements turned out to be ends of duct tape and similar fluttering in the wind. A male pied wagtail bobbed his head out of a gutter outflow. He emerged and watched me awhile then retreated whence he came. After quarter of an hour I was starting to be glad I'd put my heavy jacket on. 

I decided to move on, whereupon a small bird flitted across the compound and landed on one of the windowsills. A female or first-Winter black redstart which flicked and fanned its dark red tail then promptly disappeared. A second bird flitted over and lingered even less.

Taking one last look around the place I thought I spotted the model plane flying about again. Luckily I looked twice: it was a kestrel.

Rivington Pike from Winter Hill

I walked back down and took the path that goes from Hole Bottom to Burnt Edge. The walk and the scenery made up for a lack of birds. A few carrion crows and meadow pipits flew about in the heather while half a dozen swallows flew overhead. Closer to Burnt Edge there were a few woodpigeons and a couple of house martins.

Walking towards Burnt Edge

I had a rummage round the small conifer plantation on Burnt Edge and found nothing but a couple of uncharacteristically quiet wrens and a shy robin.

There were more swallows overhead on the way down to Walkers Fold. There was a lot of timber cutting going on in Walkers Fold Woods and that drowned out nearly all the bird calls.

I stopped for a few minutes in Walkers Fold car park to look at the map. Along the way I'd bumped into a chap who said a black-necked grebe was showing well on High Rid Reservoir. I reckoned the walk down was doable so I set off down Walkers Fold Road. Which turned out to be still closed for roadworks so I headed off on the footpath along Dakin's Brook to try and get round them.

A couple of ravens circled overhead, one of them holding some indeterminate object which must have been food of some sort given the other's attentions.

Sheep's bit scabious

The path through to High Shire Clough ran through a meadow seething with sheep's bit scabious. Even on a dull day like this they attracted lots of bees, hoverflies and large white butterflies.

Dean Brook

The woodland by Dean Brook was very quiet. I got to Barrow Bridge Road and decided not to dogleg back past the golf course to get back onto Chorley Old Road. Frankly, I didn't fancy the steep inclined plane up to the golf course. I walked into Barrow Bridge in time to just miss the bus into Bolton so walked down into Smithills and caught a bus there. I'll have to hope the black-necked grebe lingers awhile.

Local patch and Mersey Valley

Grey wagtail, Northenden

The robin's back in the back garden, though it's heard much more than it's seen. Regular visitors to the feeding stations, besides the spadger army, have included the pair of great tits and one of their youngsters, a couple of blue tits and the male coal tit. The dunnocks are usually rummaging round in the fruit bushes and the wrens are more often than not lurking somewhere in the depths of the boysenberries (which need a damned good pruning, the peculiar August weather seems to be just right for them). The long-tailed tits are less regular and limited to hit and run operations and a chiffchaff passed through briefly.

A wander round the local patch was unnervingly quiet, especially for this time of year which should be peak goldfinch season.

• Black-headed Gull 1
• Chiffchaff 1
• Dunnock 1
• Feral Pigeon 12
• Great Tit 2
• House Sparrow 2
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 2
• Magpie 7
• Woodpigeon 23
• Wren 3

I decided to move on, the aim being to bob over to Stockport to have a look at the mandarin ducks at Etherow Country Park but halfway there I thought better of all those bus rides and jumped bus at Fletcher Moss. 

I had a teatime wander round the botanical gardens, which are very nice, and wandered through Stenner Wood to the river. Plenty of blue tits and nuthatches, wrens and robins along the way.

Simon's Bridge over the River Mersey

I walked down the river to Princess Parkway. It's a nice walk but it was fairly quiet bird-wise until I got to Northenden. A couple of young herons chased each other round the motorway bridge stanchions while an adult lurked on the weir in the company of a juvenile moorhen and a grey wagtail and a bunch of mallards loafed on the shingle on the bend.

Heron, Northenden

Once across Palatine Road (the path under the road being closed while builders shore up the bridge) it quietened down again on the river, except for the kingfisher flying off on hunting sallies from its perch on a shopping trolley in the riverbank. There were a couple of mixed tit flocks in the trees along this stretch and the ring-necked parakeets were noisy as they flew over to their pre-roost congregations.

River Mersey, West Didsbury

The sun was well below the trees by the time I was approaching Princess Parkway so I decided to call it a day.  I'd spent the best part of two hours taking a very convoluted way of getting three quarters of a mile down the road from where I started.in the first place on a pleasant Sunday afternoon.

Wigan

Buzzard, Abram

The cricket having finished early I decided to go for a walk. I noticed that a wryneck had been reported in Abram this morning and that it had done a flit by lunchtime. That reminded me that I hadn't been for a walk that way in years. So a walk from Abram to Bamfurlong via Viridor Wood it was, then 

I got the bus to Golborne and wandered up Warrington Road. The next bus to Abram was due in half an hour, it would be quicker to walk up. I'd barely gone a hundred yards when the bus passed me. The buses on the Warrington routes make up their own schedules.

Looking towards Lightshaw Meadows

There were plenty of woodpigeons kicking about and half a dozen swallows twitted about. I looked over towards Lightshaw Meadows (one on the to-do list) and saw more woodpigeons, a resting buzzard and a heron sat in a tree. As I passed over Hey Brook I disturbed a kingfisher, the first I've seen since February.

Spot the path

At Dover Bridge I turned onto the path that goes over Hey Brook and heads off towards the West Coast Main Line. The complete absence of birdwatchers confirmed the absence of wryneck. No matter, I was there for the walk.

The pond with the moorhens

There wasn't much about in the open fields save a few magpies and reed buntings. Things changed in the little wooded area around the pond. More magpies and reed buntings but also a mixed tit flock of blue, great and long-tailed tits with a couple of chiffchaffs and a willow warbler. A couple of moorhens fed amongst the reeds while the tit flock worked its way through the trees. The first of many common hawkers patrolled the reeds and a couple of common darters lurked in the undergrowth.

Viridor Wood

I walked down to the underpass below the railway line accompanied by more hawkers and darters and passed through into Viridor Wood. It was late teatime by now so fairly quiet, just a flock of woodpigeons and odd carrion crows, magpies and jays. I skirted the wood, there was no point going in deep as I wouldn't have heard any bird calls for the racket further along. It was either Bamfurlong's Bank Holiday Hell's Angels rally or a competitive event involving two hundred garden waste shredders, either way I wasn't for heading towards it so toddled off to Bryn Gates for the bus into Wigan.

Wirral

Stonechat. West Kirby

It was a nice sunny day so I decided to go to the seaside for fresh air and fun and headed off for the Wirral. It's still a bit early to be hoping for Leach's petrels at New Brighton so I opted for a walk between Leasowe and Hoylake to see what the high tide would bring in.

Kerr's Field

Kerr's Field was quiet, a few woodpigeons on the paddocks and goldfinches and whitethroats quietly flitting between the hedges. This time of year there's always the possibility of a passage migrant or two here but the Autumn migration's a more leisurely affair than Spring so they pass through in dribs and drabs rather than crowd scenes. Anyway, that's my excuse for not finding any.

The area round Leasowe Lighthouse was similarly quiet with a handful of swallows swooping round the open area.

I went directly onto the seawall and walked down towards Meols. The tide was high but the weather was too pleasant to hope for any waders on the seawall or the groyne. I can't moan about people going for a walk here when I was doing precisely the same thing myself.

Looking back at Leasowe Lighthouse

Out on the water there were rafts of herring gulls and lesser black-backs pretty far out with small groups of black-headed gulls nearer shore. A couple of great black-backs loafed on the water well away from the other gulls. A couple of shelduck flew low over the water heading towards Hilbre. Ones and twos of Sandwich terns flew past towards Crosby.

I spent a while scanning the passersby far out by the wind turbines. More gulls and Sandwich terns and a few cormorants. A few front-heavy looking dark birds turned out to be juvenile lesser black-backs flying in at at angle. One bird stood out, it looked stockier and had more deliberate flight but it was too far out to be sure what it may have been.

It felt that there was a passage of swallows going on. Waves of a dozen or two birds twitted their way inland.

The tide starting to ebb at Meols

By the time I'd got to the boat landing at Meols I was starting to think I should have tried my luck at New Brighton. It had been a couple of hours of disappointing birdwatching. Then I told myself to give my head a wobble. I'd had a very agreeable walk at the seaside in nice weather with the sun on my back and the breeze in my face and if I imagined that was a hardship I was a pillock.

I carried on past the tiny lido. The tide was fast receding and black-headed gulls were loafing on newly emerged banks of wet sand. Waders started to fly in. Curlews, oystercatchers and redshanks congregated out in the distance beyond the gulls, dunlins and ringed plovers came in to feed a couple of hundred yards out. A flurry of white and gingery brown at the water's edge beyond the oystercatchers added a flock of sanderlings to the year list.

Gulls, ringed plovers and dunlin, Hoylake

Closer — much, much closer — to hand were the couple of dozen pied wagtails and a few linnets feeding in the marram grass and sea plantains near the seawall. A flock of starlings came and a bustled between rummaging in the stranded seaweed and bathing in the puddles.

Starling bathtime, Hoylake

Approaching Hoylake the sea asters, samphires and plantains of the relatively dry foreshore gave ample cover and feeding opportunities for more small flocks of linnets.

A raven flew past and headed over to Hilbre. It came back about ten minutes later then headed back over to Hilbre. On its fourth pass over it noticed me trying and failing to take its picture so it came and circled low over so I could get some photos. (Or more likely it was making sure I wasn't a threat.) Anyway, I got rather a lot of photos and I felt sorry I didn't have a bag of sheep's eyes to repay it with.

Raven, Hoylake

Raven, Hoylake

I got to Red Rocks and looked out towards Hilbre. Gulls, cormorants and Sandwich terns were but distant silhouettes.

Hilbre from Red Rocks

I took the boardwalk through the nature reserve, supplementing my diet with a few sea buckthorn berries and dewberries along the way. The first dragonfly of the day was a migrant hawker patrolling a clump of phlox escaped from a neighbouring garden. I looked at it carefully to be on the safe side, there have been reports of a southern migrant hawker at Hilbre this week. (As if I'd have been able to safely identify one!)

Female ruddy darter (I think), West Kirby

I could hear but not see the moorhens in the pond entirely hidden by reeds. The linnets and swallows overhead were rather easier to spot. A few ruddy darters, mostly female, sunned themselves on the boardwalk. There have been repairs to the boardwalk since my last visit but it's still disconcertingly bouncy along some stretches.

As I got to West Kirby I bumped into a couple of common darters as they darted to and from from their perches in a hawthorn. They came over to have a look at me then went back to their work. As I was looking at them I noticed a small dark bird amongst the goldfinches feeding in the bushes higher up the slope. A rather fine male stonechat kindly posed for the camera.

Stonechat, West Kirby

Northwich

Juvenile black tern, Budworth Mere

I haven't been to Northwich for a walk among the woods and flashes this year, I'd planned on doing so when the lockdown was lifted but the roof fell in at the station so trains couldn't stop for a while and I've not got round to it since it was reopened. So I decided it was high time I went for a wander.

Northwich Station

I walked down Old Warrington Road and over the bridge onto Marbury Lane. I'd expected another fairly quiet walk through the wooded areas, instead I kept bumping into mixed tit flocks and the calling of chiffchaffs and robins was only interrupted by the loud tappings of nuthatches opening beech nuts and, a couple of times, the echoing rapping of great spotted woodpeckers. A buzzard soaring overhead returned the calls of a couple of noisy juveniles over in Marbury Country Park. A couple of common hawkers heralded what was going to be a bumper day for dragonflies.

Marbury Country Park

Over the canal and into Marbury Country Park. One of the fields that had been an icy wasteland on my last visit was lush and wet, a mallard joining a herd of cattle as they cooled their hooves in a big puddle. Behind them the two dark brown objects twitching in the long grass turned out to be a hare's ears.

I walked through to Budworth Mere, a few migrant hawkers whirring along the tops of the hawthorn hedges and occasionally breaking off to chase a large fly or two. On the way in to Northwich I'd noticed reports of a juvenile black-necked grebe and a juvenile black tern on the mere so I had hopes of perhaps seeing one or other of them.

Tufted ducks and juvenile black-necked grebe, Budworth Mere

I'd walked a little way down the path along the water's edge when I got to a gap in the trees and spotted a group of tufted ducks over on the opposite bank. Scanning through them I found half a dozen juvenile great crested grebes and a dabchick with the ducks but no black-necked grebe. I moved on a little and found a few more tufties by that bank. There was also something a lot paler, which dived just as I was getting it into focus. I told myself to calm down, it was just a tuftie lying on its back preening its belly.

A little way further along I bumped into a couple of birders. "The black-necked grebe's just over there," they said. Bugger. It wasn't a tuftie preening its belly. Nil desp. I carried on and found a seat that let me take a closer look at the tufties through a gap in the trees. In less than a minute the grebe drifted into view, a nice juvenile in shades of white and dusty grey with bright red eyes and a neat dark cap. I watched it a while, taking the opportunity to compare size, shape and jizz between the three species of grebe and the tufted ducks while they were in one field of view.

Budworth Mere

I retraced my steps, stopping every so often to look through the Canada geese and greylags on the far bank and the black-headed gulls loafing on the water, finding a few herons and common gulls in the process.

Something smaller and darker flew in and flitted around over the gulls picking insects off the water's surface. The black tern! A juvenile showing incredibly well. As it twisted and turned the contrast between the pale underparts and dusky grey upperparts was picked out in the bright sunshine. The best view of a black tern I've had in years, and even longer since I've seen one in sunshine. A beggar to try and photograph, mind.

Black tern, Budworth Mere

I bumped into the birders again and we exchanged kind words about the tern and the grebe, lamentations on the decline in the population of lesser spotted woodpeckers and a few general anodynes.

Bracken, Marbury Country Park

I wandered through Big Wood back towards the canal. I spent a couple of minutes at the big hide. Even though the feeders were empty there were plenty of small birds including a mixed tit flock, willow warblers and chiffchaffs and a couple of goldcrests. I managed to start recognising the difference in call between the willow warblers and chiffchaffs so I'm confident I'll get the ID dead wrong next time I try.

Common blue, Dairy House Meadows

A few brown hawkers and common darters patrolled the canal banks. Walking down into Dairy House Meadows there were more common hawkers and common darters, a couple of ruddy darters and a few deliriously technicolour southern hawkers. There were still enough thistles and knapweeds on the meadows to cater for a few dozen butterflies, mostly small tortoiseshells and meadow browns with a few common blues courting and mating as they fed.

Dairy House Meadows

I dropped down onto Neumann's Flash and peered through the reeds. Plenty of mallards, teals and coots loafing on the water and half a dozen drake wigeons dabbling at the edges of the reedbeds in their bright ginger biscuit eclipse plumage.

A mixed flock of swallows and sand martins hawked very high over the flash, invisible without binoculars. Fifty-odd black-headed gulls and a couple of dozen lapwings dozed on the far bank.

There were a lot more teal on Ashton's Flash dabbling round the roots of the drowned trees.

All in all a pretty good day.

Stretford and Sale

Heron, Broad Ees Dole

It was an unscheduled sunny day so once I escaped the cat I went for a teatime stroll round the local patch.

As predicted, the goldenrod has filled in the space left by the strimming down of the bramble patches.

Even given the time of day and time of year it was rather quiet. 

• Black-headed Gull 1
• Blackbird 1
• Bullfinch 1
• Carrion Crow 1
• Chiffchaff 1
• Dunnock 1
• Feral Pigeon 15
• Goldfinch 7
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 4
• Magpie 15
• Woodpigeon 16
• Wren 1

I decided to bob over to Sale Water Park for a wander. It was fairly quiet of people by the time I got there and most of the small birds were settling down for the evening. A few goldfinches twittered about in the treetops and a couple of willow warblers played fair by calling from the willows.

There were a couple of jet skiers out on the water so most of the waterfowl were congregated round the slipway begging for food from passersby. There were just forty-odd coots and the family of mute swans with half a dozen mallards and a handful of Canada geese.

Broad Ees Dole

Given the traffic on the lake it wasn't surprising that Broad Ees Dole was busier than usual. Eight herons sat on the island opposite the hide, accompanied by a dozen each of mallard and gadwall, half a dozen Canada geese, a couple of dozen coots, a few moorhens and half a dozen dabchicks. 

Herons, Broad Ees Dole

I lingered in the hopes of spotting a kingfisher. No kingfisher but a low-flying buzzard lolloping out of the trees caused a bit of a shuffle amongst the ducks revealing a pochard sleeping in the crowd, a drake just coming out of eclipse, showing coppery red on the back of its otherwise brown head.

I walked home through Stretford Ees where the chiffchaffs and great tits were calling softly in the deep undergrowth. 

Stretford Ees

Stretford

Stretford Meadows looking decidedly autumnal

I had all sorts of plans for the day so I went for a wander on Stretford Meadows. It had been a fine, bright morning but was starting to cloud over when I set out and it became increasingly heavy and humid.

There were lots of reassuring small bird noises in the trees at the Newcroft Road end, mostly blue tits, robins and goldfinches with a couple of wrens and a chiffchaff in support. Most of the time they were drowned out by the singing of a guinea fowl in the horse paddock next to the car park. (The song of the helmeted guinea fowl is not dissimilar to that of someone trying to sort out the plumbing of a particularly squeaky bicycle.)

Stretford Meadows

Out on the open tops it was dead quiet, even the magpies didn't make an appearance. A reed bunting feeding on thistles saved it being a complete blank. Squadrons of woodpigeons flew overhead towards the fields and farms beyond the river. A few meadow browns and large whites fluttered about the thistles while a migrant hawker patrolled a clump of goldenrod.

There were lots of robin noises in the hawthorns as I walked along Kickety Brook towards the canal. Here and there there'd be a mixed flock of blue and great tits and a ring-necked parakeet made a commotion in the tall trees by the recycling depot. 

A female migrant hawker flew by then returned to have a second look at me, giving me time to baffle myself trying to identify it. I'm fairly OK identifying the different male hawkers but still find the females very challenging. A reassuringly brown brown hawker buzzed by me as I approached the canal and a few more patrolled the Himalayan balsam near the aquaduct.

Kickety Brook approaching Bridgewater Canal

I decided to call it a day and bobbed off to the shops to get some more for the hungry mouths in the back garden.

Southport

Black-tailed godwit

The weather was lousy so i decided on a trip to the seaside. The pouring rain at Wigan became light drizzle and murky clouds in Southport, OK weather for a wander round Marshside and Crossens. 

Walking down Marshside Road it occurred to me that it was a bit quiet. On the left hand side of the road the marsh was bone dry with a handful of curlews probing the thin grass. On the right hand side there was a team strimming the scrub near the bund on Sutton's Marsh.

Junction Pool

There wasn't a lot left of Junction Pool despite the recent weather. A couple of black-tailed godwits fed in the puddles while pied wagtails bounced around in the mud.

Common sandpiper

More joy at Sandgrounders but still slow stuff. On the pool by the approach path I noticed a common sandpiper bobbing up and down on one of the islands in the company of the only lapwing of the day. A couple of pairs each of dabchicks and tufted ducks dozed and dived in no particular order and a shoveler dabbled at the margins.

Black-tailed godwits

From the hide there were a few black-tailed godwits feeding in the pool and small groups of teal dabbled in the mud. A few Canada geese and greylags were feeding in the high grass but it was clear they didn't much like the sound of the strimmers and they only settled when half the grazing cattle wandered over and effectively formed a barrier between them.

Female teal

Amongst the mallards was a duck with a single young duckling she kept closely by her side.

Mallard

A dozen dunlin flew in and flew out, a slightly larger bird detaching itself and staying behind. I struggled with it as it didn't tick any of the usual boxes. When it flew off it turned out to be a ruff but given how small and slim it was (and not particularly humpbacked either) I can only think it was a juvenile reeve. Another, more typical, ruff settled on the island the common sandpiper was foraging round. While I was trying to puzzle out the small ruff a little ringed plover scuttled out of the grass on the bank behind it and just as quickly scuttled back in.

Some movement in the air over the houses on the other side of the marsh caught my eye. A flock of house martins were escorting a sparrowhawk out of their air space.

I keep forgetting that most of the brambles on the bank by Sandgrounders are dewberries and I'm surprised when I see the fruit. (They're more reliably sweet than blackberries.)

It wasn't raining but the weather was heavy, humid and gloomy. At this point I seriously considered jacking it in and going for another look at the elegant tern at Hightown. Instead I carried on with the walk down to Crossens.

On Marshside Inner Marsh there were more mallards and teals in the ditches and a flock of nearly fifty black-tailed godwits feeding in the pool over on Vinson's. There were a few little egrets about but I looked in vain amongst the feeding herd for any cattle egrets. No great white egrets either  (it still feels strange to be disappointed not to see these routinely).

There was a buzzard sitting in the hawthorns by the path and I don't know which of us was the more surprised when I got there.

Crossens Inner Marsh

Crossens Inner Marsh was nearly bone dry and the Outer Marsh looked like a gigantic untended football pitch. Here and there a disconsolate heron sat hunched by the remnants of a small puddle. 

My gloom increased at the lack of any birdlife at all on the dry marshes. Usually a walk round here under leaden skies has the consolation of being in the company of thousands of pink-footed geese. I'll have to remind myself of that consolation next time I'm whingeing on about spending ages scanning through thousands of pink-footed geese trying to find a bean goose that isn't there. Just as that thought struck me I noticed a lone pink-footed goose feeding in the gutter nearest the path. The way it was holding its right wing explained why it hasn't joined the others on the trip North, it looks like it's OK for short haul flying but wouldn't manage the migration.

Pink-footed goose

I'd nearly reached Crossens proper when I noticed a cloud of waders suddenly rise up from the riverside on the far side of the outer marsh. It wheeled around and eventually settled back down as three larger birds flew past and flew slightly nearer. Two were black-headed gulls, the third was a female marsh harrier which flew steady for a few minutes then wheeled and headed off towards Banks.

I got the bus from Crossens and the train home from Southport. I'd spent a couple of hours having a toddle round and though it hasn't felt very productive I'd still seen a fair few birds and got a bit of fresh air.