Mosses

Kestrel, Irlam Moss

It was a nice, sunny day and I had three or four ideas for what to do with it. In the end I decided on a walk across the Salford mosses. This seems to have become my go-to walk for sunny Saturdays, it's easy to get there but never heaving busy. I'd not walked across to Glazebury yet this year, it was high time I did.

Cowslip, Irlam

I got the train to Irlam and walked up Astley Road. There were plenty of signs of spring besides the flowers on the wayside. The flocks of birds in the hedgerows had been replaced by pairs of birds quietly going about their business and male birds singing on their own. Greenfinches, goldfinches and robins were the most conspicuous, the blue tits and blackbirds were conspicuously quiet though more than made up for by wrens and song thrushes. Great tits were notable by their absence.

Irlam Moss

Large flocks of woodpigeons fed in a couple of fields, I suspect they may already have mouths to feed. Further out a couple of pairs of buzzards were calling and display flying. Only the one kestrel today, the male near the Jack Russell's gate.

Kestrel, Irlam Moss

Kestrel, Irlam Moss

Kestrel, Irlam Moss

A couple of pairs of yellowhammers in the trees by the motorway looked splendid against the blue sky. Every time I got the camera focused on any one of them they would fly down to the ground, as I lowered my camera they'd fly back up and strike poses at the end of the branches. One day, perhaps, but not today.

Yellowhammer, Irlam Moss

I'd gotten as far as Four Lanes End when I realised I hadn't seen any pied wagtails along the way, which is very unusual. I didn't see any on Little Woolden Moss, either. At one point I was wondering if I wouldn't be seeing more cyclists than birds here but something scared up a large flock of skylarks in one of the fields next to the reserve. Half a dozen mallards loafed on the water and the usual family of crows were kicking about. A chap I bumped into said he'd just seen the marsh harrier, I had no luck but I'm glad it's still about.

Little Woolden Moss

Little Woolden Moss

Walking through Marsh Moss Farm something spooked a flock of linnets feeding in the field that had been growing Winter salads. I'm not sure if it was the buzzard soaring round the farm buildings, the male peregrine that steamed through and headed for Leigh or something I couldn't see on the ground. I suspect it was a ground-based culprit, the lapwings on the field on the other side were quite unperturbed.

The hedgerows along Moss Road were very busy with birds. As far as I could tell all the sparrows were house sparrows and there were plenty of them. There were more blue tits, finches and song thrushes but it wasn't until I got to the turn by White Gate Farm that I bumped into the first pair of great tits.

Along Moss Road

A little further along there was an enormous chattering going on from the treetops on the other side of the field: a flock of fifty or so starlings competing for noise with a couple of dozen fieldfares. The fields by Glaze Brook had a few curlews feeding with the sheep. The Glaze was quite high up the bank, fine for the teal and mallards but a heron soon gave up and flew over to try its luck on one of the flooded fields behind the sheep.

Glaze Brook

I had half an hour before the 19 bus to Warrington was due so I checked out the hedgerow by the water works. Besides making up the missing quota of great tits there were a lot more blue tits and a couple of goldcrests. I looked in vain for any flavour of chiffchaff.

I'd had three and a half hours of wandering round in pretty good weather so I got the bus to Warrington and thence home.

Chat Moss by Four Lanes End