Holcombe Moor

Holcombe Moor

It being a sunny Saturday I decided I didn't want to take the train out anywhere (they'd be busy and short on carriages like they seem to be every Saturday) and I wanted to avoid the inevitable crowds along the Mersey Valley. The obvious thing to do would be another weekend traipse across the mosses but I'm trying to avoid settling into any routines. Then it occurred to me that over the past couple of years I keep nibbling round Holcombe Moor without actually going up for a wander on it. So I got a tram out to Bury and got the 472 bus out to Holcombe Brook and set off for it.

Holcombe Old Road

I started out by walking a while up Holcombe Old Road then taking a meandering series of paths and lanes up to the Peel Tower on Holcombe Hill. A bit more meandering than originally planned: the road less traveled is often less traveled for a reason but the road more traveled is more likely to have three blokes blocking it as they try to rescue their brand new Mercedes van after ignoring the "No vehicular access" sign at the bottom. These are old pack horse roads.

There were a few small mixed tit flocks along the gardens and hedges at the bottom of Holcombe Old Road and robins all along the way. Further up the hill, beyond the farm buildings, the country was more open and birds harder to come by. Jackdaws squabbled in the fields and the occasional carton crow or woodpigeon flew overhead. Every so often a wren or a dunnock would take exception to me from somewhere deep in the bracken.

Roe deer, Holcombe Hill

A roe deer studiously ignored passers-by as it foraged at the edge of a patch of bracken, though it refused to pose for the camera. A family of small children came walking the other way to me and the deer calmly disappeared into the bracken with just its white behind sticking out.

I hadn't walked on far when I was puzzled by the calling of finches from some stunted birch trees halfway up the hill. I couldn't identify the call and I couldn't spot the birds. After a couple of minutes it was evident they'd moved on. I suspect they were lesser redpolls but I don't bump into them often enough to be sure of the identification.

Holcombe Moor

There were crowds round the Peel Tower so I didn't linger. I headed off towards Moor Lane with no particular purpose in mind. A few crows and jackdaws flew over and even up here there were speckled wood butterflies on the brambles by the dry stone walls.

Carrion crow, Holcombe Moor

I got to Moor Road and decided to carry on towards Helmshore. The walking was good, the scenery was splendid but the birds were few and far between.

Buckden Wood

This changed at an abandoned farmhouse by a gate. Chiffchaffs and wrens called from the trees by the house and a couple of swallows flew over. The entrance to Buckden Wood was a hundred yards down the road so I had a quick wander. There was literally no bird life to be found in there today, not even any chaffinches rummaging in the beech mast. I made a mental note to come again in late Spring to see what would be around then.

Moor Road

I rejoined Moor Road and carried on. Two or three passing swallows became fifty-odd, most of them swooping and hawking low over the moor while a few stayed high overhead, all the while drifting southwards. There were a few meadow pipits about, which became quite a lot of meadow pipits as I walked along a bit further. The Autumn migration's in full tilt now.

Moor Road

The road got steeper and the roadside vegetation thicker as I approached the Helmshore end of the trail. There were robins, wrens and dunnocks in the hedgerows and a small mixed flock of long-tailed tits and great tits called from the hawthorn bushes. 

A field away I could see and hear a small finch calling as it sat on a telegraph line. It took an embarrassingly long time to realise it was a lesser redpoll. A single bird at a distance, away from any treetops and I just couldn't place it in that context.

I walked into Helmshore and got the 481 to Bury, which only got as far as Rawstenstall Bus Station before they kicked us off for want of a bus driver. So I got the X43 express bus back to Manchester. And I have a Transdev Bus day saver voucher to play with which might come in useful for a Transpennine trip.