Mosses

Juvenile starling, Chat Moss

I didn't really fancy doing very much today so I dragged myself out for an afternoon's wander round the Salford mosses to clear the cobwebs and get some much-needed exercise. It was a cool and cloudy Spring day with an edge on a wind that kept threatening to blow some rain in but never got round to it.

Walking down Astley Road from the station there were lots of small birds about, most of them quietly getting on with collecting food feeding the kids. A few blackbirds and chaffinches sang in the hedgerows, a whitethroat sang from the hawthorns on the other side of a field and a chiffchaff sang in a sycamore by the Jack Russell's gate (he was in the yard today).

Astley Road, the two tall trees are by the Jack Russell's gate

The air was littered with swallows and swifts. The swallows twittered about, feeding low over the fields, a few landing to grab larger insects they'd seen on the bare ground. A couple were collecting mud for nests. Some of the swifts made feeding passes at treetop height but for the most part they were travelling North a dozen or so at a time with larger groups travelling way higher up in the sky.

The field by the motorway has been freshly tilled and my eye was caught by a song thrush and a few blackbirds. I scanned round, looking in vain for any yellowhammers, and found myself a wheatear over by the far side. A buzzard sat in one of the trees by the motorway.

On the other side of the motorway the chaffinches were noisier and flocks of starlings fed on the bare earth where turf had been recently stripped, a few very noisy youngsters being made to learn that begging isn't the only way to get fed. Lots more swallows were about, joined in the farmyards by pied wagtails and spadgers. Small groups of lapwings and a couple of oystercatchers fed on the far edges of the turf fields where the cut had been a bit rougher and the usual heron stood like a scarecrow in the middle of the field behind the farmhouse with the pond. The sun came out for ten minutes, bringing out a handful of orange tip butterflies on the Jack-by-the-hedge flowering on the roadside.

Treecreeper, Chat Moss

The trees lining the road by the stables had its usual assortment of blackbirds, robins, wrens and song thrushes. A chiffchaff and a willow warbler sang in the trees and as I watched a family of long-tailed tits bounce their way through the hedgerow I noticed a treecreeper working its way along the tree trunks.

There aren't as many willow warblers vying for territories in Little Woolden Moss as there were a couple of weeks ago but all the successful candidates were making sure to advertise their ownership. With so much willow warbler song it was difficult to pick out the blackcaps, whitethroats and chiffchaffs in the background. The meadow pipits had pretty much put singing on hold for now, similarly the reed buntings and the skylarks were limiting themselves to short bursts of song from not very high.

Little Woolden Moss

I had a conversation with a chap who reckoned he must have seen a thousand swifts pass over in an hour, an entirely believable number given the waves of birds passing high overhead riding the weather front. We both also commented that it was always either famine or feast on the reserve, some visits I might only get to see a handful of crows. Today was a bit of a feast day, albeit a strange Noah's ark sort of a one with a pair of Canada geese, a pair of lapwings, a pair of gadwall and a pair of teal. It was a relief to find three oystercatchers loafing on a bund and half a dozen mallards were a godsend. I could hear but not see a pair of curlews. A couple of pied wagtails fed on one of the bunds and a male yellow wagtail flitted about but didn't settle.

Hare's tail cotton grass, Little Woolden Moss

It was too cool for me to be seeing my first dragonflies of the year.

The barley in the field on Mosslands Farm was just high enough to hide a crouching lapwing and plenty high enough to hide the yellow wagtails flitting about round the far end by the potato field. I was rather surprised to find it was high enough to hide a pair of grey partridges. The swallows and swifts flying overhead were joined by small groups of sand martins.

Moss Lane

I walked down Moss Lane to Glazebury for the bus into Leigh. A buzzard took advantage of the wind to hover over one of the fields, holding its wings still and all but stalling before tilting slightly to keep in position. Stopping for a nosy at Glaze Brook I spotted a little egret feeding on a bank upstream and a couple of families of grey wagtails downstream, two males feeding away from the youngsters. I found myself in the middle of a flock of sand martins, some birds passing under the bridge, others passing at chest height over it.

Stitchwort, Moss Lane