Mosses

Whimbrel, Little Woolden Moss

The weather being grey and cool, but dry, I decided on a wander across Chat Moss as a corrective to the temptation to go barging around chasing rare Spring passage migrants. I got the 100 bus from the Trafford Centre to the stop on Merlin Road and walked along Cutnook Lane over the motorway and onto Chat Moss.

I always think the horse paddocks by the motorway should be good for wagtails and swallows but they never are. At least today there were small flocks of woodpigeons and starlings so it wasn't a completely barren scan round.

The chiffchaffs and blackcaps in the trees by the motorway gave way to willow warblers and whitethroats in the birch scrub beyond the fishery. I decided to follow the path North past Twelve Yards Road and have a bit of an explore. This whole area was heaving with willow warblers, which came as a relief because over the past few years I seem to have been hearing fewer and fewer of them. Song thrushes, wrens and robins added to the soundscape with a few blackbirds and blackcaps providing punctuation marks.

Willow warbler, Chat Moss

Birch scrub screened most of the small pools. A few pairs of mallards, coots and black-headed gulls loafed about but didn't look to be nesting. Turning the corner onto a path running parallel to Twelve Yards Road I found a little path taking me to the side of a pool where, as well as mallards and black-headed gulls, a couple of pairs of lapwings were holding a territory and teal, redshanks and a heron fed in the shallows.

The scrub opened up a bit from here and there were equal numbers of singing whitethroats, blackcaps and willow warblers, the blackcaps favouring dense clumps of birch saplings and the whitethroats the brambles and nettles in between. A flock of swallows flying in at head height heralded a cloud of midges and Saint Whatsit's flies.

Whitethroat, Chat Moss

I eventually rejoined Twelve Yards Road, the fields being busy with woodpigeons and stock doves with pairs of lapwings either being remarkably inconspicuous or noisily conspicuous depending on how close any carrion crows or rooks passed by. Remarkably, given how it's only a few weeks since they flocked here in their hundreds, there were only two singing chaffinches.

I had a chat with a birdwatcher who was cycling over to Little Woolden Moss. He said he'd managed to see a hobby and half a dozen whimbrel yesterday. We both agreed that given how cool and grey it was today there wasn't much likelihood of any dragonflies being about to tempt any hobbies. I didn't hold out a lot of hope for whimbrel either: just like little gulls, common terns and ring ouzels I seem to be a day early or late for these when I've visited anywhere this Spring. Still, half a dozen's pretty good going and it's nice to know they're about.

Marsh harrier passing by, Little Woolden Moss

I bumped into him a bit later on the reserve. We'd neither of us seen much besides Canada geese, mallards, lapwings and swallows out on the water. Weight-for-weight there were more willow warblers than that singing in the trees. He'd decided to sit still in the hopes that the local marsh harrier would put in an appearance, he'd had stonking views of it earlier in the week. I wished him luck and left him to it so's not to put the jinx on him. I had a bit of a wander then sat down where the old hide used to be for a drink. A scan round found a few black-headed gulls and linnets. A movement over to the edge of the reserve caught my eye but at first I assumed it was one of the model aeroplanes I could hear buzzing round over there. It got closer and I realised it was the marsh harrier. It slowly flew the length of the path over that side and disappeared over the trees towards Moss Road. I hope that chap managed to see it.

Hare's tail cotton grass, Little Woolden Moss

I walked back and then took the path to Mosslands Farm in the hope of seeing a yellow wagtail about there. A chap who'd been fossicking about with a wheelbarrow and dibber let onto me and we had a chat. Turns out he had three trays of white-beaked sedge seedlings that he was planting out in the floating sphagnum moss. It's a very rare plant and one I've not knowingly seen before so I was a bit taken aback to see a wheelbarrow load of it. I'll know to keep an eye out for it in future. We both took a minute to admire the sea of hare's tail cotton grass that's making parts of the reserve look like a snowscape at the moment.

Hare's tail cotton grass, Little Woolden Moss

Walking down the path to the farm I kept a close eye on the barley field in the hopes I might be lucky with wagtails, having seen none at all on the reserve, not even one of the local pied wagtails. Skylarks rose and sang and pairs of lapwings made sure nothing was looking anywhere near where their chicks might be. Then I noticed a brown shape in the middle of the field. So I got me a whimbrel after all.

Whimbrel, Little Woolden Moss

Whimbrel, Little Woolden Moss

Standing by the bridge over the drain by the field I had one last scan round on the reserve. I'd just resolved a "What on earth's that over there?" into a mudlarking reed bunting when a flash of yellow caught the corner of my eye. I had to shift around a bit to see where it had got to but eventually I found the bird and my first yellow wagtail of the year was a male Channel wagtail (one parent a yellow wagtail, one a blue-headed wagtail). It didn't look like the one I've seen here before, it seemed to have a bit more yellow about its throat. It disappeared behind a bund and while I was trying to find it again I found a straightforward female yellow wagtail.

Brown hare, Little Woolden Moss

I walked along the path through the barley fields. It was too cold for butterflies but they'll soon be littering this area in their hundreds. I spotted another brown shape in the next field along, this time a brown hare.

The walk through the farm found me a pied wagtail with a beak full of insects on one of the barns and a couple of curlews a few fields away near the railway line. A pair of grey wagtails collecting food for their young on Glaze Brook completed the set for today.

Glaze Brook

A small flock of sand martins fed low over one of the sheep fields by the brook, confirming that whatever today's weather had to say for itself Spring was on the way. I had ten minutes to wait for the 19 bus to Leigh which gave me ten minutes for the 126 back to the Trafford Centre.