Radcliffe

By the Outwood Trail

There were no trains here this morning because some poor devil saw their last sunrise so the day's plans had to be postponed. I decided instead to head off for a walk in the woodlands south of Radcliffe.

I got the 22 from the Trafford Centre, the aim being to get off at Moses Gate and walk through the country park and follow the canal and the river Irwell to the Northern end of the Outwood Trail. Then I noticed I could get off earlier, in Clifton, then duck under the railway and join the Southern end of the trail via Clifton Country Park. Which I did.

Clifton Country Park

I walked straight to the lake in Clifton Country Park. There were most of the usual suspects out there: black-headed gulls, mallards, coots and Canada geese, a few tufties, a couple of great crested grebes, three shovelers, two mute swans, a couple of moorhens and a dabchick. It only needed a pair of gadwall for the set. There were nuthatches and robins in the trees and a couple of squirrels worked their way through the fruits of a hawthorn hedge.

There were a few more mallards loafing on the shingles on the river with a couple of black-headed gulls. Another black-headed gull was feeding with a couple of teals by the outflow from the water treatment works.

I crossed the river and walked down Red Rock Lane past the water treatment works. A couple of sand martins joined a flock of a dozen or more swallows feeding over the trees by the road and fifty-odd black-headed gulls loafed on the buildings by the filtration beds.

Giant's Seat Wood

I walked down the lane into Giant's Seat Wood. I bumped into a mixed tit flock that seemed to be almost entirely great tits but then I started noticing movements in the undergrowth in the clearing behind the trees by the lane. Over the next ten minutes I found dozens of birds, mostly chaffinches, long-tailed tits, great tits and blue tits, a few chiffchaffs and a couple of young blackcaps. A couple of coal tits kept to themselves. I bumped into a male blackcap a bit further along. A couple of flocks of goldfinches skittered around the treetops. There was a third flock of finches I couldn't positively identify, they seemed more like siskins in flight but I couldn't be 100% sure and they disappeared quickly into the canopy.

Along the Outwood Trail

I walked down to the end of the path and joined the Outwood Trail. The trail runs parallel to Red Rock Lane but is higher up the hill. I was at canopy height to some of the trees I'd been looking at earlier but the mystery finches had moved on. A great spotted woodpecker was more obliging.

I followed the trail to Ringley Road. The wood was quieter along this stretch, probably because it was busier of people. I had Red Rock Lane to myself for the whole stretch but there were plenty of cyclists and dog walkers along the trail.

As I walked up the path that joins the farm track to Ringley Road I almost trod on a grey wagtail that was concentrating on fossicking about in the gravel.

I'd been zigzagging about the woods for over three hours by then so decided to call it quits and get the 513 bus into Bury and thence home.