Mosses

Chaffinch, Chat Moss

It was a sunny Saturday, I didn't want to go anywhere near the city centre so I had a trog across the Irlam mosses.

The bottom of Astley Road was closed for roadworks, which you would think would make for a nice, quiet walk but it seemed busier with cars than on a usual Saturday. The hedgerows at the bottom were busy with singing robins and chaffinches while pairs of blackbirds, blue tits and goldfinches quietly fed in the bushes. The barley growing in the fields was just high enough to make the dozens of woodpigeons not particularly conspicuous but not so high to hide any partridges you might hope would be out there. I've had no luck at all with grey partridges so far this year. A couple of fields away a buzzard was perched high up in a tree half-hidden by opening leaves.

Irlam Moss

The hedgerows by the Jack Russell's gate were teeming with greenfinches, with at least three singing males. There was a dozen or so yellowhammers but they were all keeping undercover, feeding at the bases of the hedges. The usual male kestrel was about, just as I passed the gate it plunged close by into the field on the other side of the road and landed with an audible snap like a brittle twig breaking. It then flew off with an ex field vole.

Chat Moss by Four Lanes End

The stretch from the motorway to Four Lanes End was a lot quieter. There were a few chaffinches and robins in the hedgerows by the motorway and a couple of magpies in the field close by. The only bird out on the fields of turf was a heron which flew in, landed, settled to preen for a minute or two then flew off.

A passing heron, Chat Moss

Today's plan was to have a quick look in Little Woolden Moss then walk down Twelve Yards Road and into Irlam for the bus home. As it happened I spent a while on Little Woolden Moss as there was quite a bit about today. Robins, chiffchaffs and blue tits sang in the trees by the entrance. There were a few linnets and meadow pipit's in the open areas, all keeping very low profiles. A couple of pairs of Canada geese loafed on the bunds and small groups of mallards dabbled in the pools. Over on the far side from the path an altercation between a pair of lapwings flushed a couple of teal that had been on one of the small pools.

Little Woolden Moss

I had a chat with a passing birdwatcher, he'd found a redshank but had no sign of the usual curlews, I'd seen the curlews but not the redshanks. He said he'd been on the volunteer work details this week and a couple of times they'd accidentally flushed a short-eared owl that had been roosting here. My chances of seeing it on a sunny Saturday lunchtime were vanishingly remote, still it's good to know it's around. I had no desire to go badgering round after it any more than I go nosing round the barn owl nests I know about. The welfare of the birds is infinitely more important than my getting to see them.

Twelve Yards Road

I wandered back and down onto Twelve Yards Road. There were a few chaffinches in the hedges though just a tiny fraction of the Winter flocks here. Skylarks and meadow pipits sang above the fields. At first sight there were a couple of dozen lapwings dotted round in the fields. A more careful slow scan of the fields revealed a lot more in the longer grasses, there were upwards of a hundred pairs along this stretch of road. 

Chat Moss

There were plenty of woodpigeons about, mostly in small flocks dividing their time between feeding in the fields and loafing in the hedgerow trees. A buzzard sat in a tree over by Hephzibah Farm while another pair courted high over the fields by the railway. The sun had brought out the butterflies with peacocks, commas and small tortoiseshells chasing each other along the waysides.

The path continuing North from Cutnook Lane

It was still only mid-afternoon so I thought I'd explore the footpath that carries on from the end of Cutnook Lane. Its junction with Twelve Yards Road always looks a bit unsavoury which is why I've not bothered in the past but today I thought I'd give it a go. As it is, once you get past the first ten yards of litter it's quite a nice path that runs past the bit of wet land you get tantalising glimpses of from Twelve Yards Road. Today there were just a few mallards and black-headed gulls about. The trees were busy with singing robins, wrens and chiffchaffs while pairs of blue tits, coal tits and long-tailed tits foraged in the bushes.

Chat Moss

I carried on to the crossroads junction which the footpaths that run parallel to Twelve Yards Road. I decided not to go any further today, looking at the map and the terrain this area is worth exploring as a walk in its own right rather than trying to tag it onto the end of this one, there's a lot more to it than I'd supposed. I spent a couple of minutes watching the buzzards dance round each other in the air and a kestrel hunting over the clearing by the crossroads then made a move.

As I walked back a couple of blackbirds and a song thrush sang in the trees and a mistle thrush sang from one of the birch trees by the fishery on Cutnook Lane.

By one of those chances that don't work if you plan for them I arrived at the bus stop with five minutes to wait for the 100 bus to Irlam Station so I'd have ten minutes to wait for the train home. It had been a very good few hours' walk and it was nice to see so much about.