Mosses

Kestrel, Chat Moss

It was one of those can't be bothered days so I dragged myself out for a wander round the local patch over a grey and muggy lunchtime. Enjoy it while I can: there's a planning proposal to turn it into a car park for a new surfing school in Trafford Park.

Carrion crows, Barton Clough

There really was very little around again. I keep hoping it's my poor field craft but the reality is that the birds aren't there to be found any more. I don't know why: there's still plenty of cover and berries on the trees and bushes. There's plenty of insects feeding on the Michaelmas daisies and oleasters. Perhaps the poor year for thistles did it. Perhaps it was the removal of one of the bramble patches that tipped the balance. Perhaps the birds have read the planning application and made other arrangements.

Barton Clough

For the first five minutes the buzzard was the one and only bird I saw on the old cornfields. It disappeared into the copse behind the school then a group of carrion crows and magpies drifted in and eventually settled in the top of one of the dead trees, intently watching something out of my line of vision. Possibly one of the football teams playing on the school field is missing a full back.

• Blackbird 3
• Buzzard 1
• Carrion Crow 5
• Dunnock 2
• Feral Pigeon 11
• Goldfinch 1
• Great Tit 1
• House Sparrow 3
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 3
• Magpie 10
• Robin 1
• Woodpigeon 8
  

Thoroughly depressed I decided to have a wander further afield. I hopped over to the Trafford Centre and on a whim got on the 100 bus heading for Irlam and beyond. On another whim I got off at Merlin Road and headed up Cutnook Lane for Chat Moss.

By Cutnook Lane

There were small birds about in the hedgerows along Cutnook Lane, mostly robins and great tits, but not in any big numbers. Unlike the legions of woodpigeons out in the stubble fields or flying overhead in a steady stream from fields to woods. A pair of kestrels hunted from the telegraph lines by the fishery, the first of many on this visit.

I had to take evasive action as a brown hawker flew an unerring straight line past where my face was. They can stop on a sixpence and turn 90° in the blink of an eye but I wasn't for taking any risks.

Buzzard, Chat Moss

Twelve Yards Road was almost bereft of small birds, too, making up the weight with yet more woodpigeons. I looked in vain for any waders in the wet fields and a five acre field of chamomiles only yielded large white butterflies and common darters. A couple of young kestrels hunted over the fields by the farmhouse while a buzzard used one of the kestrel nesting boxes as a hunting perch. I can't imagine it being allowed to take that liberty at the beginning of Summer.

Along Twelve Yards Road

At Four Lanes End I decided to head on to Little Woolden Moss. The weather was brightening up and every so often threatened to become sunny and there was a nice breeze making for pleasant walking conditions. The one swallow of the day made an appearance, hawking low over one of the fields at the crossroads. More numerous reminders of Summer were the ruddy darters basking on the pathway in the weak sun and the migrant hawker patrolling the mugworts at the roadside. 

I've often thought it a shame that Himalayan balsam is such an invasive nuisance, it's a lovely plant and the scent is wonderful on a balmy afternoon. Imagine my mixed feelings, then, when I discovered today that Japanese knotweed smells strongly of honey and vanilla.

Little Woolden Moss

Little Woolden Moss carried on the quiet theme, with willow warblers, linnets and meadow pipits being conspicuous by their absence. It came as a relief to find a couple of pied wagtails feeding on the bunds in the pools. Scores of woodpigeons wheeled about in the air, reacting to somebody having a bit of shooting practice a few fields away.

There were fewer dragonflies than on the last visit but still plenty to go round. A southern hawker patrolled the willows by the entrance to the reserve, ruddy darters favoured the patches of heather, black darters favoured the bracken.

I'd got to the path to New Moss Lane when more than two hundred and fifty black-headed gulls flew in. About half of them settled on the Eastern pools, the rest moving on towards Chat Moss. A few dozen lesser black-backs flew over, three first year birds settled on the pools with the black-headed gulls.

I wasn't in the mood for a long walk — I hadn't been in the mood for a walk at all — so decided to head down New Moss Road.

There were more woodpigeons, and more buzzards and kestrels. The monotony was relieved by the occasional pair of collared doves and a very small tit flock in the trees by one of the riding stables. All the way down, and into Cadishead, every second telegraph pole seemed to have its own flock of starlings.

Starlings, Cadishead Moss

Four buzzards were hunting worms in the field by the motorway on Cadishead Moss, together with a few carrion crows and fifty-odd woodpigeons. The steady flow of lesser black-backs passing overhead in ones and twos became a stream of seventy or more heading towards the river or perhaps Woolston Eyes. 

Cadishead Moss, looking towards New Moss Wiid

I got to New Moss Wood and, on another whim, went in for a short wander. A couple of chiffchaffs and a great tit drew my attention to a mixed tit flock settling down amongst the oak trees. And I bumped into yet another buzzard, this bird content to show me repeatedly how comfortable it was moving round in deep cover of trees.

I emerged back onto New Moss Road. There were more woodpigeons on the ploughed field on the other side of the road together with a couple of dozen pheasants, nearly all of them young birds looking like they'd been not long released from rearing pens.

I toddled down over the railway bridge and down past the allotments to Irlam Station. It had been a quiet few hours' birdwatching but the walk had done me good.